My Life After Now - By Jessica Verdi Page 0,66
those swords?”
“In the basement,” I mumbled.
Andre’s eyebrows pulled together and he thought for a moment. “Were they in a glass case?”
I nodded.
“Dammit, Lucy, those were for display only. They’re antiques from the RenFaire museum. You should have checked with me.” He turned to my dad. “If I had known Lucy and Evan weren’t abiding by the rules, I certainly would have put a stop to it.”
“We’re sorry,” I said, trying to make amends so we didn’t have to keep talking about this. “Aren’t we sorry, Evan?”
Evan just nodded. He was staring at my bandaged arm.
“What did the doctors say? Are you still going to be able to be in the show?” Andre was a worried wreck. I felt for the guy—just when the fight scene was finally working, this had to happen.
“The play really does seem to be cursed, doesn’t it?” I said, a dopey grin on my face. The painkillers were making me silly. “Just imagine if we’d done Macbeth.”
“Lucy, please don’t talk about theater curses. What are you trying to do, jinx us?” Andre shuddered. “Now, can you be in the show or not?”
“Yes, Andre, I can still be in the show.”
“Oh, thank god,” he breathed, and gave me a giant hug, being careful of my injured arm.
“All right, let’s go home. I’ve had enough of hospitals to last me awhile,” Dad said, leading us toward the exit.
“Um, actually, I think I’m going to ride home with Evan. If that’s okay with him,” I added.
“Yeah, no problem,” Evan agreed after a brief hesitation. It was no use avoiding me anymore, and we both knew it.
Dad looked from me to Evan and back again. “I suppose that’s okay,” he said. “But come straight home, all right? We have some things to talk about.”
“I will.”
He gave me a big squeeze. “See you at home, honey.”
• • •
“Are you okay?” Evan asked the moment we were alone.
I nodded. “I’ll be fine. Probably gonna have a nasty scar, but otherwise I’m okay.”
“I am so sorry. I can’t believe I did that. I don’t know what happened.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Evan. Honestly. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”
“Lucy, I was the one holding the sword. I don’t know who else’s fault it would have been.”
I smiled. “Well, you more than made up for it. Thanks for bringing me to the hospital.”
“I just thought that if an ambulance came you would have had to tell them about the HIV, and I know you don’t want anyone to know,” he said quietly, looking down at his lap.
He was right. When I got to the emergency room, one of the first things the nurses asked me was if I had any allergies to medications or major health issues. I nervously told them about my HIV status, and they barely even blinked. But if I’d had to disclose that information to EMTs with all my castmates standing around and watching, I don’t know what I would have done. Evan had saved me.
I studied him closely. He seemed like he meant what he said. And he’d put himself in danger in order to protect my secret. To think that just a few hours ago I was worried about him telling people…
“You shouldn’t have touched my blood,” I whispered, my stomach still tied up in knots about that.
“I know. But I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to help you,” he admitted.
“Do you have any cuts on your hands?” Please say no, I added silently.
Evan held up his hands for me to see. “Nope. Perfectly intact.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. But maybe…I think you should probably still get tested in a month or so, just in case.” It pained me to even think the words, let alone say them. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to Evan because of me.
“Yeah, okay,” Evan said.
We sat there, letting the seriousness of the situation sizzle and pop in the contained atmosphere. Why was it that all of Evan’s and my most important conversations took place in a parked car?
“So I think Max and Courtney probably know something’s up,” he said, finally breaking the silence. “I’m really sorry. I know you didn’t want them to know anything. I was just trying to think on my feet and I thought them knowing would be better than Elyse…or Ty.”
I shook my head reassuringly. “No, you did the right thing. Thank you.” Then his reluctance to say Ty’s name registered in my brain. “About what you overheard in the hallway