The Truth About Us (24 page)

Everything's upside down. There’s glass everywhere. I blink hard, gasping in another painful breath. Next to me Corbin is hanging in his seatbelt, blood covering his face.

The ringing in my ears gets worse. A slicing, shrill sound that makes my hands go over my ears. But the ring is me. My scream ripping my throat raw. My body thrashes against my restraint. My screams do nothing to Corbin. He’s completely out.

Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead.

I pull violently at my seatbelt but can’t get it undone. A hand grips my arm, and I scream again. Tobie keeps saying my name. She keeps saying, “Sophia, my baby.”

Someone else is yelling at me. My name. It’s not Corbin. The door is ripped open in a screaming heap of twisted metal. Tosh is on his hands and knees. He braces Tobie from underneath and screams my name. I can’t hear him. I see his lips, but I can’t hear him.

Corbin’s body jerks, and instantly, all my senses come back as if his breath is my own.

“Sophia, Tobie’s seatbelt.” Tosh’s words are clear now. My eyes in focus. I grab at Tobie’s buckle, and on the fourth try, it pops open. Her body falls, and Tosh drags her from the truck. With Tobie out, I can angle my body and thrash out of my belt, crashing to the ground. Arms grab me just as I’m reaching for Corbin. Garett’s face comes into view as I’m yanked from the through the window. I fight him. Only Corbin matters now. I scramble back to the vehicle, and Garett grabs me around the waist. He tackles me to the ground, and I kick out at him, seeing only the blood on Corbin’s face. Riley’s on me now, too. The sound of sirens grows louder and louder. My face is wet, but I can’t tell with what. It takes both of them to force me down.

I call for Corbin, thinking the worst.

Lance. Corbin. Lance. Corbin.

Their images flicker over each other. Water. Blood. Water. Blood.

Exhaustion floods me, and my body goes limp, but my mind races. Garett pulls me farther back. Away from the wreck. Away from Corbin.

The sirens scream. I press my eyes closed. My breathing coming so fast I’m dizzy. My stomach turns and I crawl out of Garett’s arms to be sick. The booze from last night is on fast-track through my bloodstream. Forced through with my speeding heart. My pounding head threatens to explode.

Slamming doors. Screeching metal. Men in uniforms. Stretchers. Tobie strapped to a board being loaded into an ambulance. Corbin’s limp body being hauled from the truck, his left arm hanging at a strange angle. My body tries to move, but I’m too tired. I stand only for a moment before my knees give out. Garett easily catches me and crushes me to his chest. I collapse into him, but I can’t cry. My brain is working so fast and yet, not at all. I can’t think but my mind spins.

I’m numb but feel everything.

It doesn’t register when an EMT squats in front of me, when his hands run all over my body checking me for broken bones, bandaging my small cuts. I feel fine. Why is he touching me? Where's Corbin? My eyes frantically dart around until I see Tosh’s car. Inside Gaby sits motionless. Her hand on the back of Parker’s head, pressing him to her chest. She’s doing what Corbin said. She’s not letting Parker watch. Corbin took the brunt of his father so that Gaby didn’t have to, to protect her.  Now, she watches her brother being pulled from a wreck but protects her son. Her scared eyes catch mine and my whole body calms down.

I push the EMT’s hands from my face, my eyes focusing in on him.

“I’m fine,” I say with enough conviction I almost believe it. He looks at me for a moment and continues to bandage a cut on my cheek. I push his hand away again.

“I said I’m fine.” I try to stand, but both Garett and the EMT pull me back to the curb.

“I have to make
sure
you are fine, miss. Please, sit back.” The smooth voice makes my determination waiver, but I catch another glance at Gaby.

“Let me go. I refuse treatment. I’m refusing treatment.” I push them both away and stand. I wobble when my feet hit the ground, but hold my hand out to the EMT when he tries to protest again. I take a shaky step toward Gaby. Garett’s walking beside me, careful to stay out of reach but close enough in case I fall. I really feel fine. Corbin shielded me. He wrapped me up, and it broke him. But I’m fine. A vision of him being pulled from the truck blinds me, making me stumble. Garett is quick to steady me. As I reach the car, I scan the scene again. Two ambulances gone. One still here. Cop cars everywhere.

Riley is talking to Jackson, running his hand through his hair until it all stands straight up. Three EMTs are huddled over another body lying on the pavement. A twisted pile of silver metal is wrapped around the light post.

Kayla’s car. My heart stutters and I stand on tiptoes to see who's lying on the pavement. It's not Kayla. I gasp at the thick blood coating his face, and Garett pulls me back.

"Sophia, don't." Garett's voice is tight.

My eyes go straight to Gaby and Parker still sitting in the car.

“Sophia, what are you doing? You’re bleeding.” Riley finally notices me, and grabs my elbow. I yank it out of his grip.

I pull open the car door and reach inside, pulling Parker from Gaby’s arms and transferring him to Riley. Riley takes him willingly, but his face is a mixture of random emotions. Mostly confusion.

“Take him somewhere. Take him to your house.” I’m not sure where the assertiveness is coming from, maybe adrenaline, but Riley doesn't argue. Gaby’s face is all shock as I move around the car and climb into the passenger seat. She looks at me silently, studying my face.

“He wouldn’t want you to be alone right now.” I know in my heart that it’s true. It would pain him to see her right now. He’ll be angry that she saw it. But he can’t be here right now.

So I have to. For him.

He’s never had to choose whether she lived or died, but every day, he put her before himself. He chose her quality of life over his own. I doubt she knows. I still don’t understand why he didn’t leave, too. Why he didn’t go with Gaby. Why he chose to play referee instead of forgetting the man who beat him and just leave him behind.

My own parents flash through my mind. Why did I do everything they told me? Why did I continue to live at home even though I wanted out? Why didn’t I tell them the truth? Why did I just run instead of telling them I don't want the life they laid out for me?

Guilt. Like I owe them something. Everything.

Corbin felt guilty for something. The ghost that haunts him is guilt.

It has something to do with Gaby. He feels like he owes her. I just wish I knew why.

Gaby’s eyes fill to the brim with tears, and they flow down her face at my words. She flings her arms around my neck, and I hold her while she cries.

xxx

Garett drives Tosh’s car to the hospital for us, and I sit in the back with Gaby, holding her hand.

“I’m really glad he found you,” she says after a while. “He needs someone like you.”

“Someone just as damaged?” I try to joke, but she shakes her head.

“Someone who understands why he is the way he is. Corbin doesn’t know what he wants. He just does what everyone around him needs him to do. He saves people.”

I sigh and catch Garett glancing at me in the rear view mirror. His face is pure concern but mostly understanding. He probably knows Corbin better than anyone.

“He did save me, though. He found me because I needed him to.”

She shakes her head. “No, Sophia. You saved him. You’re a lot stronger than you think you are. I don’t know you at all, but my mom told me about you.”

My heart stops, and I suddenly can’t breathe. I remember that I'm going to have to face her, too.

“After your accident, she came home from the hospital and woke me up. She was crying. She said she had to choose between a brother and sister. That it made her have to tell me how much she loved me. How brave I was. Like you. She told me that she watched you from the shore while the resort owner got his boat. She said she’s never seen anything like you. Most people want to save themselves. But not you. She said you fought like you could take over the world. She said even as you went under, you only cared about your brother. Even as the water filled your lungs and the current sucked you under, you wanted them to save your brother. The first thing you did when she revived you was call for him.”

I’m the one who’s crying now and Gaby pats my hand as we pull into the hospital. I struggle to push the memories of that day out of my mind, but my body reacts as if it is happening again. My speeding heart, my legs twitching with tension as I fight the urge to run. I’ve never run as fast as I did that day. I’ve never felt panic like I did that day. Slowly it creeps into my limbs and I push against it as hard as I can. It’s too much to remember now.

“But my mom was wrong,” Gaby’s voice cuts through the tension that strangles me. “I wasn’t brave. I wasn’t the brave one in my family. Corbin has a hero complex. Always giving and never getting back. Until you. I’ve never seen him look at anyone like he looks at you. My brother doesn’t like to feel. He likes to act, and he needs someone like you. Someone who will fight just as hard to save him as he’ll fight to save you.”

I wipe under my eyes and shake tears off my fingers.  “Our tragedy,” I whisper to myself.  It fills me up and empties me out at the same time. I remember what he said just before the truck went over. He wanted me to leave. Shielding me. Saving me from him.

“What?” Gaby asks, and I shake my head.

“Nothing. I just need to know they’re okay.” I force all the jumbled thoughts from my head and try to focus. I reach into my purse and take one of pills just to be safe. I’ve never once been in a hospital without panicking.

“You okay?” Garett says when we’re all out of the car, and I nod.

“I hate hospitals.” It’s all I can say as the three of us make our way across the parking lot. Once we’re through the blast of smell slams me with memories. I’m glad I thought to take medication as Lance’s face flashes behind my eyes, but I force it down, replacing it with a different one. His smile from the Lacrosse field when he gets a goal. I saw every one of them, never missing a game because I felt bad that my parents were never there. The roll of his eyes when he thought I was fussing over him because Mom never did. The way he’d say my name when he was scared or angry, but he always called for me. His laugh.

Gaby takes my hand and pulls me to the front desk.

“We’re looking for information about the accident on Hanson and Second Avenue. There were three people brought in.” She leans over the counter toward the nurse on the other side.

“Are you family?” The nurse asks and Gaby nods.

“My dad, my brother and my cousin.” Gaby adds while leaning in further.

The nurse’s eyes dart from side to side and my stomach folds in on itself.

“I can’t release any information at this point on your father. I’m sorry, Miss. Your brother is fine. He’s in x-ray for a cracked collarbone. Your cousin’s partner is in the Maternity Ward. You can wait in there with him for the news.”

“The Maternity Ward? Is she okay? Her baby?” I ask over memories of her calling to me in the truck.

“She went into labor. The doctors tried to stop it, but sometimes trauma like this is-” the nurse says, but both Gaby and I are already sprinting down the hall. Garett calls after us that he’s going to check on Corbin, but I don’t make any gesture that I heard him. The nurse said Corbin was fine. All I can think about is Tobie. Gaby stabs the elevator button over and over until the ding of the door sounds and we get inside. My mind moves fast, and I shake my legs to burn some of the energy that’s filled me up. The door dings and we’re out before they open all the way, ploughing through a group of people waiting in the harsh white hall. The smell of antiseptic burns my lungs as I follow hanging signs to the waiting room. My head still pounds from the accident, but Tobie dominates my thoughts. The baby.

We turn a sharp corner and see Tosh in his suit leaning against the wall. His head lifts at the sound of our thundering footsteps. Gaby runs into him, throwing her arms around him. I slow until I’m standing next to them. Tosh reaches out and grabs my hand. His eyes are red; his still wet hair is tangled in his face.

“Tosh, what’s happening?” Gaby jumps back from him, wringing her hands like a worried mother. Tosh looks up and takes a shaking breath.

“They tried to stop it, but she was dilating. They took her in for a caesarean because of the accident. It’s too dangerous.”

“So she’s having the baby? Why aren’t you in there?” Gaby asks. Tosh trembles.

He looks between us with a blank stare that shatters me. It’s a look of lost hope. It’s a look that absorbs me into its black nothingness and saps me of everything I have. No. I shake my head as numbness passes over me.

Tosh shifts his gaze to the ground, and I feel his hand shake in mine. He doesn’t answer. Even when the doctor comes out from behind two swinging doors, he stays quiet. The doctor scans us before locking eyes with Tosh. My heart beats and breaks, each pump of blood cracking it further as if it were made of glass. I feel my eyes fill with tears as the doctor crosses his arms in front of his chest. It’s a defensive stance, keeping us at a distance. I’ve seen this before. The cold fear floods me and my lungs spasm, stunting my breath.