Chapter fifteen

15.
A nurse came in and got R and me, taking us back to where Mom and Sophia were waiting. There was still no sign of my dad, or R's. I supposed they had a lot to talk about. Both of the girls' faces brightened when they saw us coming.
“There you are!” Sophia yelled, and then lowered her voice. “Oh my goodness, I've been so worried about you.”
I knew that she wasn't talking about me, so I made a guess that she hadn't seen R yet. I was right, because he seemed shocked that she was there, even more shocked than when he had seen me.
“Sophia?”
“Yes, I know, I'm here. They wouldn't let me see you. But I thought they would have at least told you I was here...” She started muttering, mostly to herself, and none of us were listening to her anymore, anyways. My mom was talking now.
“Hello, Rupert. Here's our plan. We've been trying for hours now to get a hold of your sister, but she's simply not answering the phone. We don't think it's actually turned off, though. More likely she's just avoiding any calls from the hospital or your father. We think that if you, or maybe Shane, call from your cell phones – so she'll see the number in her contacts and know it's you – she might answer. And apparently there's some sort of tracking device on her cell and so if we get her on the line for long enough, we'll be able to locate where the call is being made from.”
“Yeah, it's some application for the Blackberry,” R nodded. “My dad made us install it. But do you really think it's worth even trying?”
“Smart man, your father. And anything is worth trying, so we might as well give it a shot. But not from inside here. She might hear something in the background to tip her off. She really seems to hate this hospital. Let's go outside.”
So I found myself, R, and Sophia all following my mother outside to the parking lot, and then away for a ways until we were far enough from the building, in a relatively quite spot, where not many cars went by. I whipped out my cell phone, and R dug his from a deep cargo pocket. We looked at each other, and I nodded, letting him go first. I could see his fingers wavering a little as he dialed. Soon the phone was held up to his ear, ringing. We waited, all on edge. After a minute or so, though, R put the phone down.
“No answer.” He sighed. “I guess you might as well give it a go, though, Shane. It can't hurt anything.”
“Let's wait a couple minutes,” I suggested. “Just in case she figures out that we're together or something.”
The waiting seemed like forever, but after seven minutes, I took out my phone again and searched until I found Bryn's number.
“Here I go!” Ring, ring, ring. Seven rings passed, and I was about to give up when I heard a faint click. But it wasn't a click that meant I should hang up. It was a click that meant I needed to talk.
“Bryn? Bryn, are you there?”
“Shane?” Her voice was soft, sounding somewhat like a moan, but it was there. Oh, thank God it was there.
I tried to keep my tone light. “Hey, uh, I was just wondering if you could... well, that is, if you wanted to... come over. To my house. Uh, for dinner.” Gosh, what was I saying? I sounded so stupid. But I kept talking. “I keep trying to call R, but he's not answering his cell phone. I think maybe the battery died. But, yeah, I just wanted to know if you two want to come over for dinner tonight. And I was going to rent a movie. Maybe Star Wars or something.”
To my infinite surprise, she didn't question me. In fact, when she started talking, it wasn't much related to what I had just said. “Oh my goodness, Shane, you don't even know, do you? I ran away. Well, not really ran away, I guess. I drove away. I took the car. You know what happened to... my mom... you know all that, right? I've never been good at handling pressure. Or pain. In fact, I've been avoiding it all day. People have been calling. My brother even called a minute ago.
“I didn't answer. I don't know why I even answered your call. But I've always trusted you, to be truthful. And you're always so faithful to R. You stand up for him. And I've always really admired you for that. I must sound so silly to you, but it's true. And you're pretty mature for your age.
She seriously started crying then. “Do you want to know what I've been doing? Where I am? I've just been sitting in the car. All day. I was drinking a little bit, but I don't have very much money to buy anything. And I never really liked the taste of liquor, anyway. But I do have cigarettes. And some drugs. Yep, I've been sitting in my dad's car, smoking it up. I'm so pathetic. I don't even know why I'm telling you all this!”
I tried to get a word in edgewise. “Bryn-” She was still crying, but she quited down. “Bryn, you're not pathetic. You snapped, sure, but some people just do that. I do think you need some help, though. And I'm kind of pathetic, too, because I lied to you. I called because I really want to help you. Do you think you can drive?”
“No,” she sobbed, “No way. I can't even see properly.”
“Okay,” I said, slowly, trying to think of the right things to say. I couldn't blow it! “Can I come get you? With someone else, of course, since I can't drive myself. Would that be okay?”
“Yes.”
“All right. Now, where are you? If you don't tell me, then I'll have to use the tracking app on your phone.”
She sniffed. “Huntersville.” She continued, telling me what road she was on and everything. I assured her she would be okay, and that we would be there soon. Then I hung up.
Caught up in all the drama of the phone call, I had practically forgotten about my three companions, who must have been going insane, wondering what she was saying on the other line. When I turned and saw their faces, I had to take a step back to keep my balance. Without putting in very many details, and definitely not mentioning what she had been doing, I told them the story. My mom raced back inside the building right away to get her car keys, and tell the men where we would be going. Sophia just stood there, being quiet, and probably feeling a little left out, since we had decided that I would be the only one to go along with my mom. I looked at R, and he raised his eyebrows.
“You were right,” I whispered, and then walked away. Partly right.
The minivan sped through the dark, no sound but the whir of it's wheels and an occasional whimper from Bryn. She sat in the back, I was in the middle; my mom in front, driving. Driving a little bit too fast, actually. She was in a hurry to get back to the hospital.
We had found Bryn exactly where she said she was, parked along a deserted stretch of road. Finding her was easy; dealing with the state in which we found her wasn't. She was a complete wreck, emotionally and physically, too. It was obvious that she had been crying ever since I had called her, and she was still crying a bit on the way home.
My eyes were focused on the side window, not allowing myself to look at anything else. Especially R's sister. It was so hard for me to just sit there and hear her, hear somebody who had destroyed herself, who had given up. R was stronger than her, but how much stronger? Would he last forever, or just longer than Bryn? And what about his dad, who really needed to have strength for his whole family? My whole body felt like sighing, but I didn't make a sound. I was frozen inside myself, only giving forced, automatic answers if Mom asked me something. But thankfully, she wasn't feeling very talkative. We were quite a raucous bunch on our way back to the hospital.
When Bryn found out when we were taking her, I expected some sort of disagreement. Anything, a protest, at least. But she just nodded. Nodded and then looked away. I had explained to her that we were taking her there for her own good, to see her family and to see a doctor, probably. But she just kept nodding. Frozen inside herself, also. Ashamed of what she had done, and that somebody had to see it. Maybe even her pride was smarting. After all, her younger brother had done what she couldn't. And her little brother's best friend was even doing better than she was, giving her a helping hand. Someone she respected... my mind paused, and then rewound. Someone she respected. Someone she... admired. If I had been a cartoon character, I would have stopped and shook my head until it rattled. She had seriously, for real said that she admired me. Or at least, admired one of my qualities. I couldn't even remember what it was that she had mentioned, but it just blew my mind. Bryn was the kind of person that I looked up to (or at least, had, until that day). To think that she was looking up to me (not literally, of course, since she was several inches taller than me) was something that I couldn't truly wrap my mind around. I didn't know why, and my curiosity wouldn't be drenched until I found out the answer.