The Debt 5 (9 page)

 
In any case, today wasn’t about Jake
Novak, and it wasn’t about Raven’s confusion over possibly having a broken
heart.

Today was about Skylar.

Skylar was undergoing chemotherapy for
the first time, and Raven wanted to be there for her completely and
totally—she wanted to be present for Skylar, not just physically, but
emotionally.

You
need to get yourself in check.
 
Enough pining for Jake, it’s time to really step up to the plate for
Sky.
 
She’s scared and she needs
you.

Thinking about Skylar was like a splash
of cold water on her face, and Raven immediately felt more alert and
awake.
 
She got off the couch and
went to the bathroom, jumped in the shower, washed up as quickly as she could,
and then got dressed in a comfortable outfit.

She knew from her research that these
chemo sessions could last hours, so she wanted to be as relaxed as
possible.
 
After getting dressed,
pulling back her hair, she applied just a bit of makeup and brushed her teeth.

It was early enough that Raven had time
before meeting Skylar at the hospital.
 
She left the apartment and went shopping.
 
There were plenty of stores surrounding
the towers, and Raven made use of the time to put together a duffel bag full of
things that Skylar might want throughout her treatment.

Raven bought candy, gum, and crackers of
various assortments.
 
Brownies,
cookies, chips.
 
Then she got goofy
stuff like coloring books, magazines (Raven refused to take the three magazines
that featured Jake on the cover), a couple of novels, a travel-sized checker
board and a travel-sized game of scrabble, crossword puzzles, that sort of
stuff.

In the end, the duffel bag was stuffed
full and Raven could barely carry it, but she pulled the strap over her
shoulder and went out to grab a cab to take her the rest of the way to the
hospital.

After the cab dropped her off at Boston
Memorial, Raven had to ask for directions to the Cancer Center and then to the
Treatment Center.
 
When she arrived,
she sat and waited with her enormous duffle bag in the waiting room, next to a
fish tank.
 

An older man sat nodding off in a
wheelchair nearby, while a person who might have been his daughter sat and read
a book.

On the other side of the fish tank, there
were three people discussing all of the different hospitals they’d been to and
all the surgeries they each had.
 
Each person kept saying, “Oh, I had that one,” as if they were comparing
notes about different appetizer dishes at their favorite restaurants.

Raven texted Skylar and said she was
there.
 
Skylar texted back and said
she was in the building now, too.

A few minutes later, Skylar showed up
with her mother.
 
They both looked
stressed and anxious.
 

Raven waved and smiled, not knowing if
she was supposed to act all serious, but deciding that being upbeat felt
better.

“Hey, I brought fun stuff,” Raven said,
holding up the duffle bag.

“Oh, cool,”
Skylar
said, but her eyes were darting nervously around the room.

“We should register, honey,” her mother
said, putting a hand on her daughter’s shoulder.

They went to check in and Raven waited at
her seat, fidgeting.
 
After a little
bit, they came and sat down next to her.

“So,” Skylar’s mother said to Raven, “I
hear you’ve been quite the busy bee lately.”

“I have?”

“You and Jake Novak?”
 
Skylar’s mom gave Raven a knowing look.
 
“That’s one serious man you landed.”

Skylar put her hand up to her forehead.
 
“Mom!
 
What the heck--don’t embarrass me!
”

“It’s not every day someone we know is
dating a famous man.
 
I can’t even
ask about it?”

Raven laughed.
 
“It’s no big deal.”

“And he’s such a wonderful person,”
Skylar’s mother continued, clucking her tongue appreciatively.
 
“He treated us like family, you
know.
 
An absolute gentleman.”

“He’s been a lifesaver,” Skylar agreed,
but rolled her eyes for Raven’s benefit.
 

Her mother seemed content to keep
talking.
 
“It’s just awful how the
news media treats him.
 
I wrote a
letter to NBC about it, and another letter to the New York Times.”

Raven nodded appreciatively, trying hard
to keep a straight face as Skylar made funny faces while her mother droned on
and on about what a saint Jake Novak was.

Of course, it was true that Jake had gone
way above and beyond for Skylar.
 
What he’d done was incredible, but there was something about listening
to Sky’s mother talk about Jake that was humorous.

Part of it was the situation.
 
You had to laugh so as not to cry.

Every time Jake’s name came up, Raven was
acutely aware of the fact that they were no longer involved either romantically
or business-wise.

Was it ever romantic, though?

She still didn’t know what Jake had
really thought about the whole thing.
 
It had been romantic for her, but if Jake had never truly felt anything
for her, than she supposed it really had always been purely business for him.

A nurse came out and called Skylar’s
name.

“Can they come with me?” Skylar asked,
gesturing to Raven and her mother.

“Of course,” the nurse smiled.
 
“The more the merrier.”

The three of them followed the nurse back
to the treatment center.
 
She
stopped and had Skylar get on a scale and took her wait.

“Maybe I’ll lose a few pounds, at least,”
Skylar joked.

“Honey, don’t joke about that,” her
mother said.

“You gotta look at the silver lining,”
the nurse replied, taking notes.

Then the nurse brought her to a seat near
a window.
 
It was basically one
large room and all of the chairs were in rows and separated by curtains, but
you could still see everyone sitting in their seats.
 
The privacy was minimal.
 
Nurses bustled to and fro and there were
loud beeping noises coming from the different IV stands.

Raven tried not to stare at the other
patients, but it was difficult not to.
 
Most of them were alone, or had just one other person sitting beside
them to keep them company.
 
Everyone
looked rather bored, and resigned.
 
Some of them wore hats, most wore layers of clothing, and a few were
bald.

One woman was so incredibly thin that it
hurt to even look at her.

Skylar seemed in good spirits,
though.
 
She sat down and the nurse
took her vitals, blood pressure, talked to her about what was to come.

If anything, it was Skylar’s mother who
was the problem.
 
She was overly
anxious, talkative, interrupting the nurse to ask vague and useless questions.

Raven could tell that she was making
Skylar more nervous, but there wasn’t much to be done.
 
She was her mother, and that outranked
Raven
any day of the week.

Eventually, the nurse started to run the
IV for the infusion.
 
At first,
everything seemed fine, but then Raven noticed that the nurse had gone very
quiet and stopped talking and joking.

Skylar was squinting in discomfort and
looking up at the ceiling, while her mother was fretting.

“Is she—did you get it?”

“I’m having trouble,” the nurse
replied.
 
“Her veins don’t seem to
want to cooperate today.”

Raven felt her stomach clench like a fist.
 
She could tell that the longer this went
on, the more pain her friend was in.
 

“Is this normal, to have this much
trouble getting the IV inserted?” Skylar’s mother asked.

“I’ve seen it all,” the nurse replied,
but her voice was tense.

The time dragged out, and the nurse moved
from one arm to the other.
 
Eventually, when that failed, she went and got another nurse, who also
tried with no success.

Meanwhile, Skylar was getting more and
more upset.
 
She was no longer
trying to pretend she was okay.
 
Instead,
tears were in her eyes each time they poked and prodded her, she clenched her
teeth and looked away.

“I can’t watch this anymore,” Skylar’s
mother said.
 
“I’m sorry, this is
just too much.”
 
And she walked out
of the room.

Raven went and sat closer to Skylar,
grabbed her hand.
 
“Hey, it’s almost
done,” she said.
 
“They’re going to
get it soon, I can tell.”

“Are you sure?” Skylar asked, squeezing
Raven’s hand tightly.

“I’m totally one hundred percent sure.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’m psychic, of course.”

The newest nurse to attempt getting the
needle in had just given up as well.
 
She stood and looked at them.
 
“I’m going to get our specialist,” the nurse said.
 
“She deals with the tough
cases—she’s the best in the business.
 
But she’s working a different floor
today.
 
I’ll be back in a
moment.”
 
And then the nurse left
and Raven and Skylar were alone.

Skylar turned to her.
 
“Raven, I’m scared.
 
I wasn’t scared before, but now I’m
really scared.
 
It’s already bad and
it hasn’t even really started yet.
 
This is a bad omen, isn’t it?”

Raven looked at her friend calmly and
squeezed her hand reassuringly.
 
“Don’t be silly.
 
There’s no
bad omen here.
 
They’re getting that
specialist and she’s going to take care of you in no time.”

“You really think so?”

“I know so.”
 
But deep inside, Raven was
terrified.
 
She was starting to
wonder the same thing.
 
Could it be
that this was the start of everything going wrong, the beginning of endless
pain and suffering for Skylar?

No,
you can’t think that way.
 
You have to
stay strong and stay positive for Sky.

“Hey, let me show you all the cool stuff
I got for today,” Raven said, keeping her voice light.
 
She grabbed the duffel bag and opened it
and started listing everything.

Even though Skylar was too nervous to
really care, Raven was able to distract her just enough to engage her and calm
her down a little.

Finally, the nurse showed up who had been
specifically brought there to deal with Skylar’s “difficult veins.”

“I’m Nelly,” the woman said.
 
She was friendly with a warm smile.
 
However, Raven could tell instantly that
the woman knew how to do her job.
 
She began caressing Skylar’s arms, her intelligent eyes scanning every
inch, studying Skylar’s veins the way a ship’s captain would study the sea.

Finally, she announced she was ready.

“Raven,” Skylar called to her, reaching
out her hand, and Raven slid close and held Sky’s hand as Nelly prepared to
insert the needle for the IV.

Seconds later, it was done, and Nelly had
made the adjustments so that the IV was firm and working properly.
 
She grinned.
 
“Easy as pie, darling.”

“How did you do that so fast?” Skylar
asked, in awe.

“Nobody else could do it,” Raven said,
shaking her head.
 
“And you did it
in like five seconds.”

“They call me the vein whisperer,” Nelly
said quietly, and winked.
 
“Gotta
go.
 
If you need me again next week,
just give a holler and I’ll come running.”

Then she quickly scurried off to wherever
she came from.

“I think she’s an angel,” Skylar said,
closing her eyes and exhaling.

***

 
Later on, Raven took a break to go and
eat at the hospital cafeteria.
 
Skylar seemed to be doing well with the chemo once they’d gotten past
the initial problem with the IV.
 
Her mother had come back and seemed to calm down, so Raven left the two
of them and went on her own.