Almost Perfect - Brian Katcher [94]
“You’ve got a pretty big goose egg on the back of your head. How many fingers do you see?”
“Three.”
Ebony waved a finger in front of my face, making sure my eyes could follow it.
“Your brother will live, Laura. But he needs to go to the hospital.”
“I can’t,” I replied, swallowing the pills my sister offered me.
“Why not?”
“Because the guy who did this is there.”
Laura was trying to help me to my feet. “Then we’ll go to Boone Hospital, or the VA. C’mon.”
I pulled away. “Laura, I just need to crash.”
She sat down next to me. “Will you tell me what happened? What are you doing in Columbia, anyway?”
“Um …” Ebony sat on her bed, obviously wondering if she was going to get any sleep that night. She let out a long-suffering sigh and grabbed a robe.
“I think I’ll go stay with Bethany. And you really should see a doctor, Logan.”
When we were alone, Laura handed me a soda. “So are you going to talk to me?”
“I …” I suddenly noticed that Laura was wearing a T-shirt that read PHYSICISTS DO IT WITH FORCE. I remembered Mike’s major, and my eyes narrowed.
“Logan, c’mon.”
I took a swig of the soda and looked at my sister. Because I’d lied to Laura, Sage was flat on her back in a hospital bed, and I’d just had the shit knocked out of me by her father. I lacked the strength for more lies. I needed advice.
“Laura.” I didn’t look her in the eye. “You were right about Sage. And … I knew. She was honest with me from the start. I didn’t like it, but … I dunno, I guess she got to be kind of special to me. I tried to tell myself it didn’t matter. But when you found out, I was just so embarrassed. I broke up with her.” There. I’d said it. There was no going back. I think I might have felt relieved at this confession had it not come exactly one day too late.
Laura didn’t reply. When I looked up, her face was in her hands. “Logan, I’m so sorry. I should have minded my own business. I was just afraid she was lying to you, but I should have known she wouldn’t do that. Why did I have to go and open my mouth?”
I gingerly placed my head on the pillow. “I was the one who fucked up. I made Sage into the bad person, and she was the one who told the truth.”
Laura sniffled. “If you want to get back together with her, we can just pretend this never happened. I won’t mention it again.”
So Sage had been right. As long as I was okay, Laura was okay. But now it no longer mattered.
“It’s not that simple, Laura.” I briefly related how Sage had tried to get back at me and ended up in the hospital. I glossed over how her dad had used me as a punching bag.
“Oh, Logan, I’m so sorry. What kind of bastard would hit a girl? Even a girl like Sage?”
I thought back to New Year’s and how I’d been a hair away from punching her myself. In this whole sorry episode, I’d done nothing right. I’d had a thousand opportunities to be selfless and understanding, but I’d always been small-minded and cruel. I’d yelled at Sage when I found out her true sex. I’d mocked her at the comedy club. Then I’d slept with her and then dumped her to avoid a minor humiliation. And now she was in the hospital.
Sage would have been so much better off if she’d never met me.
“Logan? Are you asleep?”
I kept my eyes closed. “I’m on my way.”
“Can I do anything for you?”
Blackness surrounded me. “Call Mom. She doesn’t know where I am. Tell her I went for a ride with Jack or something. And Laura?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you for being understanding. I wish I had your attitude.”
I felt Laura kiss me on the forehead.
“Good night, little brother.”
I heard her make a brief phone call. Then she turned off the lights and crawled into Ebony’s bed.
chapter thirty-three
“LOGAN, are you sure you don’t want me to come in and talk to Mom?” My sister and I were dusting down the gravel road toward home. Laura had gotten me up early to drive me back to Boyer. I’d thought about trying to visit Sage before we left, but decided to wait. Especially if her father was still at the hospital.
“I’ll be okay. Mom’s working the breakfast shift,