Rough Waters (19 page)

“You’re alive, you’re alive. Fucking hell,
you’re alive,” Theo says, heaving the words out.

Kale’s muscles relax as Theo yells at Topher
to “cough it up” repeatedly. The flashing red lights blind me as
the ambulance bounds through the Horn Island sand. Two EMTs rush
over, and Theo screams at them to pump Topher’s lungs.

Jace tries to pull Theo back as the EMTs do
what they can to stabilize our Hooligan and get him into the
ambulance for transport.

“He’s losing consciousness,” Theo says.
“You’ve gotta pump his fucking lungs or he’ll die. He can’t fucking
die. We can’t lose him too!”

They ask him to step back and say they’ll do
all they can “to help your friend.” Jace physically shoves Theo
back, mumbling something about letting them to their job and how he
can’t do any more at this point. The EMTs lift Topher onto a
stretcher and move him toward the ambulance at record speed.

“I have to go with him,” Miles says, hobbling
toward the ambulance. “You can’t take him without me.”

One of the guys hesitates. “Um, only
immediate family is allowed to ride with him.”

“I’m his brother,” Miles says. “Don’t you
need his personal information and all that shit? Trust me, if he
could talk, he’d tell you to take me with you.”

Jace nods, although I’m not sure if he’s
agreeing about Topher or implying that Miles really is Topher’s
brother. Either way, they let the broken Hooligan onboard and speed
away to save Topher’s life.

Once the red lights fade out of view and the
piercing howls of the sirens sound like they’re a million light
years away, Emily says we have to get to the hospital. She tells me
to ride with her, so I give Topher’s keys to Kale so he can follow
us. Jace tells Theo to kill his car and leave it for the night
because he’s not stable enough to drive.

Theo walks over to his vehicle, kills the
engine, and takes the keys from the ignition. He slams the door,
but he doesn’t walk back over to us. Instead, he collapses to his
knees.

Jace dashes to him, drops onto the sand, and
wraps Theo up in a hug, talking him through the tears and
reassuring him that Topher will be okay. Kale follows suit and
kneels down next to them, telling Theo over and over that he saved
Topher and it was different this time.

I can’t even imagine what he’s going through
– reliving the worst moment of his life but this time, it was
Topher, not just some random person from the beach. It scares me to
see the Hooligans so vulnerable – Miles barely walking, Topher
nearly drowning, and now, Kale and Jace sitting in the Horn Island
sand while Theo cries in their arms. Seeing them so broken makes me
feel like crumbling myself.

A.J., Alston, and Reed show up at the
hospital just minutes before Kale, Theo, and Jace. Emily updates
the guys on what Miles has told her while I find a restroom to
change out of my wet shorts and tank top. I’m thankful I still had
clothes packed from Sunrise Valley because it’d have been terribly
embarrassing to have A.J. dig through my underwear drawer for a
bra. I’d have just called Alston in that case. It’d still have
sucked, but it wouldn’t have been
as
humiliating.

A.J. volunteers to take my bag back down to
the car once I meet back up with everyone in the waiting area. He
says something about needing a cigarette, and Jace goes with him,
stating that he only smokes when his anxiety is too high to handle.
I settle in next to Reed, away from the others.

“I called Vin,” he says. “I didn’t figure
anyone else would want to, so I volunteered. He was livid. I’m sure
he’ll drive like a maniac to get back here.”

Great. The last person I want to see right
now is Vin. I haven’t seen him since the day he fired me and we
broke up…in not so many words. The last thing Topher needs right
now is more tension, more anger, and more accusations. Yes, it was
stupid to go night surfing in rough waters, but tonight isn’t the
night to blast him for it. We’ll all curse him out later for
scaring us. Tonight, he just needs to breathe again.

“You okay?” Reed asks, leaning in and staring
at me.

I nod, shaking away my concerns about Vin and
what he may say or do to Topher. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I say, pretty
unconvincingly. “I’m much better than Theo.”

“Yeah,” Reed says. “I can’t believe he had to
go through this all over again.”

“At least the outcome was different this
time,” I say, resting my head back against the wall.

We sit quietly for the next few minutes while
the lady on CNN talks about global warming and how we need to go
green. I wonder how offended the rest of the hospital would be if I
muted her or just turned her off. I don’t give a damn about the
environment tonight. The environment tried to kill Topher. Mother
Nature is not my friend.

“I was there that day,” Reed says, breaking
my thoughts and interrupting the CNN woman.

“What day?” I ask.

He nods toward Theo. “The day he fell apart.
I was too young to actually have a job, but my dad let me work at
the store anyway. I was counting the front register for him. It was
just after sunset.”

Reed stares directly ahead, like he’s not
really here telling me this story. He’s in another place, another
time. He’s back there on the day that Theo couldn’t save a
life.

“It’s crazy how I remember the exact colors
of the sky,” he says. “It was so red – a sailor’s sky. It was like
something tragic was meant to happen, like the universe knew it was
time.”

He looks at the floor, closes his eyes for a
few seconds, and then shakes his head. He opens his eyes just
before he turns to me.

“When the ambulance came down onto the beach,
we knew something bad was going on because they didn’t turn off the
lights or the siren. My dad told me to step outside and see what
was going on, so I did. I couldn’t see much because a crowd had
gathered. But that’s when I heard Theo,” he explains.

Before Reed even goes on, I place myself
there – on the beach in Crescent Cove, beyond The Strip, on the
white sands, just below Drenaline Surf and Strickland’s Boating. I
can see the blood-stained sky, its reflection on the water like
stained glass, shifting back and forth with the currents.

“He screamed, ‘You can’t fucking die on me!’
over and over. Then he yelled to ‘fucking breathe’ and I knew
something was wrong because Theo never lost his cool,” Reed says,
describing the same Theo that I saw tonight. “He never panicked or
cursed and screamed like that. The panic set in before I even knew
what was happening.”

I can’t imagine Theo not cursing and losing
his cool. Every time I’ve seen him, he’s been wild as a Hooligan or
too drunk to walk on his own. I wonder if he was as cool and
collected as Jace before this red sky day.

“The EMTs kept telling him how he did all he
could, but it was too late. They kept asking him to step back, but
he wouldn’t. Maybe he literally couldn’t. He just kept screaming,
and the screaming turned into crying, and then the EMTs had to
physically pry him off of Shark’s body,” Reed says.

It hits me like an anchor slamming into the
ocean floor. Shark was the one Theo couldn’t save. Shark’s death is
what Theo drinks to forget, and because it was Shark, it eventually
all comes back to him. There is no amount of alcohol to wash that
away. That’s why he breaks. That’s what makes a Hooligan cry.

“I used to hang out with Topher a lot,” Reed
continues. “Vin thought I was a good influence on him. He was
basically my best friend at the time. But he was there that day. We
watched Shark die together. Nothing was the same after that.”

He recounts every detail – the way Theo cried
and screamed, how the entire beach could hear his agony, and how
everyone just left him there in the sand, crying and screaming
until Jace got there.

“The EMTs called the time of death right
there on the beach, covered his body, and just lifted him up like
it was no big deal,” Reed says, shaking his head and staring at the
floor again. “It was like they didn’t care that it was Shark
McAllister. When they covered him up, Topher lost it. He literally
fell into me, crying and begging for it not to be real.”

I can’t even envision Topher at fifteen,
crying on the beach in Reed’s arms. While part of me wishes I’d
known Shark, I’m thankful that I didn’t have to be here to witness
the breakdown after his death. I knew it impacted the Hooligans and
Vin, but I never guessed Reed would’ve been there.

“What happened next?” I ask, choking back the
tears.

“Once Topher stopped crying, he walked down
to the edge of the water, picked up Shark’s surfboard, and said he
was going to Joe’s house,” Reed says. “Until last summer, he hadn’t
said a word to me since that day. The first time he acted normal
around me was the night Alston and I took you and Linzi to that
beach party.”

I stare at the four white walls around us,
fishing throughout my brain for words, but there’s nothing I can
even think to say. This is worse than standing awkwardly at a
funeral in front of a grieving family.

“It’s funny,” Reed says. “Death can either
pull you closer together or push you further apart. It pulled the
Hooligans together, but it pushed the rest of us away from them.
Miles was always Topher’s real best friend anyway.”

Forcing a fake smile is the best I can do
right now. Reed stares at his phone in his hand while I glance
around the room, not focusing on any one person or thing. I’m so
glad tonight wasn’t a repeat of Shark’s death. I can’t handle
losing Topher, but these guys can’t handle losing anyone else.
They’ve had enough tragedy.

Soon after, Miles comes from down the
hallway. I hear his crutches before I even see that messy head of
blonde dreadlocks. Everyone looks toward him when he rounds the
corner. He hobbles over toward Jace, Theo, and Kale. Then he
motions the rest of us to join them. I don’t even know when Jace
and A.J. came back inside.

“He’s okay,” Miles says. “They pumped his
lungs because he’d swallowed a lot of water, and they said they’re
going to keep him to monitor the situation. They think he’s okay,
but they’d rather be safe than sorry.”

Miles tells Emily to take his truck home with
her because he’s staying the night here. She takes his truck keys,
along with a breakfast order for tomorrow morning. I hope Drenaline
Surf gives her a raise because if she ends up marrying him someday,
her entire paycheck will go toward groceries. She walks out through
the glass door exit just as her employer walks in.

Vin moves toward us like a raging tornado,
angry enough to rip apart anything that stands in his path. His
eyes are cold and dangerous, just like the icebergs I’ve always
seen in them. He darts past us to the first nurse he sees.

“I’m here about Topher Brooks,” he says. “I
need to know everything.”

“Um, we can only give that confidential
information to next of kin,” she says. She nods toward Miles. “His
brother can fill you in, though.”

Vin glances back at us and then back to the
nurse. “I
am
his brother,” he says. “His only brother. That
fool over there is his best friend and clearly a liar.”

Miles whips around faster on those crutches
than I could have without them. In three giant strides, he pulls
himself toward Vin, broken leg and all.

“You want to pull the brother card?” Miles
asks. “You may have the same DNA, but I’m more of a brother to him
than you’ll ever be. Shark was more of his brother than you
are!”

Miles slings a crutch forward, pointing it at
Vin as he would his arm, if he didn’t have the crutch attached to
it. I almost expect him to hit Vin with it, and I’m impressed when
he doesn’t.

“You just shut the hell up right now,” Vin
smarts back, pointing at Miles. “You’ve gotten my brother into more
trouble than he ever would’ve gotten into if you hadn’t dragged him
into all those fights with you.”

Miles throws his head back. “At least I’m
there to have his back when he needs someone! You sure as fuck
wouldn’t have gone into the water after him tonight, and you better
be fucking glad that Kale and Haley did. And Theo – he’s a fucking
hero – he saved Topher’s life tonight, which is more than you
would’ve done!”

Jace’s hand pulls on Miles’s shoulder,
dragging him back from the screaming match in the hospital. The
nurses look on in fear, probably unsure if they should even bother
calling security. Hell, I wouldn’t call security on Miles Garrett.
I’d just get out of the way of his flying crutches.

Jace talks Miles down. He says something
about crashing at his and Theo’s place, and that he’ll bring him
back first thing in the morning, when Topher can have visitors. I
don’t hear Miles’s response because he, Jace, Theo, and Kale
disappear down the hallway, separating the Hooligans from us once
again.

Even though Miles is out of the room, Vin
doesn’t end his rampage there. This time, he turns toward me and my
roommates. Alston and A.J. stand a few feet behind Reed and me. I
wish A.J. was closer.

“Stay the hell away from my brother,” Vin
says, directly to me. He walks a few steps closer. “You’re as bad
as Miles, always dragging him into something he has no business
being in. I don’t want you calling him, texting him, seeing him in
any way, shape, or form, got it?”

The words I want to curse and scream stop
halfway up my throat because Reed puts an arm in front of me and
pushes me back behind him.

“Stop,” Reed says, calmly. “You’re saying
things you’re going to regret.”

“Strick, stay out of this,” Vin snaps.

Reed glimpses over his shoulder at me and
motions me back. I take two steps before Alston grabs my arm and
pulls me in between A.J. and himself. A.J. steps forward, shielding
me but ready to back Reed up if he needs it.