Falling for my boyfriend’s Navy brother
Chapter 99: Asher
I’m under the sink, elbow–deep in rust and calcium buildup, wrench in one hand, flashlight wedged awkwardly under my chin. Pipes here we old stubborn. But the rhythmic tightening and testing of the valve threads does something to calta my head. My hands know what to do even when my mind is busy doing. absolutely nothing but try not to think about her.
Penny.
She’s at rehearsal. Tyler went to pick her up an hour ago. My parents are out running errands–Costco or the post office or something equally suburban and peaceful.
The phone rings on the counter, screen up. “Mom.”
I grunt and reach for it with a grease–slick hand, wiping on the towel beside me. “Hey, Ma.”
But it’s not her usual soft hello. It’s screaming.
“Asher?! ASHER?!”
Instant ice shoots down my spine. The wrench drops from my hand and hits the tile with a metallic clang.
“Mom? What’s wrong?” I’m already standing, heart thundering, hands shaking.
In the background I hear my father’s voice–low, shaken. “He says there’s blood everywhere.”
Blood.
What?
“What the hell’s going on?!” I bark.
She sobs. “Asher–it’s Penny!”
My stomach drops so fast it feels like the floor’s caved in under me. I don’t even breathe. The sound of her name mixed with my mother’s crying sends me back somewhere cold and dark.
“She fell, baby–she fell during rehearsal and there was so much–so much blood–oh my god-”
“What? What kind of fall?” I’m already moving. I don’t remember grabbing my shoes, or my keys. I don’t remember getting out the door. But I’m running. Somewhere between the kitchen and the car I hear her again.
“She hit her head–bad. She was still unconscious when they got her in the ambulance. Tyler–he saw it happen. He’s shaken up. We’re picking him up right now, he can’t even drive. He said–he said her head–Asher, there’s blood in her hair.”
Blood. Head injury. Oxygen mask. Tyler freaking out. Paramedics. Ambulance. Ambulance.
My pulse is in my throat.
“What hospital?”
She tells me.
“Do her parents know?”
“They’re already on their way-
I hang up.
I drive like something inside me snapped. Every light I run feels like I’m daring the universe to stop me. I don’t remember the drive, not really. Just rage,
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Chapter 99: Asher
Fear. A kind of primal panic I haven’t felt since I was knee–deep in jungle mud pulling a man’s body from the wreckage of an LED hic.
I see the flashing lights first.
Then the ambulance. Back doors opening.
And her.
Golden hair. Tangled. Streaked with red.
Her tank top is soaked on the left side. Red and sticking to her ribs. Her face… I can’t even see most of it. Just blood. So much fucking blood. There’s a mask over her mouth and nose and she’s completely still. Pale. Small. So goddamn small.
“Penny!” someone screams. It takes me a second to realize it’s her mom.
They run beside me–her parents. I don’t stop. I’m next to the stretcher. But someone stops us. A nurse, young, looks like she’s used to this kind of panic.
“You can’t go past this point,” she says, arms out.
“She’s my daughter!” her mother cries.
“She’s my-” I stop. What is she to me?
The nurse shakes her head. “The doctors need room. Please.”
I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. The lights above the ER entrance are too bright, the floor beneath me feels like it’s rolling. The scent of antiseptic and iron hits me and I’m gone. Right back there. Right back to that open–air triage tent where Bobby bled out on a cot while I held his hand. Where Trevor was rolled in and half his body was missing, his pulse long gone.
My stomach lurches.
I don’t make it far–just around a corner. I collapse to my knees in the bathroom and throw up hard into the sink. Gasping. Sweating. My heart’s racing so fast I think it’s going to burst. My scars are burning like someone just tore them open again. My spine, my shoulders, my back–everything is screaming.
I sit on the cold tile. I press my fists against my eyes. This isn’t war. It’s not. I’m not there, I’m not there, I’m not there.
It’s a hospital. It’s a small town. It’s… It’s a girl.
But not just any girl.
She’s not just Tyler’s girlfriend anymore.
She’s Penny. She’s the girl who whispers my name in her sleep. Who laughs at my terrible jokes. Who touched my scar like it was something sacred. She’s the girl I carry when she’s tired. Feed when she forgets to. Listen to when no one else does. She’s the girl that fills my every thought, both when I’m awake and when I’m unconscious. She’s the girl I’ve been trying so hard to forget but can’t.
And she was lying there–covered in blood.
I sit there until I’m steady.
Then I rinse my face. I breathe. I get up.
When I walk out into the waiting area, I see her parents on a bench near the reception. Her mom is sobbing into a tissue. Her father’s eyes are red, his hand gripping hers like a lifeline.
I approach.
“Mr. and Mrs. Vales?”
They look up.
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Chapter 99: Asher
I clear my throat, “I’m Asher. Asher Hayes, I lived with her and Tyler for a bit while you wer* *****
Her mother stands immediately and pulls me into a hug. “Thank you,” the sob. “Thank you for belay here?
Her father follows with a handshake, but it turns into something closer to a grip of shared fear. “She’s lucky to have people who sen abg ber
I swallow hard and nod. “Do you know anything? Have the doctors said anything yet?”
Her mother shakes her head, wiping her face. “They just took her in. They said they have to assess–see how bad the entrustion is, he’s yout fracture. They don’t know if she was unconscious for ten seconds or ten minutes,”
Her father puts his arm around her shoulders.
I sit down beside them.
And I wait.
And I pray to whoever will listen–silently, desperately–that she’s going to be okay.
That she wakes up.
That I get to see her eyes again. Hear her say my name. Smell the vanilla on her skin.
Because I’ve survived a lot of shit in my life, but there’s no way in hell I can survive if I lose her now.
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3/3
Falling for my boyfriend’s Navy brother
Chapter 100: Asher
It’s only been forty–five minutes.
