Chapter 22 - En Route
With the utmost of care, Conrad lowered me into the passenger seat of Lieutenant Harris's beige Crown Victoria.
"Do you need anything else?" the handsome cadet asked me, searching my eyes. I was glad I was now seated, because his glances my way, his unbelievably gentle words, were definitely screwing with my balance. The thundering heartbeats in my ears made it nearly impossible to hear the words he said.
"I'm okay," I replied. I smiled at him as best I could manage. Conrad shut the door and I heard Harris turn on the engine. There was definitely some water left in my ears. I leaned my head to the side and thudded the other side with the heel of my hand to try to get the water out. Relief flooded me when some of it dripped out of my ear, giving me the ability to hear more than just heartbeats and muffled voices.
Feeling a tiny bit better now, my eyes moved to my ex and I could see the tension in his shoulders and his face. In fact, he looked petrified, if that was possible. Peering at me out of the corner of his widened eyes, Harris shifted the car into reverse and then gripped the steering wheel with white-knuckled force.
"You alright, Carnegie?" he finally said, breaking the tense silence, as he slowly backed up his car. I heard him swallow. "Or you think you need an ambulance?"
"This is fine," I replied quickly in a whisper, lowering my eyes to look at my lap. Now I felt bad about getting his passenger seat wet.
I stayed quiet as Harris drove out of the parking lot and off the campus. I had no idea what to say to him and worried that I'd start coughing again if I tried to talk too much. Clearly he and Callahan were having major issues with each other, so much that he'd walked off of the obstacle course only yesterday. Even so, I held my tongue, deciding I'd only speak when spoken to.
Harris said nothing as we pulled onto the main road. The hospital was about a five-mile drive from the academy, with mostly backroad driving. My eyes burned from the chlorine in the water, and I instinctively rubbed them.
"You okay?" Harris said again, having glanced over cautiously.
"My eyes are burning," I replied.
"Ah," he said. "Don't you worry—we'll get there soon."
Another minute or two of silence followed. I so very badly wanted to ask him if it was indeed Conrad who'd saved me. Had Harris and Callahan been waiting for me to drown?
"What happened back there?" Harris said. "I thought you could swim. Were you trying to off yourself?"
"I can swim alright," I said, rolling my eyes, "but I jumped in before taking a breath. I wasn't trying to drown; I ran out of air. Did Conrad rescue me?"
"Conrad?" he questioned. "You mean… Stetson?"
"Yeah."
Silence followed. I already knew the answer.
"He did," Harris finally replied, after far too long. "I woulda jumped in myself, but with this damn arm…"
"So you and Callahan didn't know I was—"
"No—" he interrupted. "—I did; I sent Stetson in to get you," Harris interrupted. "I knew somethin' wasn't right. You were down there for almost two minutes."
"Thanks," I replied, my voice super gravelly. Huh. That fact had simultaneously made me feel worse about Conrad and Harris both. I didn't know why exactly and sat glumly.
The silence continued for another minute or so, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife.
"Did I tell you about when I almost drowned?" Harris finally uttered.
I glanced over at him, furrowing my eyebrows. Was directing the subject towards him supposed to make me feel better, after this life-and-death experience? Ugh.
"I don't think so," I replied. "Or maybe those brain cells died today."
"You'd remember; I'm sure of it. Now, the first time…" he began, gripping the steering wheel with one hand, his bad arm attempting to gesture for emphasis.
"The first time?" I cut in quizzically.
"There were two times," he clarified. "The first time, it was me and Proctor, in a hot air balloon that the imbecile had just sent a warning shot through. We went down right in the middle of a raging river with a hell of a waterfall downstream. Not only that, but Proctor grabbed onto me and kept pulling me under."
"How'd you escape?"
"This huge-ass cadet ended up rescuing us," he replied, looking embarrassed for a moment. "I tell you, I held onto that boy like my life depended on it. I was glad only a handful of people saw it."
"And the second time?"
"I fell off a yacht into alligator-infested waters. Alligator almost got me. I had to be dragged out of the water by Hightower, of all people." He shuddered. "I hate water."
"Huh, so Hightower saved your life?"
He blushed for a moment, looking embarrassed and taking a long time to reply. When he finally replied, he wasn't even able to answer my question.
"Anyway, I got no beefs with Hightower whatsoever," he muttered. "It's Callahan who seems to be against me every step of the way."
"So you hate water and heights and Captain Callahan," I replied. "Anything you don't hate?"
There was a pause in which he seemed to be thinking hard about an answer.
"Do I really gotta spell it out for you?" he finally replied.
"Spell out what?"
"Never mind, Carnegie. Anyway, I never did get a chance to talk to you more about the other day. You took off on me, just like you did from that damn party."
I could feel my breath catching in my throat. I would have nowhere to run to now, if I started to get stupid and emotional. I would not give him the satisfaction of getting to me like that. Egh, what more could he possibly have to say about the other day? At his statement, I was now looking right at him, waiting for what he'd say next. His eyes were most certainly not on the road, and I could see in my peripheral vision that he was crossing over the center line, veering off in the direction of an approaching tractor trailer.
"The truck—" I choked out, pointing ahead of us, and immediately he looked back to the road, the truck barreling towards us sounding its loud horn. He jerked the wheel quickly, sending us veering off onto the shoulder of our lane, a huge cloud of dust surrounding the car as he came to a stop. He sighed loudly then pulled back onto the highway as if we hadn't just died. I guess the driving course at the academy had its usefulness after all. I let out a sigh of relief, which lead to a small coughing spell.
"Damn maniac," he grumbled. "If I wasn't bringing you to the hospital, he'd be getting a citation. Now, where was I…"
"I don't know," I said, hoping he'd just forget about it.
"Awful young for short-term memory loss," rolling his eyes, yet keeping them on the road as he spoke. "I was startin' to talk about the other day. I recall you not believin' me when I told you I left right after you."
I was taken back to that day in the hallway. I'd chickened out and left before we could really discuss anything, but I didn't regret leaving. It was bad enough that the guy had seen me pass out, fall over, get a horrible charley horse, rip out the crotch of my pants, and now almost drown, but to say something and make me cry—I would not let that happen.
"That's right," I replied as coolly as I could.
He peered over at me, looking offended.
"Mind explainin'?"
I didn't pull my punches.
"Because you lie."
He gave me a dirty look but didn't speak right away.
"Everyone lies, Carnegie, including you. You're lyin' if you say you don't."
"This isn't about me; this is about you," I retorted.
"Touché," he huffed. "So why do you think I'd lie about something so trivial as that? What is it you think I did after you went running from the party? I should start calling you Cinderella."
I swallowed now, supposing there was no harm in telling him about Angie's phone call.
"When I got home, my sister had left a message on my machine, saying you stayed there a while after I'd left, asking them all kinds of questions about our family's finances. She said you made them uncomfortable."
Suddenly Harris jerked the wheel and abruptly pulled off the road again, slamming the brakes and stopping us in another cloud of dust.
"What?!" he bellowed, slamming his hand in a rage against the steering wheel. He turned to me, his face red, veins popped out. "I did nothin' of the sort! Your damn sister is a bald-faced liar!"
I was surprised at the passion of his response.
"So you're saying you didn't do that?"
"Of course that's what I'm sayin'!" he replied insistently. "Get the security footage if you have to! Talk to the damn valet! I'll tell ya, it's a guy named Jim who parked my Corvette in. He's a total moron, but he can vouch for the time."
I could only look at him with a mix of fear and surprise at the animated way he was responding to this. And yet, his face had already begun to fade from the intense red of earlier; finally he had begun to calm down. I suppose the fact that he was offering all these ways to prove the time he'd left the party made me feel more trusting of what he'd said he did. Even so, I was sure he hadn't let my family get the last word in. That wasn't like him at all.
"Well then, what did you say to my sister?" I asked. "Nothing?"
"I gave one last parting shot and then I left right after you. Lemme try to remember what it was. Definitely dropped a couple jaws."
I watched him think about what it was that he supposedly said to my family after I'd already taken off. Was he actually telling the truth? But then, if he wasn't lying, why did my sister lie to me? The only message I had ever gotten from Angie on my machine, and it was all a lie?! But why?
"Ah," Harris said, smiling confidently, "I remember what I said now. I said, and I quote: 'April's by far the most respectable member of this family,' and then I left."
I was definitely narrowing my eyes at him now, in disbelief and suspicion. Had I been played by my sister, to dump someone who actually tried defending me? My burning eyes began to water with tears of regret or shame, most likely, and I shut them tightly in an attempt to will them away.
"What's wrong?" he said. "Trouble with your eyes again?"
"Yes," I said. "Now they're watering."
"Lemme get back on the road," he said, putting on his turn signal and checking his mirrors. "You need to get checked out at the hospital."
I could not help but appreciate his concern. Apparently he believed my watering eyes were an aftereffect of my pool ordeal and until this moment, I was prepared to let him believe that. But it felt wrong. Harris's words had made me feel something, and now I was exposed and had nowhere to go. I certainly couldn't jump out of the car, and I didn't feel right keeping up this guise until the tears decided to stop. Ugh.
"They aren't watering because of the pool," I said, gulping from the sound of my own admission.
He glanced over at me suspiciously.
"Why then? The dust I made from pulling onto the shoulder? The windows are rolled up and I just had the air filter changed…"
Now my eyes were really watering, and some tears had since run down my face. I scrunched my face, seeing him in a teary blur. I felt like shit about letting him fall on the obstacle course and abandoning him, as well as openly swooning over another man right in front of him. Really though; could I suck any worse?
I could feel my nose running now, and finally worked up the gall to reply to him.
"Because I now see that I was wrong about you, yet again."
