“Matthew?” Mr. Trevino said with another long breath.
“Yeah?”
“Call me Henry.”
I nodded slowly without looking up from my hands. I wasn’t completely sure how this changed our relationship, but I sensed the shift. He walked out without saying anything else.
Hours later, I finally got to see Mayra just as we were both being discharged.
She looked tired and still shaken, but she smiled when she saw me and wrapped her arms tightly around my neck. We stood there just outside the ER for a few moments as Henry talked to the lady at the front desk. Mayra was still wearing my button-down shirt, and I was still in just the T-shirt I had been wearing underneath.
&nb
sp; “Mayra?” I said into her ear.
“Yeah?”
“I was going to ask you if you wanted to go to prom with me,” I said, “but I’m kind of thinking maybe we could just stay in? Maybe rent a movie or something?”
“I’ll pay for the movie and pizza,” Henry piped up as he walked by us.
Mayra laughed quietly against my shoulder.
“It just seems when we plan a date, it doesn’t go so well,” I said with a shrug.
“I can’t dance anyway.” Mayra giggled. “Pizza instead of prom is the plan!”
It was four in the morning before we managed to actually leave the hospital. The doctor had given me a bunch of painkillers, which made me dizzy, so I wasn’t allowed to drive myself back home. Travis and Beth came to get both me and my car and drove me back home, and Mayra ended up going home with her dad.
Unfortunately, it was a bit too much like the end of our last failed date night.
Travis drove in silence though he kept looking at me with a strange expression on his face. I didn’t think much about it since I was asleep before we were halfway back to the house. When we got home, Travis helped me inside. It was kind of hard to walk because the medicine really wiped me out. I wasn’t completely sure, but I thought he said something about being proud of me when he dropped me on my bed.
I woke to the phone ringing and stumbled my way out of bed to answer it. It was raining and pretty dark outside, so I couldn’t tell what time it was.
“Hello?”
“Matthew?”
“Yes.”
“It’s Henry.”
“Oh…um…hi…” I blathered. I rubbed at my eyes with my free hand and stood up a little straighter for no particular reason.
“Look, I was wondering if you could come over.”
“Is Mayra okay?”
“Well…that’s just it.” I heard him take a deep breath. “She hasn’t slept much at all—she keeps having nightmares and waking herself up. She’s kind of a mess, and she’s asking for you.”
“I’ll be right there.”
I pulled on a pair of jeans and didn’t even think about anything but Mayra needing me as I got in my car and drove to her house. The clock in the car read nine twenty in the morning though it didn’t really feel like I had slept more than an hour. My head was pounding, so I figured the pain pills must have worn off. My back and shoulders were stiff, too.
As soon as I turned into Mayra’s driveway, I was out of the car and heading up the steps to her door. Henry was there, waiting for me, so I didn’t even have to knock.
“She’s up in her room,” he said. “I think she might be asleep again, but it doesn’t seem to last long.”