Neighbor Dearest

“How am I supposed to get home?”

“I’ll drive you.”

Laughing angrily, I chided, “I’m sure your date would love that.”

“I don’t give a fuck what she thinks. I just want you home safe.”

Now, I was getting in his face intentionally. “You’re insane. You’ve lost your mind, Damien.”

“I don’t trust him. I’m telling you, he’s dangerous.”

“I think you’re the dangerous one tonight. Please stay out of my life. I don’t want to ever see you again.”

I turned around and never looked back. After entering the theater, I bypassed my seat, instead exiting out an emergency door to the parking lot.

As I passed Damien’s parked truck, I noticed he’d added three decals to the rear window: a man and two dogs.

My heart clenched at the sight. I missed him so much, yet I couldn’t deal with being in his presence anymore.

Replaying the night repeatedly in my head, I walked a couple of miles then hopped a bus home.

Damien sent me one text sometime after midnight.I didn’t mean for shit to go down like that. I really was just trying to make sure you were safe. I fucked up. I’m sorry. Please just let me know you got home okay.I never answered.***The more I thought about the movie theater incident over the next week, the angrier it made me.

The more I thought about the movie theater incident…the more I missed Damien.

I was still so confused.

I told myself I was going to his apartment that day to give him a final piece of my mind, to have the final say, since I never answered the text. That was a lie. I was going to his apartment because I missed him and the dogs, but I would tell myself otherwise to justify it. The truth was, I was satisfying the intense urge to see him.

An unusual sight greeted me as I approached the building. A crowd was gathered outside. Had the fire alarm gone off?

When I spotted The Double Ds with Murray, it made me wonder where Damien was in the midst of this chaos. Dudley and Drewfus were both chained to a fence.

The dogs had almost no reaction as I bent down to rub their heads. Looking up at Murray, I asked, “What the heck is going on?”

“It’s Damien.”

“What about Damien?”

“He collapsed. Ambulance just took him to the hospital.”

I had to ask the question again, because the answer he gave me wasn’t possible.

My heart and head were pounding in synch. “What? What happened?”

“The dogs were banging themselves against the door, scratching against the wood, barking like crazy. When I knocked, he didn’t answer. I used my key and found him on the ground unconscious, called 911.” He shook his head. “Poor Boss.”

If I weren’t already crouched down, I might have collapsed myself.

“Is he going to be okay?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where did they take him?”

“I don’t know.”

“I need to know!”

“Memorial and General are both equally close. It has to be either one of those.”

I felt dizzy because I stood up so fast. “I took the bus here. I need your car.”

Murray gave me his keys, and I took off before realizing I didn’t even know which car was his.

He followed me and put his hand on my shoulder. Sensing my disoriented state, he said, “You shouldn’t drive like this.”

“I have to. You need to stay with the dogs.”

He pointed to a small older Nissan. “That’s my car. Be careful.”

“I won’t crash.”

“I’m not worried about the shit car. I’m worried about you.”

Running to the vehicle, I dialed Damien’s phone. It went to voicemail. I then punched the address for General into my phone. Ten minutes later, I parked illegally at the emergency room entrance.

Out of breath, I rushed to the front desk. “I need to know if Damien Hennessey is here.”

“I’m sorry you’ll have to wait in line.”

Leaning into the counter, I shouted, “No! You need to tell me if he’s here!”

She must have noticed that I was crying, because she decided to check her computer.

“Spell his last name?”

After I obliged, she shook her head. “I’m sorry. No one by that name has checked in here. He must be at Memorial.”

Without responding, I ran as fast as I could back to the car, punched the other address into my GPS app, and sped the entire way to Memorial.

While tears streamed down my cheeks, my mind raced with fearful thoughts, namely that if something had happened to Damien, my very last words to him were, “I don’t want to ever see you again.”

I would never forgive myself if something happened to him.

I just needed to see him.

I needed to get to him.

He needed to be okay.

When I finally arrived at Memorial Hospital, my heart felt like it was in my mouth as I made my way to the emergency room.

“I need to see Damien Hennessey. He was brought here about an hour ago.”