Portal (17 page)

“Who did this, Arizona? These are clearly finger marks.”

Kellan said, “She’s already told me that it wasn’t Justin but she’s not saying any more. I guess it could’ve been one of the others from his group. We need to know. In fact, the cops are going to need to know.”

The cops? Why did they have to be involved? I would take care of this myself.

“We better get her to the hospital now that she has calmed down a bit. I’ll drive her,” said Kellan.

“Ali, can I take your car? It’s got more room at the back.”

“Sure, Kellan, we’ll follow you in the Jeep.”

I looked around and saw that Ali, Maria and Ariele were there as well.

Kellan picked me up and tried to get me into Ali’s back seat, but I was glued tight to him and wouldn’t let go.

“Kellan, I’ll drive. Try to get in with her, she’s not going to let go of you without injuring herself,” said Harry exasperated.

Kellan nodded and squeezed into the car, not letting go of me. Harry tried to get the seat belt around the two of us. It was not going to work so he let go and got into the driver’s seat to drive us to the hospital. The drive was long and uncomfortable. The bumps felt like stabs to my throat. Kellan had his hand behind my head, trying to steady my head against his chest.

“Arizona, tell me who did this to you.”

I looked at him, “I can’t Kellan. I have so many other things I need to tell you first. But my throat hurts too much.”

He looked at me frustrated, “Arizona, you could have died, just give me a name.”

“Kellan, I can’t. I’m fine.” With that I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

I awoke to someone slapping me!

“Will you stop that!” I screeched as my throat nearly ripped open. I opened my eyes and glared into a set of glasses. I tried to focus, but the glare from glasses made it impossible.

“Kellan, where are you?” I whispered desperately.

“I’m right here,” said Kellan squeezing my hand.

“Hello, Arizona. I’m Dr. Everton. Sorry about the
wake up
,” he smiled. He proceeded to shine a light in my eyes and poke at my throat.

“Ouch, that really hurts!”

“My apologies, Arizona. I need to check to see if anything is broken. I’m going to send you up for an x-ray.

“Oh, I don’t need that, besides I have to be at tryouts soon.”

I could hear Harry chortling, “Arizona, you’ve got to be kidding. You can’t play hockey today.”

“I’ll get cut!”

“You’ll be ok, Shrimp. Coach will understand,” said Kellan reassuringly.

“Mom and Dad are on their way with Ella, they should be here any minute.”

Great! There was really no need to have told them! I could feel my bed starting to move.

“Taking you up to x-ray. It won’t hurt.”

I clung on to the hand I hoped was Kellan’s as we moved along the corridor. It was strange being moved in this position, hard to get my bearings. Mom and Rupert had clearly arrived. I could hear Harry updating them. Thankfully we couldn’t all fit into the elevator and they had to take the next one. I tried to think of a plausible story that would keep them from annoying me with endless questions. They caught up with me outside the x-ray unit.

“What happened, Arizona?” Mom looked worried and angry.

Rupert took my free hand, “Arizona, you have to tell us. The cops are waiting outside to speak with you once we are done here, but we would like to know as well.”

I could hear Ella crying. She was sitting on Harry’s arm looking down at me.

“I’m ok, Ella. Really, don’t worry.”

“You don’t look ok. You’re all red and look at your clothes!”

Mom nudged me for answers again; I turned to her impatiently.

“Look, I don’t remember what happened.” I knew it sounded lame, but temporary amnesia was the best I could come up with at short notice. I closed my eyes hoping that they would all leave me alone.

“She looks tired,” said Mom. “Let’s give her some time, if she can’t remember, there is nothing we can do. Stressing her out isn’t going to help.”

I heard a male voice, “Ok folks, it is time for her x- rays. You can’t come in. Please stay here.” Kellan tried to let go of my hand, but I dug my fingers into his until I could feel my nails tearing through his skin. My body started to tremble again.

“I guess you’re coming with us, she is not going to let go,” and with that I was wheeled in for my x-rays.

A whole load of waste of time, as I had told them. Nothing broken. Just bruises around my neck and back where I had fallen. I was forced to speak to the cops briefly before I was allowed to go. I gave them the same story as I had given Mom.

Kellan brought me to my bed and put me down, and I drifted straight off to a thankfully dreamless slumber. I woke, what seemed hours later, in a cold sweat. I felt Simla’s hands around my neck, unable to breathe or scream. I opened my eyes in terror and gazed into Kellan’s face.

His head lay next to mine fast asleep, making heavy comforting sounds. I couldn’t help myself; I touched his hair and the back of his neck and traced the contours of his face until I reached his mouth. I moved closer to his face so his every breath warmed my lips. I gently pressed mine against his. I felt him stir and move against me. Gently at first with the movements becoming more and more frantic. I put my hand under his shirt and against his chest. I could feel him suddenly stop moving and taking hold of both my hands.

“Arizona, what are you doing?”

“I need you.”

“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. We can’t be doing this though. Not here, not now.”

He was right. I closed my eyes and nuzzled into his warm chest and fell back to sleep.

Olivia’s cell phone rang; it was Maria. How strange.

“Hello, Maria. What can I do for you?”

“Dr. Darley, Arizona’s been in an accident. We’re on our way to the hospital with her now.”

Olivia’s heart skipped a beat, “What happened, Maria? Did she fall on the ice?”

“No, I’m not sure exactly what happened. We found her on the floor in the restroom. Harry’s is driving her to the hospital in Ali’s car right now. I’m with Ali and Ariele in Arizona’s Jeep heading to the hospital, as well.”

“Thanks for calling and letting me know, Maria. I’ll call Rupert and meet you over at the hospital.”

She hung up, called Rupert and relayed the news.

“Ollie, I’ll meet you over there. I’ll have to bring Ella.”

Olivia rushed out of her office, down to the H2 and floored her way to the hospital. An accident in the restroom, had she slipped? What kind of injury did she have that she needed to go to hospital for? It must be more than a scratch. She was over come with worry. She pulled into the hospital parking lot just as Rupert arrived on his bike with Ella. Rupert picked Ella up in his arms and they ran together into the hospital.

“We’re Arizona Darley’s parents. She has just been admitted?”

The nurse behind the desk sat up in attention as she recognized Dr. Darley.

“They are taking her up to x-ray in a moment. I’ll take you to her.” She got up and signaled another nurse to take over for her and then led them along the corridor. They spotted Harry first and ran up to find out what was going on.

“She is being taken up to x-ray now. She said that she’s absolutely fine, but I guess they want to make sure. She is right there on the gurney.”

It was hard to see the gurney through the crowd. Olivia recognized Ali, Maria and Ariele. She could vaguely see Kellan bending over the gurney as it started to move towards the elevator.

“Is that Kellan?”

“Yes, she’s not let go of him since we found her.”

The elevator doors opened and the gurney was pushed in, with Kellan attached to it. The nurse got in and signaled for everyone else to take the next one. Olivia was about to protest, but felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around.

It was the police, two of them, a man and a woman.

“Are you Arizona Darley’s parents?” The man asked.

“Yes, we are,” said Rupert.

“We need your permission to ask Arizona a few questions about the incident this afternoon.”

Rupert said, “Incident? I had assumed that this was an accident. She slipped and fell in a puddle? What’s going on?”

The policeman said that they had received an anonymous call to let them know that there had been an altercation in the girl’s restroom. A girl had been hurt. They were duty bound to investigate.

“Of course you are,” said Olivia. “An altercation? I want to know what happened too. You can question her, but in our presence only and I don’t want her upset. Wait here until she comes out from x-ray and gets an all clear from the doctor. I’ll try to find out what’s going on.”

The elevator arrived and Rupert and Olivia joined Ella, Ariele, Ali, Harry and Maria as the door closed. Rupert looked around at the teens in the elevator wondering what they knew and how much they would share.

“So, tell us what happened. The cops downstairs seem to think this is due to an altercation in the girl’s restroom?” Rupert asked, looking at Harry.

“How would they know that?” Ali demanded.

“An anonymous tip apparently,” replied Olivia. “Is it true?”

Harry, Ali, Maria and Ariele shot each other quizzical glances and shrugged.

Harry shook his head at his father, “We don’t know, Dad. Arizona says that she can’t remember. We found her in the restroom, on the floor with her hands around her neck gasping in pain. There was no one else in the bathroom with her.”

The elevator doors opened and they rushed over to Arizona. Olivia looked down at her, so pale and frightened, her hand clutching on to Kellan’s.

“What happened, Arizona?”

Ella tried to get a look at Arizona, but couldn’t see so Harry picked her up. However, one look at Arizona and Ella burst into a flood of tears. Harry hugged her close. Rupert took Arizona’s free hand and said, “Arizona, you have to tell us. The cops are waiting outside to speak with you once we are done here, but we would like to know as well.”

Olivia noticed Arizona flinch at the mention of cops. Something was definitely going on here. However, all the questioning could wait. Her daughter looked worn out, best to give her some time to rest. She stood back as the gurney was pushed into the x-ray suite with Kellan still attached to it.

Rupert looked around at the remaining teens.

“So, while Arizona is in the suite, can any of you shed light on why she would have been in an altercation with anyone? Was it Justin’s group?”

Harry looked uncomfortable, but knew that he couldn’t keep this from his parents, even though Arizona would want him to.

“There was an altercation between Arizona and Justin at the ice rink car park last night as we told you earlier.”

“You didn’t tell us exactly what happened. What kind of altercation? Surely Justin didn’t get physical?”

“I think he might have, had I not stopped him.”

“What was it about?”

“It started before I got there. Kellan was there with Arizona. We’ll have to ask him exactly how it got started. All I know is that Justin is after revenge and he can be an ass, so we’ve been looking out for her as much as we could today. She insisted on going to the restroom on her own and I am sorry we didn’t get there on time. We doubt it was Justin though; he was spotted in the cafeteria at the same time. Arizona did say that it wasn’t him. However, she does have severe bruising to her neck, so someone definitely had a go at her.”

Ariele made an uncomfortable sound.

“Ariele, do you know something?” Olivia asked.

“I’ll be breaking a confidence but I feel I have to. Lily texted me on the way to the hospital letting me know that she had called the cops. She saw Simla come out of the bathroom just before she saw us running up the corridor. Lily then heard what happened, but does not want to get involved. Her dad works for Simla’s dad. She called the cops using the school phone, but did not give them her name, just told them that an altercation had occurred in the bathroom and a student was hurt. Rupert and Olivia shot each other a worried glance. Could it be Simla? It seemed unlikely.

The door to the x-ray unit opened and Arizona, now in a wheelchair, was wheeled out holding on to Kellan’s hand.

“Is she ok?” Rupert inquired.

“Nothing broken, she is fine and can head home. She will need plenty of rest and the doctor is writing out a prescription for pain medication. Her throat will be sore for a few days.”

“Arizona, could you talk to the policeman waiting downstairs and tell them what you told us?” Rupert asked.

She nodded at Rupert, looking exhausted. Olivia wanted to take her home as soon as possible. A good rest is what she needed now.

“I want to push the wheelchair, Mom!” Ella demanded enthusiastically.

Olivia nodded and Ella took the handlebars and with Kellan’s help pushed the wheelchair toward the elevator where they managed to squeeze in with Olivia. Rupert waited and took the next elevator down with Harry and the girls. Once they got to the car, Olivia looked on helplessly and slightly amused at the state of Kellan trying to get Arizona into the car. There was no way she was letting him go so they finally got in together.