Cement Heart(21)

Brody’s hand clapped my shoulder hard and he offered a tight smile as he turned around.

“By the way,” I added, “that woman you have there… hold on tight to her. She’s pretty amazing.”





BRODY AND I walked side by side toward the ICU waiting room. I’d never been in an Intensive Care Unit before. It was different. Instead of a hallway with rooms on each side, it was more like a pod—one central hub in the middle with all the patient rooms circled around it. Before we reached that central station, there was a waiting room on the right side. It was smaller than the waiting room in the ER, but it was also more private. When Brody and I walked in, it was empty except for Kacie and Michelle.

We rounded the corner and my eyes met Michelle’s on accident. I didn’t look away; neither did she. She didn’t seem to be angry anymore, but I couldn’t figure out exactly what she was.

“Hey.” She sighed and puffed her cheeks out. “Can I talk to you?”

I shoved my hands into my pockets and nodded. “Sure.”

“Ummm,” Kacie stammered as she stood up, “Brody, I’m gonna go grab some coffee and water. Wanna come with and help me carry?”

“Sure,”—he looked back and forth between me and Michelle—“assuming I’m not needed here for security?”

Michelle sniffed and shook her head, looking down as she played with her wedding band. “No, we don’t need security.”

“All right, we’ll be right back.” Kacie pushed Brody’s chest gently and they left the room. I sat down in a chair across from Michelle and waited. I had no idea what she wanted to say. A million different things ran through my head, and I was prepared to take whatever she needed to give out.

Finally, after a long awkward silence, she looked up at me with puffy, red-rimmed eyes and sighed heavily. “Viper, I’m so sorry.”

What?

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry about the way I acted before, and I’m even sorrier about the things I said.” She grabbed the wadded-up tissue off of the coffee table and started picking at it.

“You don’t have to apologize, Michelle—”

Her eyes swept up to mine and she cut me off. “Yes. I do. No matter what happened, he really is your best friend, and you didn’t deserve that from me. I know you love him, and I know he loves you. I was just…” Her voice trailed off as she shook her head back and forth.

My throat felt tight. I was getting choked up because she was choked up.

Do not cry.

I got up and went around the table to her couch and sat down. Not knowing how she would react, I hesitantly put my arm around her shoulders. Me hugging her may have been the last thing in the world she wanted at that very moment, but I couldn’t help it. I had to hug her. Thankfully, not only did she not punch me in the face, but she leaned into me just a little and rested her head on my chest. “Don’t say any more, okay? Let’s just sit here and… I don’t know,” I sighed.

She sniffed. “Pray?”

“Nah,” I said confidently. “Mike is as strong as they come. I’ll be surprised if he’s not trying to sign himself out of here this time tomorrow.”





“MICHELLE?”

I was sound asleep and nearly jumped out of my skin when a nurse came into the waiting room and called Michelle’s name. We’d dimmed the lights a few hours before to try and get some shut-eye, but the catnaps were few and far between until this last one, when I finally crashed. I blinked quickly to try and force the room into focus just as Michelle hopped up and walked toward the nurse. They disappeared around the corner as I sat up. Brody heard me and cracked his eyes open too.

“What’s going on?” he whispered loudly, trying not to wake Kacie, who was still sleeping against his shoulder.

“I don’t know.” I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands. “The nurse just came in and called Michelle out. Hopefully Mike woke up and asked for her or something.”

The words were barely out of my mouth when Michelle reappeared in the doorway, teary eyed. “What’s going on?” Brody asked, no longer worried about whispering. Kacie jolted awake, blinked once or twice, and was instantly alert.

“I just talked to Dr. Reese.” She sniffed. “Apparently Mike’s had a stroke.” Her voice gave out and she trailed off.

Kacie gasped and rushed over, pulling her in for a hug as Brody and I sat, stunned.

“What does this mean?” Brody asked.

“They’re doing an EEG in a little bit to check his brain function and then they’ll know more,” she mumbled through sobs into Kacie’s shoulder.