The Education of Hailey Kendrick - Eileen Cook [72]
“Should we tell the police?” I asked. I enjoyed the image of the cops coming and taking Mandy down, maybe handcuffing her in the middle of the morning assembly, or perhaps they could set the police dogs loose on her.
“Selling out your friends isn’t a crime, just disgusting. The police aren’t going to do anything.”
“She’s not my friend.”
Drew leaned back. “That’s true.”
“What should I do, then?”
“Up to you, but if she blames anything else on the staff, I’m going to make sure it comes out.” Drew shuffled his feet. “I should go, let you get some sleep.”
“No,” I said quickly. “I mean, I’m not tired. You could hang out if you want.”
Drew smiled. “Looks like the only thing you needed to enjoy my company was a hit on the head.”
“That’s not true.” I could feel my face flushing.
“It’s okay. I’m teasing you. Don’t worry about what happened before. I was the one out of line. I shouldn’t have kissed you like that. We’ll just pretend it never happened. Friends?”
I opened my mouth to tell him I didn’t want to be his friend. What I wanted was for him to kiss me again. Preferably when I was out of the hospital and had a shower.
“Hey, there.”
Both Drew and I whirled to face the door. My dad was standing there, holding a take-out container of Baskin-Robbins ice cream. I was willing to bet it was mint chocolate chip, my favorite. As he came into the room I saw he hadn’t shaved, and his shirt was missing a button.
Drew stood up. “Hello, Mr. Kendrick. She’s awake now. I think her snoring finally woke even her up.”
My dad smiled.
“I wasn’t snoring,” I repeated.
Drew and my dad shook hands, ignoring my protests.
“Thanks for keeping an eye on her while I ran out. Would you like some ice cream?” My dad asked Drew, holding up the bag. I hoped he had another flavor in there, because I wasn’t planning on sharing my pint.
“I should be going. Besides, I’m sure you’ll want a chance to catch up.” Drew grabbed his jacket by the door.
There was still a lot I wanted to talk about with Drew, but I didn’t want to have that conversation in front of my dad. If I hadn’t been hooked to an IV, with my leg in plaster, I would have followed Drew out into the hall.
“See you soon?” I asked, hoping I didn’t sound too needy.
“I’m like gum under a desk,” Drew said. “Next to impossible to get rid of.”
30
My dad bustled around finding spoons and bowls for the ice cream, making the entire process seem more complicated than pulling together an entire Thanksgiving dinner for a family of twenty. He was constantly in motion, a blur in the room. A blur who kept avoiding my eyes. The entire time he was getting things ready, he kept up a nonstop stream of chatter. He told me about how the airline had lost his luggage and he’d had to buy a sweatshirt from the hospital gift shop, and how the ice-cream store had been out of butter pecan, so it wasn’t really thirty-one flavors, only thirty.
“Dad?” I didn’t say anything else until he finally stopped moving and looked at me. “I wasn’t trying to kill myself.”
His face turned gray, and his eyes shifted away. “Of course not. I never thought that.”
I could see he had thought it, that he was still thinking it. “I was upset about our conversation,” I said, trying to explain what had happened.
My dad turned back to dishing out the ice cream. “We don’t need to talk about that now. I thought maybe when they spring you from here we could take a small vacation. Maybe go someplace warm.”
“I don’t want to go on vacation.”
“If this is about Linda, then you don’t need to worry, she won’t be coming.” He passed me a wad of napkins. “She and I are going to take a break.”
“You broke up with her?” Great. Not only was I ruining my own love life, but now I had managed to ruin my dad’s, too. “I didn’t want that.”
My dad patted my leg. “It’s nothing you need to worry about. All you need to focus on is getting