" I can't believe you never listened to Lifehouse before! You live under a rock David" Evie says in amazement.
"I never really listen to love songs. I'm a guy remember?"
"Well it's no excuse for not having good taste in music."
"You never know ."
"I do know. You don't even know 'You and Me', one of the greatest songs ever! Just shut up and listen to these songs" she says as she turns the music up louder.
After a few more songs play, I make a mental note to remember them in case she ever rode with me again. We finally arrive at our destination. We were at a playground built next to a lake overlooking the rest of the town. I found this spot after driving around town looking for a place to think.
"The moonlight reflects beautifully back against the water here. Amazing how i've never come across the place" Evie says.
"Not a lot of people come here because the barracade blocks the sign on the highway. I just stumbled here by accident when I was driving around town one day."
"Well, you got lucky. This place is breathtaking"
"I'm glad you like it. We could share this spot if maybe just maybe you're cool enough" I say. I motion for her to follow me to sit on the swings.
"You know I never pictured you as a guy who would come to places like these."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean I thought you'd hangout somewhere with more people surrounding you. After all you are the talk of the town and your parents own a coffee shop, I don't know, I just never pictured you without an entourage surrounding you" she admits.
"I don't care for it all. I like being alone when I have the chance to. Finding a place like this was just lucky. Escaping from all the expectations and people is nice sometimes you know" I interject.
"I'm sorry David. I sometimes forget you carry more than you could hold I guess, after all you are just human."
"Can I ask you something ? Why do you always reject me? Is it because your mind is set on who I am?" I ask exasperated.
"Not exactly. I'm trying to stay focused and I think if I start dating, I'd get distracted."She answers back.
"You think dating me would distract you? Me? The supposed Valedictorian for our class? Honor student, president of the student body?"
"Yeah but don't you think if you dated someone with all the drama that it might've cost you all of that?"
"Evie, I handle much more than I should but I still remained focused in school. If anything, I'd make such a great study buddy."
"We're not the same, I still have to study for my Physics exam!"
"Lucky for you I have my Physics notebook in my duffle in the truck"I say as I wiggle my eyebrows at her.
I jog back over to the truck to grab the notebook and a flashlight from the glove compartment. When I get back, I find Evie passed out on the floor. I drop the stuff in my hands and rush to pick her up. I strap her into the passenger and called the hospital ahead so they would be expecting us. I pulled up to the hospital's driveway where two doctors were standing with a gurney nearby. I pulled into park and yelled over that she was in the passenger side. They began to check her pulse as well as check her blood pressure.
"Sir what happened? Do you know if she has any medical history or medical conditions that we should be aware about? Any allergies to medication?"the doctor with the clipboard asks as the other doctor pushes the gurney with the assistance of some nurses.
"She was on a swing and I left her just for a minute to grab something and found her passed out. I'm not aware of any medical conditions but I'll call her parents right now!" as I searched for his number.
"Hello Mr. Holloway, i'm calling to see if Evie has any medical conditions. She fainted while we were out and the doctors need to know now" I asked .
"Who is this? What happened to my Evie?"he repeated.
"Sir, it's David Alexander and the doctors need an answer right now. As well as the medication she's allergic to" I answered.
"She has Supraventricular Tachycardia. No alleriges to anything. What hospital are you at?" he demands. I relay the information to the doctor and watch him disappear behind two double doors.
"I'm at St. Andrews Medical on Fourth and Ninth sir."
"Okay i'll be there shortly. If you could just stay put there David and wait with her."
"Not a problem, I wasn't planning on going nowhere." I cut him off.
"Alright, thank you." he says before he hung up.
I make way to the dull waiting room. White walls seem to be the only feature the hospital has going on, well that and the endless aray of double doors. I go to the front desk to see if I could get any updates on Evie but the receptionist can't release any information to me. I run my hands through my hair and sit down at the closest seat to the double door they wheeled Evie into. I glance around once more and a newspaper on the small coffee table catches my eye. I see written in bold letters, "Alexander, the Boywonder" printed across as the headline. I didn't realize I was even printed in the paper today. I chose to ignore it and not read what they'd published. Instead I pulled my phone out and began to Google 'Supraventricular Tachycardia' to find out what caused Evie's fainting. It turns out she had a heart condition that caused the rhythm of her heart to beat rapidly and fainting was one of the risk factors. After 20 minutes, Mr. Holloway arrived and offered to buy me coffee as we waited for the doctors to return with an update. Mr. Holloway remained silent through our whole interaction. He glanced at me a few times before focusing again on the white cup seated in his hand. It wasn't the most ideal situation to be in but it was what I had to deal with at least until I was sure Evie was okay.
"Twice" he blurted out.
"Twice?" I asked.
"This has been the only other time she fainted besides the time we found out about her condition 3 1/2 years ago. We have been lucky since then until tonight. She's been taking her anxiety medication to relax her nerves so she doesn't trigger the fainting. She struggled with anxiety ever since my wife died when she was 12. Since then, i've done my best to prevent her from worrying about much but my daughter overthinks things. It's hard to prevent the unexpected events but I try hard at most. Don't beat yourself up though boy, this isn't your fault" he assures me.
"Wow i'm so sorry, I wasn't aware. I would've never taken her out if I knew about her condition or if I was aware. I should've asked you first sir." I replied feeling guilty.
"No, if anything i'm sort of glad Evie finally went out. Although we're here right now, these days she rarely leaves the house. She lives a guarded life which is mostly my fault. I realized that soon she'll be off in the real world where I won't be able to protect her and I can't bare not being there but she refuses to let me follow her to college. Leaving town is the last thing she wants me to sacrifice and I can't help her stubborness. She takes after my wife," he says with a wary smile. " She tells me stories though you know of you. You seem to make her smile a lot when she speaks of you. My daughter won't admit it but she likes you David. The beam in her eyes when she tells me stories of you helping her in class or conversations you have with her is the only thing she talks about. Though I know you may think she's being difficult, don't give up. " he nods off to me.
"Coming from you Mr. Holloway, that means a lot. This is the first time she has agreed to go with me anywhere alone and she's in a hospital. This whole ordeal might just drive her further away to keep running from me" I said.
"No my boy, how you handle it from here on out will make that decision. The first thing you did right was remain here to make sure she's alright rather than sprinting out that door once you dropped her. Lord knows what it would be like if she was here alone when she woke up." He responds back.
The timing couldn't be more right as the doctor who took Evie's information approached us. He informed us that Evie had a minor concussion due to falling off the swingset but other than that, it might've been an anxiety attack that triggered her SVT to act up just like Mr. Holloway said. He gave her dad some papers to sign and informed us that Evie would be staying the night. We were led back through the double doors and instructed to take the elevator to the second floor to Room 208. It felt like eternity before the elevator door opened. We made our way down the hospital corridor to Evie's room. Evie was still sleeping with a white bandage wrapped around the upper part of her forehead. Mr. Holloway told me to have a minute with her before I had to go while he waited in the hallway. I shut the door and took a seat near her hospital bed. She looked so peaceful asleep. I pushed a lock of hair that hung down on her face blocking her eyes. Seeing the site of her in a hospital bed made a lump in my throat form. Could it have been that I kept her from studying for her Physics exam or the conversation we were having before this whole thing happened? I don't know but I swore to myself this will never happen again to her. I grabbed her right hand to hold and bent my head down. The lump in my throat grew as words started to leave my mouth.
"I'm sorry Evie. This is the last thing I wanted to happen tonight. You don't deserve to be here. I just wanted tonight to be nice for us. We were supposed watch the sunrise and finally convince you to go on a date with me. You had to be asleep when i'm about to lose my fucking mind!"
"You know being on a hospital bed makes people confess the most to you. Definitely should use them in interrogation rooms. It'll get more criminals to fess up don't you think?" she manages to mumble out before opening her eyes.
"God Evie, you scared me for a minute there" I say. I notice i'm still holding her hand but she doesn't seem to object. I intertwine our fingers and still no objection is made. She looks at our intertwined hands and musters up a smile.
"You know Romeo, first you steal my first kiss and now you steal my hospital moment. I don't know what i'm going to do about you!" she says. She tries to push herself to sit upright but immediately grabs her head with a grunt.
"Take it easy, sweetheart" Mr. Holloway interjects as he walks in.
"Hey daddy!" she says.
"Hey princess. How's your head?"
"I've felt better."
"I bet. The doctor left some Tylenol on your night stand for when you woke up. It's right there." He points toward the plastic cup sitting near a cup of water.
"Good news is you're only staying the night and we can go home in the morning" he adds.
Evie is still holding my hand and quickly lets go. She takes the Tylenol and then lays back down.
"I'm going to go now okay. I just wanted to make sure you're going to be alright. I'll come back in the morning before you get released and i'll be sure to drop your car to your house." I said.
"On second thought David, do you mind just picking her up and staying with her for the day? I have to work tomorrow and I really don't want Evie to be alone. You're more than welcome to just stay at the house until I get off" he said. Evie sits up again and shoots daggers her dad's way. He looked at her with an apologetic smile before smiling back at me.
"Sure. I have practice at 6:30 but I'm free until then. I'll grab Evie breakfast and then I think we'll hangout at your house unless Evie decides she's well enough to go out," I agreed.