“Shit,” I hissed, ignoring the glare the receptionist gave me as I ducked behind her to get to him. “You okay, Cody?”
His little hand shot out and wrapped around my forearm, and when he lifted his head, tears were streaming down his face.
“Can you help me?”
My immediate reaction was to look him over for signs of an injury as my mouth said, “Of course I will. What do you need?”
Swallowing loudly, he glanced around us to see how much privacy we had. To help him out, I leaned down and put my head closer to his mouth.
“I need—” he croaked, but a whimper cut him off. “I’m in so much pain.”
Straightening up, I looked over his head at the nurse. “Have you called his mother?”
Crossing her arms, she raised an eyebrow. “Considering Cody won’t tell me what the problem is, I tried calling her to report his behavior. Skipping classes is—”
“No,” I clipped. “Look at how pale the kid is, look at how he’s walking and the fact he’s sweating as hard as he is. There is a problem, and if he’s not telling you what it is, it’s obviously one an eleven-year-old feels embarrassed about.
“Instead of berating him and calling him a liar, you should be doing everything you can to call his mom, or next of kin if she isn’t answering, so that they can come and ascertain what’s wrong.”
Then, pulling out my phone, I rang Rose to get Evie’s number. Once I had it, I dialed it immediately.
“Hello?” she answered breathlessly.
“Evie, it’s Alex. I’m at the school and—”
“Oh, thank God. I’ve been trying to call them back, but no one’s answering.” She sounded panicked as I looked at the receptionist who blushed and the nurse who just sneered at me. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve got Cody with me, and it’s obvious he’s in pain. He’s also confirmed it to me. He hasn’t been able to tell the nurse what’s wrong, though.”
A strangled noise came out of her. “I’m on my way. Tell them—”
“Babe, are you able to confirm that I can bring him home? I don’t think he’s going to last long. He’s shaking and looks like he’s about to throw up.”
That was putting it mildly. The poor kid’s legs were starting to give out as he leaned his head on my bicep. “Actually, scratch that. I’d like to take him straight to the hospital. You good with that?”
There was silence for a few beats, but then she cleared her throat. “Yes. Pass the phone to her, and I’ll do that. I’ll meet you at the hospital.”
I did as she asked, not giving one shit if this went against protocol or their rules. I’d seen DB in pain like this after he’d broken his arm when he was a kid. I’d also seen him like this when he’d had bronchitis and could hardly breathe. I wasn’t taking any risks with Cody.
Finally, the nurse sighed and agreed before passing my phone back to me. “I’ll meet you there, baby. Don’t worry, he’s safe with me.”
Her voice wasn’t as strong when she replied as it’d been previously. “I trust your judgment on what’s going on. Please just make sure Cody’s okay.” Her breath shuddered before she added, “He’s my whole world.”
After telling her to drive carefully, I put the phone away and bent down again. “You think you can walk out to my car?”
Cody shook his head and whimpered.
Decision made, I slung his backpack over my shoulder and picked him up. I’m not gonna lie, I was fifty-one and feeling every last one of those years in my body, so it wasn’t done as effortlessly as I would’ve been able to do fifteen years ago, but I still managed to carry him out to the cruiser.
Seeing us coming, Carter jumped out and began lowering the back of the passenger seat for him. “Fuck, what happened? Is he hurt?”
Carefully placing him down and strapping him in, I made sure he was okay.
“All right, bud. We’re going to go and see a doctor at the hospital to get you checked out. On a scale of one to ten, what’s your pain at?”
When he looked confused at the question, I explained, “One being like when you accidentally scratch yourself with a nail, and ten being the worst pain you’ve ever felt in your life.”
“The last one,” he croaked.
“Right.” I exchanged a look with Carter at the answer. Neither of us doubted he was being honest, given how sick he looked. “Where about is the pain.”
Slowly, he lowered his hand and pointed between his legs, looking like he was going to die of embarrassment.
Leaning in next to me, Carter asked quietly, “Cody, man, did you get hit in the balls?” When he shook his head no, Carter continued, “Did you twist your body and it started hurting, or has the pain just come on suddenly?”