Nothing Else Matters (10 page)

Before he could start talking, Reyna noticed something.

"Scott, what's wrong with your hands?"

"What?"

"They're really hot and swollen ... and it looks like you have hives," she said, looking closely at his skin. "They go up you arm. Take off your jacket."

Scott obeyed and found that his entire left arm was covered with red welts, which suddenly became itchy.

"Oh my God, Scott. Are you allergic to something?"

"I don't know," Scott said, starting to scratch.

"No, don't scratch. Let me get you some Benadryl and Calamine lotion." Reyna jumped up and went to the medicine locker. "Take off your shirt. Let's see how far it's spread," she said, taking out her key.

Reyna stood in front of him and examined the hives closely as she carefully and gently applied the lotion to his chest and arms. She tried to think back to the hundreds of descriptions of mysterious diseases she'd read about to see if this fit anything. Nothing came to mind. She felt a tension in the pit of her stomach. Something wasn't right with Scott.

Scott was uncharacteristically quiet while sitting on the examination table. Something in his mind probably told him that this wasn't normal.

"Have you eaten anything unusual today? Does Sam have you on a new vitamin supplement or something?"

Scott shook his head, but didn't respond verbally.

"
It’s
okay, Scott," Reyna said, feigning confident reassurance. She knew he must have been worried. Suddenly her jealousy over Amber seemed petty and ridiculous. She just wanted her friend to be healthy. "It's probably just a reaction to a new laundry detergent or something." Somehow she knew that wasn't true. She could feel it and the feeling scared her. "We're gonna figure this out."

“What’s happening to me?” The childlike fear in his voice brought a tear to her eye.

Despite the volatile anger she felt towards him just moments ago, she didn't resist when Scott pulled her close into a warm embrace. He wrapped his legs around her and placed his forehead into the fold her neck. He was quiet while she rubbed the feverishly hot skin of his back. "I promise we're going to figure this out."

 I spent nearly an hour in the athletic trainer's office with Reyna. We both missed fifth period but we didn't care. I needed her. I needed her strength. Suddenly I had gotten this overwhelming feeling of dread concerning my health. The muscle spasms and the intolerable pain in my joints didn't worry me for some reason. I was used to pushing my body to the max. No Pain No Gain. But those symptoms on top of weird hives. Well, it just threw me off. I didn't know what was happening to my body.

Thankfully, the Benadryl apparently worked. The hives receded and I was able to convince Reyna that I didn't need to see a doctor. That it was probably just an allergic reaction. I could tell by the look she gave me that she didn't buy it. It was her classic "Do you think I'm stupid" stare. She mumbled something in Spanish then let me go to class. I was sure she went back to her desk and started searching the internet looking for what might be causing my symptoms. Part of me hoped she would figure it out. I knew she could. She was so smart.

  Wandering aimlessly through the halls thinking of Reyna, I mistakenly bumped into Amber. I had hoped I wouldn't see her again until dinner that night so I could put in to action the next phase of Stu's plan. But her reaction to what I had already done was worth the intrusion.

  "What the hell is this?" she asked holding up a dingy piece of cloth.

  "Uh, it's my jock strap," I replied innocently as if she was crazy. I mean she did look quite absurd holding a dirty jock strap at the edge of her finger in the middle of the hallway.

  "I know what it is. What I want to know is why it was in my locker?"

  "Well you didn't ask that. You specifically asked ‘what the hell is this?'"

  "Scott, what is the matter with you today? Why are you acting all weird? You've never been all over me like you were this morning, and why would you put this in my locker?" she asked, holding the jock strap closer to my face as if I couldn't see.

  "Well, I thought you might like it to remember me by. I mean didn't you leave your panties in my car?"

  Amber turned scarlet. "I ... you ... it's not the same thing!"

  "Why not?" I pretended to be truly perplexed as I folded my arms and waited for an explanation from her.

  "Panties are sexy. This," she flung the undergarment at me, "is just disgusting."

  "So, you don't find me sexy?" I gave her the same big puppy dog eyes she gave me every time I didn't compliment her on a new outfit.

  "Ugh, you’re insane," she mumbled before storming off.

  Wow, Stu was right. She wouldn't be able to take her own medicine.

***

  Reyna waited for Stu as he exited his last class. She had to talk to him. She wasn't concerned about the Amber situation anymore. She was sure they probably had something up their sleeves that she just needed to stay out of. She wanted to find out if Stu had been noticing strange symptoms in Scott as well.

  "Stu," she called as soon as he emerged from the classroom.

  "Hey, Rey," he adjusted his backpack and tucked his jet black hair behind his ear. He looked a lot like Scott when he wore normal clothes and didn't dye his hair. But in his Goth get up no one would ever suspect he and Scott were even related.

  "Do you have any plans? I think we should talk about Scott."

  "I thought you'd never ask."

  They walked together to a coffee shop a couple of blocks away. After settling down in a booth with their drinks, Reyna got right to the point.

  "Have you been noticing anything weird with Scott lately?"

  "Besides the fact that he's finally realized that he's in love with you?"

  Reyna smiled a little, and then took a sip of her decaffeinated tea. She never drank coffee. She had a hard enough time getting to sleep at night. She didn’t need to add caffeine to the problem.

  "No, I mean, yeah. I mean,” she shook her head to clear her thoughts. “I was really referring to his health. Has he had any strange symptoms?"

  Stu looked down into his mug of coffee. He drummed his black painted fingernails against it.

  "What, what is it?" Reyna asked impatiently.

  "I'm actually kind of worried about him. It's not like it's been anything big, it's more like a feeling that something isn't right. He's just not being the same Scott."

  "What do you mean?"

  After taking a sip of coffee, he sighed and said, "He's been sleeping a lot more. Now, an extra hour or two a day is no big deal, but twice in the past two weeks he's slept like an extra six hours. That's just not like him."

  Reyna made a mental note to add fatigue to her list.

  "Anything else?" she asked.

  "Yeah. I think he's in pain. Like a lot of pain. Scott is super strong. If something makes him cringe even when he's trying to hide it from me, it has got to be extremely painful."

  Reyna shook her head. "We
gotta
do something."

  "What have you noticed?"

  "Well, I know he's in pain. He actually took a shot of
Dilaudid
to get him through the game last Friday."

  "I don't know what that is, but I assume it's serious."

  "And today he had a bout of
uticaria
."

  "You
gotta
lay off the medical terms." Stu set his coffee down, leaned back and crossed his legs.

  "Hives. He had hives all over his chest and a really high fever."

  Stu sighed. "So, what are we gonna do?"

  "If we tell Sam, do you think she'll make him go to a doctor?"

  Stu let out a high-pitched giggle.

  "Sam wouldn't take Scott to a doctor in a situation like this. She'd be too afraid that the doctor would tell him he couldn't play Friday night. The championship game. Your best bet is to wait until next week."

  "I really don't think we should wait that long. I have read about so many diseases that strike people suddenly and kill them within a 72 hour period."

  Stu leaned forward. "You think it's that serious. You think it could be something fatal?"

  Reyna reached into her backpack and pulled out her notebook. She flipped it open and said, "Meningitis, Sepsis or any number of fatal viral diseases could kill him within a few days. Plus, he doesn’t know who his father is. There is no way to trace his medical history. What if he has some sort of genetic disease that needs treatment immediately."

  "Okay, Rey, you're scaring me," he said as his eyes grew large.

  "I'm sorry, I just can't ... I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something happened to him and I didn't do everything in my power to help him. I can't ignore the symptoms. Not again."

  Stu reached across the table and placed his hand over hers. "Rey, you were only five. There was nothing you could do about your mother."

  Reyna closed her eyes tightly to hold in the tears. Twice in one day. She was crying twice in one day. What was happening to her?

  Stu went over to her side of the booth and wrapped an arm around her, letting her cry on his shoulder. "You and Scott have no idea how much you need each other."

  At six o'clock sharp Stu and I showed up at the Sullivan house to pick up Amber for dinner. A full hour before we were supposed to be there. I figured I would feed her some line about missing her too much or some garbage like that.

  "Scott, what the hell?" Amber asked as she opened the door in a towel with her hair soaking wet. "You're like an hour early."

  "Don't you want to see me? I couldn't wait to have dinner with you." Now that much was true. I couldn't wait to see the expression on her face after an evening with the
Kincaids
. "I just really want you to meet my family," I added.

  "Hey, what's up," Stu said with a nod of the head.

  Amber looked at him for the first time and nearly jumped out of her skin. Or I guess she nearly jumped out of her towel. Stu's black hair, black clothes, and black lipstick really caught her off guard.

  "Oh, this is my little brother, Stu. You've probably seen him around school."

  "Goth guy is your brother?"

  "I have a nickname?” Stu quipped. “Cool!"

  "Yep, he's my brother."

  "Is he coming to dinner with us?" Amber was trying hard to hold in the panic.

  "No."

  "Oh," she sighed.

  "You're coming to dinner with us. I thought you could come to our house since you were so nice as to have me over last night."

  Amber massaged her temples with one hand while holding up the towel with the other. "I
gotta
get dressed," she said, swinging the door open so Stu and I could enter.