The Senior (College Years 4)

“Mom.” He brushes his fingers through her hair again, seeming at a loss. “They said—they said you’d been drinking.”

“I had a few glasses of wine. No big deal.” She waves a dismissive hand, wincing. It’s as if every little movement pains her.

“The nurse said something about the cops possibly pressing charges.”

“I’m harmless.”

He makes a disgusted noise, then immediately contains it. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Are they keeping me here overnight?” She tries to lif

t her head, glancing around the room. “I don’t want to stay overnight.”

“The doctor wants to keep you for observation.” He reaches for her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “They’re just doing what’s best for you.”

She nods, turning her head in my direction, her eyes going wide when she spots me. “Ava, is that you?”

I send her an awkward wave, feeling dumb. “Hi.”

Her gaze goes from me to Eli, and then back to me. “I thought you two were broken up.”

“We’re working on it,” Eli says, his voice clipped.

He won’t look at me, and it kind of hurts, but I know he’s not mad at me. He’s in pain. Confused and conflicted. I’m sure he’s scared for his mom, and mad at her too; she did this to herself. I thought she’d stopped drinking so much.

Apparently not.

“Aw, that’s nice. Always did like you,” his mother tells me, her eyes sliding closed.

Eli makes more small talk with her while I text Ellie and keep her up-to-date on what’s going on with his mother. She says all the right, supportive things and I can’t help but think I lucked out in the best friend department.

She’s such a good friend to me. I don’t know what I’d do without her.

We’re in his mom’s room for over an hour when Eli suddenly approaches me, his expression serious.

“I want to stay, but I don’t think she’ll know whether I’m here or not.” He waves a hand in the direction of the bed, where it appears his mother is sleeping peacefully.

“She’ll be safe here. We can leave her and you can go home and get some sleep yourself. Then come back in the morning to pick her up and take her home,” I suggest.

He nods, his expression grim. “You don’t think she’ll be upset when she wakes up and I’m not here?”

“She’ll be okay,” I reassure him. “You can call her first thing in the morning. She’ll understand you wanted to go home.”

“I have my game tomorrow.” He makes a face. “I won’t have time to pick her up from the hospital. Guess I’ll have to miss the game.”

Alarm races through me and I touch his arm. He can’t miss tomorrow’s game. Too much is at stake for him—like his future. “I can pick her up for you.”

He frowns, his gaze locked on me. “You would do that for me?”

“I want to help. I don’t mind.” I smile at him, suddenly feeling a little shy. I don’t know why, considering I would’ve done this before, when we were together. And now we sort of are again, so it makes sense. Right? “Are you ready to leave?”

Eli glances at the hospital bed, watching his mom for a moment before he turns back to me. “Okay, yeah. Let’s go.”

We leave the hospital in a hurry, both of us acting as if we can’t wait to get out of there. The antiseptic smell clings to my nostrils, even after we’ve both climbed into the car and we’re back on the road. From the hospital, we’re still almost forty minutes from Eli’s house, and even farther to mine.

I’m kind of hoping I’ll get to stay the night at Eli’s, though I don’t want to push. But where else am I going to go? Plus, he’s exhausted. I’m sure he just wants to crash into bed, not drive me all the way back to my parents’ house an hour away from here.

“Thank you for coming with me,” he says, as he’s pulling out of the parking lot.