Elena walks off the plane and waits for Lynn and her dad as the other passengers exit the plane. It wasn't her mom's ideal way of spending time with her dad, but with a lot of convincing from her, Dr. Lopez, and Andrew, she is able to spend some time with her dad before school starts.
As Lynn walks out of the jet bridge, "You know what I hate about getting on airplanes? Why can't the people with seats in the back go in first? Instead, we end up with crowds in the aisle as everyone keeps bumping into each other because the people in the front can't sit down fast enough."
"Have you been sitting on that all throughout the plane ride?" asks Francisco.
"Kinda had to since you don't like talking much on the plane, besides it's true and you know it."
He nods, "Yeah, I guess it's true. Wait, before we go," he tells the two. "This trip is not just about the surgery, I want us to have fun and enjoy ourselves." He looks at Elena, "and I mean it. Did you find anything that you might want to do?"
"Some things," she says, not wanting to admit the amount of research she did on the city.
"We'll be fine, Margo works at a fancy hotel and she can hook us up with tickets and whatnot, now c'mon! Let's go, I wanna get some breakfast!" she says as she runs towards the luggage carousel.
After grabbing their luggage, they head out to grab their rental car, where the humid air takes them all by surprise. All three of them knew to expect that the city was going to be hot in the day, but expected the morning to be cooler.
Elena turns to Lynn, "Was it this hot the last time you visited?"
"Yeah, but I came later in the day. I can't believe that it's this hot this early in the morning," she complains.
Lynn and Francisco grab the door handle on the driver's side; both surprised that the other wanted to drive.
"Let me drive, we'll get there in less than an hour."
"Let me drive, because I don't want to get a ticket."
"You can have a chance to look at the sights if I drive. I've already seen them."
"We'll have plenty of time for sightseeing later."
Elena immediately interrupts, "Lynn, why don't you let my dad drive? He is the one who rented the car and it gives you a chance to point out the sights while he drives."
Lynn looks over at the teenager, whose face is beginning to get a little red from the heat, and decides to drop the issue for her, "Fine," she says, "but you guys better look when I point out something."
"Fine," Francisco says, as he steps into the car and buckles up.
With everyone in the car, Lynn opens up the GPS on her phone, and inputs Margo's home address. She turns to Francisco, who is focusing on the road, "We aren't going to see much until we get closer to downtown, but if you step on it, we could probably get there in about half an hour."
"Step on it? This is a rental car; I'm not trying to get a ticket."
"But everyone drives fast around here; meanwhile, you're driving speed limit."
Francisco chuckles. Lynn has always been a speed demon, and he knows that she'll want to step on it to see Margo, but she can also exaggerate. As Francisco turns into the freeway, a car speeds past them and Lynn gives him an 'I told you so' look.
He steps on the gas to keep up with the other drivers, who are currently going ten miles over the speed limit; meanwhile, Lynn and Elena look out the window to look at the view. At the moment, they can see houses and businesses – nothing so unique that they haven't seen back home.
Skyscrapers begin to come into view, and Lynn starts shuffling around in her seat as she looks for something, "Pull into the right lane."
"Why?" he asks.
"Just do it," she says as she lowers the window.
Francisco looks for anything that would grab Lynn's attention and then he spots it – a baseball stadium.
"You bastards screwed the Tiger's winning streak!" she complains to the stadium.
He looks over at Elena from the rear view mirror and she looks back at him, wondering what possessed Lynn to yell at the stadium. They both know that she's passionate about her teams, but neither one imagined that she would actually yell because the Tigers got bested in a game nearly two months ago.
As Francisco continues the drive, he is surprised when Lynn says, "Look over to the right," she says as she points out a college campus, "That's the school where Margo and Tom met."
"Is there more to your tour?" asks Francisco.
"Not really, most of the stuff is near downtown, and we're clearly now driving away from it." Lynn checks her watch, "Yes! We still have time to get chicken breakfast. Do you want some, Elena? Your dad's paying."
"I didn't agree to that."
"Trust me you'll love them!"
Francisco sighs, "Fine, we'll stop, but they better be good."
After grabbing breakfast for themselves and Margo's family, the three arrive at their destination, which took longer than anticipated, even when Francisco began to speed up in an effort to keep up with the other drivers.
"Are you sure that they're fine with us staying with them?" asks Francisco, as they approach the front door. "We could have gotten a hotel room."
Lynn nods, "Yeah! Besides, it's not like it's not that far to the hospital."
Margo opens the door, "Really? You complained that everything was too far away the last time you visited," she reminds her friend. She pulls Lynn and Francisco into a hug, "It's been too long."
Lynn returns the gesture with a strong hug of her own, "Tell me about it."
"I was not expecting you guys here so early," Margo says as she leads them into the house.
"We had a flight for later in the day, but decided to catch a red-eye flight so that Elena could tag along," Francisco says. "I hope you don't mind us all being here."
She shakes her head, "It's not a problem, besides, we have two spare rooms," she looks over at Elena, "in case you want your own room."
"Thank you, I appreciate it."
"So do I," says Francisco, "and thank you for helping us find the doctor too."
Lynn runs into the charter bus. This is what she has been looking forward to for years – the annual senior class trip. After the stress of finals, she could use a nice opportunity to relax and hit the slopes until they went home in time for Christmas.
She quickly maneuvers her way past her classmates, who are blocking the aisle, and claims a row of seats for herself and her friends, "Don't see why they can't take a seat instead of blocking the aisle," she complains.
When Lynn spots her friends, she waves to them in an effort to get their attention, "Over here!" she yells out, surprising the people around her.
Margo squeezes through the groups of students and takes a seat next to Lynn, "You look excited," she tells her friend.
"How can't I be? A whole three-day weekend of snowboarding, skiing, and snowball fights – it's gonna be awesome!"
Margo looks around at the other students, while Lynn is excited about playing around in the snow, she knows that her classmates are more excited about being on a poorly chaperoned trip to a ski resort. She can imagine that there are probably going to be parties after lights-out and the occasional sneaking off by some of the couples, but she's going to try to look at it like Lynn and have some good old fun.
"Francisco!" Lynn yells, once again surprising her classmates.
"Geez Loud, why don't you warn someone next time," a boy behind the girls complains.
Lynn sticks her tongue out, and turns back to Francisco, making sure that he noticed her. When she notices that he's quietly waiting for the distracted students to clear the aisle, Lynn, who is not having it, walks over and pushes the crowds to the side so that Francisco can walk through.
"I could have waited, you didn't have to do that."
"But then the bus would have moved and the teachers would have made you sit right there, we couldn't take that risk."
He shrugs his shoulders, and walks towards the seats that Lynn saved near the back of the bus. Margo greets him as he takes a seat in the empty row next to the girls. Francisco rests his head against the headrest in front of him and tries to calm his breathing without anyone noticing. He didn't want to come on this trip, but his mom and brother insisted that he needed to get out and enjoy himself rather than stay copped up at home. He knows that they want him to have fun, but a trip to a mountain resort isn't what he wants, especially with his bad back.
Lynn notices Paula, and is about to call out to her, but notices that she is taking a seat at the front of the bus, "What's she doing?" she loudly calls out to her, "Paula! Over here!"
Before she yells again, Francisco looks over at her, "Lynn, don't you think that maybe it's easier for her sit at the front of the bus instead of trying to move through the narrow aisle with a cast on?"
"She always has a cast on, she can handle it," she tells her friends before squeezing through the aisle again to get to Paula.
Margo and Francisco sigh at her stubbornness, but don't bother stopping her either.
Lynn paces back and forth in the doctor's office. Francisco can't blame her for being impatient, his appointment was over half an hour ago, and all they were going to do is discuss the surgery with the doctor, who still hasn't seen them.
"Where the hell is she? We have an appointment and she's running late?"
"One of my most favorite things about going to the doctor," he says back sarcastically.
Lynn rolls her eyes before grabbing a plastic spine model to play with. Francisco and Elena look at her as she stretches and compresses the model back and forth. Neither one say a thing to her and the two decide to focus on their plans for after the meeting with the doctor.
Francisco looks over at Elena, "Did you decide what you wanted to do today?"
"No, not yet. Margo gave me a list of a lot of places to visit and I haven't really made up my mind."
As Elena scrolls through the list that Margo gave her, Francisco sort of wishes that he warned his friend not to give her too many choices, but he keeps quiet instead, deciding that it could be a good little time killer.
"There's an arboretum nearby. Margo said that there it's free, has wildlife, and a large hiking trail," suggests Elena. "Although, she did say to bring plenty of bug repellant."
"We could do that, or we could hold off on that for a cooler day."
"Okay, well Tom mentioned Space Center Houston. It's indoors and close to their house."
Lynn surprises the two, "Knowing our luck, it'll be an hour until we get there. What about the boardwalk?" she asks. "It's kinda fun, we can ride the rides all we want."
Both Elena and Francisco look at one another, and she tells Lynn, "Isn't it a little hot to be at a boardwalk?"
"You suggested a hiking trail," she blurts out.
"Lynn," Francisco says.
"What?" she asks, unaware of what she said.
The door opens and Lynn immediately places the model back where she got it before taking her seat. Dr. Lee walks into her office, "I'm sorry about the wait. How are you all doing?" She takes a seat behind her desk and looks up Francisco's file.
"A little nervous," Francisco admits, despite everyone knowing that he is more anxious than he is letting on.
"That's perfectly normal. I've had–"
Lynn interrupts, "So what's gonna happen during the surgery? Are you gonna use lasers to cut his back or something else involving his nerves?"
Francisco sighs in relief that she asked those questions to keep the session going forward.
"Alright, I see you like getting straight to the point," The doctor turns her monitor towards her patient, "This is a simulation of what you can expect from the surgery. I'm going to make an incision over your L5 vertebra, and then from there, I'm going to remove the part of the spinal disk so that the pressure on your back eases, and then the incision is then stitched closed. I estimate that the surgery should take at most, three hours, and you should be able to leave the hospital later that day."
Lynn chimes in, "That sounds pretty good."
Dr. Lee nods, "It is," she turns to Francisco, "Now I have a few questions for you and some warnings that you should know about. Are you taking any medication at the moment? Herbal supplements, over-the-counter medication, or prescriptions?"
He shakes his head, "No."
"Any allergies? Like latex? Medicine? Anesthesia?"
"No."
"Any bleeding disorders?"
"My nose used to bleed out of nowhere, but that doesn't seem to happen much lately."
The doctor makes a note of what Francisco said, "Do you have someone to drive you home after the surgery?"
Lynn raises her hand, "That's me."
"Okay, now, I will be giving you a list of directions to follow involving eating and drinking before the surgery, as well as activities that you will not be able to do for the time being," she says as she prints out the list of activities that Francisco will not be able to do.
She hands him the list, and he looks over it, but stops when he reads about taking narcotics, "This says that I'm going to be prescribed opioids."
"Is that a problem?"
"I'm in recovery, so…"
Dr. Lee nods her head, "Well, I have had some patients in recovery, most give their medication to a loved one to hold onto."
Everyone in the room looks at Lynn.
She isn't sure about being the one to handle the responsibility, but he is going to need her help and with the two of them being around each other so often, it makes sense, "Okay, I can do it."
The doctor turns back to Francisco, "I will prescribe you with a week's worth of medicine for when you're discharged, and you will meet with your regular physician, whom I stress that you be in communication with to ensure that you are not at risk of abusing said medication."
He nods his head, "Okay." Francisco continues to read, "How are we going to do follow-ups? We live in Michigan, and can't always fly down for everything."
"We can chat over the phone, although if you experience a fever, swelling, drainage, increased pain, numbness in your legs, back or buttocks, or if you have trouble urinating let me know immediately."
Lynn speaks up, "What about his stitches? How's he gonna get them off?"
"When we're through, you can book an appointment with my receptionist so that you can get the stitches removed."
"Is it possible to get a doctor back home to do it?"
"I suppose, but I still recommend booking the appointment just in case. Now before you go, there are some risks that you should be aware of – infection, bleeding, blood clots, nerve injury, and, this is rare, but the surgery may make things worse."
"Worse?" he asks, surprised by that possibility. "It can get worse?"
"It's very rare," she assures him, "but I did want you to know what about all the possible risks."
"Great…" he sighs.
When the appointment is over and the follow-up booked, the three head to the car. Francisco wants to head back to Margo's place to let everything sink in about the surgery, but he promised Elena that they weren't going to spend their trip sitting around and were actually going to do something fun.
As the three head towards the car, Francisco quietly calls Lynn to walk slowly alongside him, "Can you do me a favor? Tell me that I'm going to be fine, and drag me to the surgery if you have to."
She gives him a big pat on his back, "You're going to be fine. After this, it'll be smooth sailing and you'll be better than ever, and yes, I will drag you into that operating room if I have to. We did not come down here for you to chicken out."
When the bus approaches the lodge, the teacher gets to her feet to address the students, "Everyone, when we get to the lodge, you need to grab your bags, and wait for us to post your room assignment for the weekend. Lights out is at ten p.m. Both you and your roommate will be given a keycard, but do not lose them. Breakfast is at eight, lunch at one, and dinner at six, please don't be late," she stresses. "You will get a wristband which you will use to rent equipment and for the chair lift, so do not lose it, unless you want to spend your weekend in the lounge. One more thing – absolutely no parties. Is that understood?"
The students quietly mutter in agreement.
As the bus pulls into the parking lot, the students file out into the parking lot to grab their luggage. Lynn looks out towards the mountain with the fresh snow and she is ready to hit the slopes with a snowboard.
"Loud, please grab your luggage first," the teacher calls out before Lynn is able to run ahead of her classmates.
She grabs her things and stays with the crowd, but her eyes keep wandering towards the mountain. Lynn, in her distracted state, bumps into a classmate, who glares at her, "Sorry," she says. "I didn't see you there."
The girl rolls her eyes and turns back to her friends.
Principal Rivers and the teachers post the room assignments for the students to see, and everyone immediately crowds around the board to see who they will be rooming with for the weekend. The principal spots two tables to put the keycards and the wristbands, but she isn't sure if she should do it alphabetically, numerically, if she should separate it by gender, or by item. Daryl, her assistant, decides to separate the students numerically in an effort to get everything moving. He assigns two teachers to each table and hands them the keycards and wristbands so that they may give them out to the students.
"Everyone, those of you with room numbers between 101 and 130, please go to the table on the left, the rest of you may go to the table on the right."
The students get in line to grab the two items. Lynn stands around, upset at how slowly the line is moving, she can't believe that everyone is taking so long to grab their things. She spots Margo, who is in closer to the front and an idea pops into her head.
In the commotion, Lynn grabs her things and steps towards her friend, "Hey, roomie."
"Hey, Lynn, are you ready to hit the mountain?"
"You know it!"
A girl behind her begins to speak up, "Mr. Porras, Lynn's cutting the line."
"I'm just lining up with my roommate. It's easier to pair up and get our stuff, you know."
The students aren't having it and more of the students that Lynn cut in front of begin to complain. The teachers, who don't want to start the weekend on a bad foot, make Lynn go to the back of the line.
"Fine! I'm going!" she complains as she goes to the back of the line.
When she reaches the back of the line, Lynn angrily crosses her arms and looks at the front of the line to see how quickly the teachers were handing out everything for the students. She rapidly taps her foot and looks over at the front, "How could they be taking so long?"
The student in front of her responds, "You've only been waiting a minute, how much of a rush can you be in?"
"Excuse me for wanting to enjoy our trip and not wait in line because everyone moves so slowly," she groans. "Why did I move? I could have taken all of them down no problem. This is what I get for putting others first," she complains.
On the morning of the surgery, Francisco stares up at the ceiling. The sound of Lynn's snoring and his anxiety about the procedure in a few hours have kept him up all night; especially when thoughts of doctors, bright hospital lights and the distinct hospital smell occupy his mind. It's a simple surgery, he knows what is going to happen, but he keeps thinking about how he would have the misfortune of ending up worse instead of better.
Rather than lay in bed, he decides to get some fresh air and clear his head. He slowly gets out of bed and can feel pain with every step that he takes, "This is why you're having surgery," he whispers to himself.
He slowly walks into the living room, and spots Elena, who also looks exhausted, sitting on the couch, "Hey, what are you doing up so early?" he asks, before taking a seat next to her.
"I couldn't sleep."
"Are you worried about the surgery?"
"A little, I know that you'll probably be fine, but…"
She doesn't want to mention the true reason for her worry – the post-op medicine. He has only been off his medication for a few months, and now he's going back on it. Clearly, he can't be left to suffer, but a part of her is worried that if Lynn lets her guard down, then all this work was for naught.
Francisco wraps his arm around her shoulder and pulls her into a hug, "It's going to be okay. Three hours at best, heck, we could go to that art museum that Margo mentioned, the less strenuous the better."
"Are you nervous?"
"Yeah, I never was the type to like doctors when I was little."
Elena looks over at him, as if waiting for him to say more.
Francisco notices the look, and asks, "Oh, you want me to say more…it was probably because the only time I ever went was for shots. It also didn't help that your tío Kiké would tell me every time that that's why I was going. I remember after one trip, I ended up with a bunch of bandages on my legs from getting a whole lot of shots at once."
"Is that the only reason?"
He shakes his head, "You already know that I hate the waiting, and growing up, especially playing sports, meant a lot of injuries. Then after the car crash, I would be alone a lot in the hospital until I was released. Mom and Chuy were worried about money and making arrangements for my dad's funeral and a whole bunch of other things that they didn't tell me about. Luckily, he was paranoid about losing access to his bank account, so he put Chuy to have access to it, but without his paycheck, paying for everything scared mom. The house, the trucks, bills, food – everything, she didn't make enough for us to survive and Chuy made plans to move back home to make things easier on us. Meanwhile, I was sitting alone waiting until they both made a trip to see me."
"They couldn't see you a lot?"
"They tried; they just had a lot on their plates."
"Was it hard after your dad died?"
Francisco stays quiet. The first year was definitely challenging, between his mom worried about everything, the constant annoying questions from everyone around him, and the changes in everybody's personalities – it was more than enough for him.
"I kept thinking about it. I was the last one in the truck with him, and little by little, the details started coming back to me – the snow, the green traffic light, the chocolate chips in the bag, and…"
When he doesn't say a thing, she looks over at him and notices him staring out at the wall, "Dad?"
He snaps out of his trance, and looks over at her, as she gives him a look of concern. He pulls her into a hug, "Everything is going to be fine. The doctor has done this plenty of times, and we'll be able to enjoy the rest of this trip in peace."
The sunlight begins to illuminate the house, and the two can hear the sound of sliding closet doors and a loud thump, followed by a "Dang it!" from Lynn.
"I guess we should get ready," he tells her. "You know, you don't have to stay at the hospital waiting for me, just let Lynn and Margo know and they'll take you to go have some fun."
"I think I can handle waiting three hours."
He doesn't argue back with her, "Alright, but the offer still stands," he tries to get up from the couch, "unlike me."
She giggles and helps him get up to his feet. As they walk down the hallway to get ready to go to the hospital, they run into Margo, who is ready to go, "I'm going to get some breakfast, do you guys want anything?"
"I can't eat before the surgery."
Elena doesn't feel like eating; her stomach is in knots, but she doesn't want to be rude, "Some fruit would be nice."
Lynn opens the door, dressed and ready to go, "Pancakes sound nice right now."
"We have to leave in a few minutes," Francisco reminds her.
"Fine, we grab some on the way to the hospital," she says as she follows Margo to the kitchen.
Margo grabs her car keys and reminds Tom, "Don't forget to drop off Nick at your mom's before you go to work, we should be out of the hospital in a few hours, and I'll pick him up, but I'll text you if I can't."
"Got it," Tom turns to Lynn, "Are you nervous?"
"Nah," she says, "He's gonna be fine, I know it," she proudly declares. Lynn is also nervous, but she promised to be brave and drag him to the hospital if needed, and she can't do that if she's also scared
Elena and Francisco walk into the kitchen, and Margo, with a to-go container of fruit for Elena, "Are you guys ready to go?"
He nods his head and the four of them head to the hospital. With each mile, he can feel his heart racing; completely ignoring the conversation between Margo, Lynn, and Elena. Francisco keeps replaying what the doctor said – the surgery details, the possibility of things getting worse, and the pain pills – that worried him worst of all.
'It's okay, Lynn has done this before, she can help…'
After they arrive at the hospital, Francisco is checked in, he is taken to be prepped for the surgery by the nurses. Lynn, Margo, and Elena stay close to keep him comforted, but the can see by the look in his eyes that he's afraid.
"Dad, are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, the doctor said that this is safe and…" he doesn't know how to finish that sentence.
Lynn leans down, "You're going to be fine," she tells him before giving him a kiss.
The nurses begin to wheel Francisco into the operating room, he looks up at Elena, Lynn, and Margo one last time, "See you in a few hours."
Lynn steps out of the lodge and takes a deep breath of the fresh mountain air. After waiting for what felt like forever of waiting in line, followed by finding her room and putting her luggage in her room, she is finally able to enjoy her trip with her friends.
She spots her friends, who are renting equipment and she runs to catch up to them before they head over to the chair lift.
"Are you guys ready to go down the mountain?!"
Paula nods as she is handed a pair of skis, "I can't wait."
"Me neither."
"Yeah, I guess."
Lynn isn't happy with Francisco's lack of enthusiasm. All throughout the bus ride, he has been quiet and looks as though he doesn't want to be on the trip, but she can't understand why he would be that way.
Francisco grabs his snowboard and sighs. He doesn't want to bring down the group, but he can't help but feel anxious as he looks at his classmates crashing into the snow and the moving chair lift. He isn't sure if they can sense his panicking, so Francisco quickly tries to lighten the mood, "C'mon let's go before the line gets too long, and this one," he says pointing to Lynn, "causes another uproar."
"Hey!" she complains, while everyone else laughs.
Margo notices that the chair lifts seats two people, and before anyone says a thing, she suggests, "Paula, do you want to ride with me?"
"Sure," she says, aware of what Margo has in mind.
For years, some students in their class have teased Lynn and Francisco about being boyfriend and girlfriend. The two adamantly deny it, but Margo knows that Lynn likes him, and she does occasionally try to give them time alone when she can.
As the friends ascend the mountain, the chair swings back and forth with the wind and Francisco can feel his heart racing. He knew that this was a bad idea; between the snow and his unsteady steps, he knew that should have never come on this trip.
Lynn notices that he is beginning to hyperventilate, "Are you okay?" she asks.
He closes his eyes tightly and doesn't answer. His hands are gripping the bar in front of him, and as they arrive at the top of the mountain, Francisco panics and stays seated instead of getting off.
"What are you doing? Aren't you going to get off?" asks Lynn.
He shakes his head, "Nope, I'll just head back down."
"What? Why?!"
"Because I'm not in the mood to ski or snowboard or do anything. I'm just going to hang out in the lounge instead."
"That's stupid, you didn't come all this way to 'hang out in the lounge' to eat cookies. We came to have fun on this mountain!"
"Well maybe I don't want to have fun!" he yells back. "Now leave me alone!"
As Francisco heads back down the mountain, Lynn kicks the snow in frustration, "What's wrong with him?! We're just trying to have fun," she complains.
Margo can tell that Francisco isn't in the mood for that, not that he's been in the mood for merriment all year, "Maybe he just doesn't up to it. I mean, it could remind him of the accident."
"He's had a whole year to get over it! By now, he should have dusted himself off and kept going."
Margo rolls her eyes, "It's not an easy thing to get over and it's worse when he's surrounded by snow."
"Forget it! Who needs him anyway!" she yells towards him.
Paula and Margo look at Lynn; neither one can believe that she could be so insensitive to Francisco. They know that she can blurt out words, but this is going too far.
Lynn notices their stares, "What?"
"I can't believe you actually think that," says Margo.
"You know what I mean."
"Do we?" asks Paula. "Because, it sounds like you didn't care about him."
"I care! I just wanna have fun and him being all mopey isn't the way to do it."
Margo and Paula shake their heads in disagreement and leave Lynn alone to think about what she said.
Lynn, who is sitting in the waiting room, tosses a magazine to the side. It has only been twenty minutes, and she is bored out of her mind without anything to do. She looks over at Elena, who is scrolling through her phone, and Margo, who is watching the news on the tv that is hanging on the wall.
She can tell that at some point they are going to be bored like her, so she brings up a suggestion, "Do you guys want to go do something? Elena, you said that the zoo was near here, why don't we do that?"
Margo and Elena are surprised that she wants to leave. They know that a hospital waiting room isn't the most exciting place in the world, but to actually leave while her boyfriend is in surgery seems strange.
"No," Elena answers, "I'm fine waiting here."
"Are you sure? We can probably see all the animals in about three hou–"
Margo pulls Lynn to the side where the teen can't hear them, "Don't you think that maybe Elena is going to want to be here in case anything happens?"
"Well yeah, but what good is worrying going to do? It's going to be a few hours and maybe clearing her head and being away from the hospital will do her some good."
Margo isn't buying Lynn's excuse, and she knows it, "Really? Look, I know that sitting around and waiting isn't your thing, but don't you think that you should do this for her, them?"
Lynn looks down at the floor. She knows that being here in the hospital is the best thing to do, but without anything to do, she can feel all the panic that both father and daughter have been exuding for days hit her. Both of them are nervous, and by habit, she keeps quiet about her own fears for their sake.
"C'mon," she tells her friend, "let's go back in there."
The three are bored. The surgery started less than thirty minutes ago and they had nothing to entertain them except the tv that was showing a games show.
Margo looks over at Elena, "Have you ever seen Lynn play along with a game show?" the girl shakes her head, "Watch this," she turns to Lynn, "How much do you think that the game console and video games cost?"
Without thinking about it for long, she answers, "About $540?"
The contestants make their guesses and the host announces, "$540!"
The contestant with the closest guess jumps for joy as he heads up on stage to join the stage. Elena is surprised. She knows that Lynn seems to have a weird knack for loteria and sports, but she didn't know that it extended to game shows.
"Is that the only one it works on?"
Lynn shakes her head, "Nah, I can do Hangman's Wheel, Road to a Million, and One Hundred Strangers pretty well."
"That's impressive," says Elena.
"It really is."
Lynn's stomach growls, and Margo and Elena look over at her, surprised that she's still hungry after eating breakfast, "What? I'm hungry and I didn't get a lot to eat this morning."
"Do you want to head to the cafeteria? I mean, it's got to be better than sitting here for another hour."
The three walk to the cafeteria and Lynn jumps in line to grab a tray and some food for the table. It isn't the most appealing food, but anything is better than sitting around waiting for any sort of news.
Lynn takes a seat at the table that Margo and Elena were sitting at. The two are chatting and Margo, who is aware that the teen hasn't been around Lynn or Francisco, asks, "Did you do anything fun this summer?"
"Well, I mostly spent my summer at home or at club. Last year, my mom and Andrew were thinking about all three of us taking a trip to Lake Como, but both of them decided to put it off and focus on Parker."
"Parker?" asks Lynn.
"It's the name they decided on."
Margo wants to clarify, "Wait, when you say club–"
"Country club," Elena answers. "It's mostly my aunt who takes me for lunch and tennis lessons."
"Sometimes I forget that your mom's side of the family is rich," says Lynn.
To turn the conversation around, Elena asks, "I'm a little curious, how'd you both meet?"
"Tee-ball," they say simultaneously.
Margo continues, "We played on the same team, met on the first day, and I remember how much of a ball of energy she was." She turns to Lynn, "Remember how you would run around so fast that even the coaches couldn't catch you? I guess it was easy since they weren't in such great shape, but while everyone was falling down from exhaustion, she kept running."
Lynn doesn't remember that, "I know that I used to practice a lot, had to work hard so that we could win."
"That did feel great, but you tried like crazy to get the ball every time, even when you weren't close. Then other times, she would complain out loud that the batter was taking too long."
"She did that then too?" asks Elena.
Margo looks over at Lynn, she doesn't mean to bring up that trait, but it is funny looking back at it as adults.
"Do you remember our first loss?" asks Margo.
Lynn does, and she remembers how hard she was on herself because she let her team down. The coach made her the captain and she accepted the title with honor. The Royal Woods Chicks were slated to win, until Owen McArthur, a rookie who barely started playing that week, hit the ball into the Chick's outfield and won the game for the Worms. Apparently from what her sisters said, she threw a huge tantrum, bit the umpire and tried to tackle Owen, but Lynn can't remember doing so.
"I remember not playing for a while after that game."
Margo can't remember the reason why, but if Lynn's reactions to losses as a teenager were any indication, then she has an idea why. Even as they grew up, Lynn would always beat herself up for any loss, especially if they had a bad streak, it was an unfortunate trait that she could shake.
"Did you ever play against my dad?"
"Maybe," says Lynn, "but I think he played in a different league then."
"Then in middle school we did play against him," Margo turns to Lynn and gives her a knowing smile.
Margo can't remember a time when Lynn wasn't friendly towards Francisco; if she would smack talk a team, he was immune from it, they had their silly spit shake, and she knows that Lynn would smile more and her eyes would shine brighter when he was around.
"I remember that one time Lynn hit him in the arm to make him walk. He was not thrilled, but I think he was more surprised by the hit."
"I was letting him get a walk.
"Why would you do that?" asks Elena.
Lynn's cheeks are getting red, "No reason."
Margo pats Lynn's shoulders, "It's okay, but I'm surprised that you're embarrassed since you two have been dating for years."
"She had a crush on him?"
"I did not!" complains Lynn. "We were friends, and that's it!"
Neither one believed her. The tone in Lynn's voice gave it away to Elena and Margo has been aware of her friend's crush since they were in middle school.
Lynn scarfs down the rest of the food on her tray and gets up, "We should head back, the surgery should be over soon."
Margo pulls out her phone to check the time, "It's only been a few minutes and the doctor estimated that it would be another hour and a half until it was over."
"We can wait it out!"
Elena and Margo turn to each other, unsure if she really can wait.
With the lights turned off for the night, Margo closes her eyes to get some sleep, but she can hear Lynn tossing and turning in the bed next to her. She knows that her friend is frustrated after what happened with Francisco back on the mountain, but it has been hours, and she wants to sleep.
"Lynn, can you please stop doing that? I want to get some sleep."
She doesn't say a thing. Ever since the lodge went quiet after lights out, Lynn can't stop thinking about what she said. She knows that she shouldn't have said it, and she has wanted to apologize to him, but she isn't sure if that's going to be enough.
Margo notices that the room has gone quiet, "Lynn," she says out into the darkness. When Lynn doesn't answer, she closes her eyes, but is awoken by the sound of mumbling and pacing. Margo gets up and looks at her roommate, "Can you please take it outside?"
Lynn sighs and walks out of the room. The hallway is empty, but she can hear muffled conversations as she passes by the rooms on her way to the lounge. She paces back and forth as she tries to think of what to tell Francisco, "Sorry for what I said…no, that sounds cliché. I'm sorry that I brought up," she shakes her head, "Nope, that's not it either. Why is this so hard?!"
She hears the sound of a doorknob moving and she runs towards the lounge to avoid trouble. The light of the fireplace grabs Lynn's attention and she as she walks towards the couch, where she notices Francisco sitting by the fire.
"Hey," she says to him.
Francisco looks over at her, "Hey," he answers back, as he moves over to let her sit by the warm fire.
"It really is cold out tonight," she says.
He doesn't say a thing back and Lynn begins to panic; she hasn't figured out the best way to apologize, and the silence is killing her. Rather than think about it, she decides to take a stab at it and hope for the best.
"I'm sorry about what I said on the mountain. It was really crummy and I went too far."
Francisco sighs, after spending all day in his room, he knows that he was being a downer, even if it was for a few short minutes, "Yeah, well, I guess I'm just having a hard time."
Lynn looks at the flickering flames, "I didn't know. How have you and your family been with, you know?"
"I don't want to talk about it…"
"It might help, I can listen if you want," she offers.
He shakes his head, "It's fine…" noticing the sad look in her eyes, when he refused. Francisco knows that hanging out with her friends means a lot to Lynn, so he decides to put his feelings aside for her and asks, "do you want to go snowboarding tomorrow?"
"Are you serious?" she says as her eyes light up in excitement.
"Yeah."
That night, while everyone in the house is asleep, Francisco wakes up. He has never had issue with sleeping on his back, but now that he's restricted to sleeping that way, he feels anxious. Most of his day since leaving the hospital has been taking careful note of his doctor's instructions despite knowing that if he got worse he would have noticed by now, but can't stop the thoughts. Rather than dwell on the possibility, he turns his head towards Lynn, who is tossing and turning, and whispers to her, "Are you awake?"
"You know I am," she mumbles back.
"Meet me in the backyard in five minutes," he tells her before getting out of bed and quietly walking out of the room.
Lynn grabs her phone to see the time and the bright lights show that it is 1:16 a.m., "Why did he have to tell me to wait?"
She is curious about what the heck he would want to do at this hour, especially, when the backyard is full of mosquitoes ready to feast on their blood. She turns over and checks her phone again, only to notice that a minute hasn't even passed yet. Lynn can feel her leg itching to move and she gets out of bed, pacing back and forth for a minute until deciding that whatever Francisco is doing is done now.
She steps out of the room and into the backyard, where she spots Francisco lighting a candle and a tinfoil pack by him. She steps outside, surprising him in the process.
He looks at his watch, "You couldn't wait five minutes?" he jokes.
She rolls her eyes, "When have you ever known me to be the patient-type?"
"Fair enough," he reasons. He takes a seat and invites Lynn to do so as well, "Do you want some leftover dinner pizza?"
She nods and takes a seat by him. Lynn isn't sure what brought this on, but she's tired and that cold pizza wrapped in foil is calling her name. She opens the packet and grabs a slice, "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine…what about you?"
Lynn isn't sure what to say; she hasn't stopped to really think about it, "I don't know. Are you worried about the pills?"
"A little. I know that we sort of pressured you to handle it, but if you don't want to, you can say so," he assures her.
"It's fine. Besides, who else could you trust to do this and also hang around you all day?" she jokes in an effort to hide her fear of messing up. If she screws up, then it's like starting this year all over again – he gets put into a rehab facility or forced to do community service, loses Elena after just getting her back, and she doesn't know what to expect for herself.
"Yeah, I guess, you're right," he says. Francisco takes a slice of pizza, "How have you been with all this? I know that Elena and I have been worried, but I don't think that I've stopped to ask you how you're handling all this."
She scoffs, "I'm fine, besides my feelings aren't important right now, it's you that matters more right now."
He blushes, "I'm serious."
"So am I," she tells him.
Lynn knows how she feels, but like she said, all that matters right now is if he is feeling better.
"Thank you for everything," he says. "I know that this whole year has been crazy, and things haven't been easy for you, but you need to know that I appreciate everything that you've done for me, especially with the surgery and talking with Andrew so that I can see Elena more often."
She can feel her cheeks getting red, "Y-You're welcome," she says.
He takes her hand as he looks over at her and she smiles back at him before giving him a kiss, "A good luck kiss, to make the rest of the year better."
Rather than give his usual realist response, Francisco nods his head, "To a better 2038."
The couple takes a few minutes to enjoy the sounds of the cicadas and the warm air before heading back into the house. With all the hustle and bustle of doctors and responsibilities, they haven't made much time to sit back to enjoy each other's company, and today seems like a good day to get back into the habit.
As they walk in, Lynn decides to have a little fun and swat his bottom. He's surprised by the sudden action, but she looks at him with a smile, "Oh good, it isn't numb."
I passed my one year anniversary (I should have held off last chapter by a day or so), but at least I'm in time for Valentine's Day. I can't believe that I've been working on this fanfic for over a year now, and I'd like to take the opportunity to thank my readers for sticking around this long and for motivating me to keep writing.
(And look guys, I can write a chapter with Margo that doesn't involve water lol)