Chapter Fifteen
Contrary to his promise, Jared did not show up at Kim's house the next day. At all.
Kim's initial reaction was to worry. She had no idea what this patrolling job entailed. Something could have happened to him; he might be hurt.
Her worry quickly turned to anger when she called Jared's house that night after not hearing from him, only to be told that he was "out with friends." She could have gotten over her slightly irrational anger if it wasn't for the fact that when she called again the next day—because, honestly, it really wasn't like Jared to be a complete no-show like this and she was genuinely worried, even if it did make her seem like a bit of a stalker—his parents' answer changed to "on a last-minute camping trip."
Things easily became clear to Kim: he had lied to her. He wasn't going to give her any sort of explanation at all; he probably never intended to. And now he was avoiding her as a result. Out with friends? Psh. The only people that Jared spent time with these days were her, Paul, and Sam. And he definitely wasn't with her right now. He had to be avoiding her.
The Kim of two weeks ago probably would have brushed this off. She would have still been upset—she really liked Jared after all—but marginally less so than she was now. Because now she had actually spent meaningful time with Jared—hell, he was basically her boyfriend, even if they hadn't put an exact label on it past the fact they were obviously dating. And he had insisted back at the beginning that he was asking her out because he wanted to spend time with her. And if his parents said that he was out with friends, then clearly there hadn't been some huge emergency that would keep him from contacting her.
Clearly he was avoiding her. There was no other obvious explanation for it.
And that made Kim angry; angry because her feelings were hurt.
Angry because, after four days of doing nothing but moping around the house and watching a mind-numbing amount of TV, her mom was starting to get fed up with said moping and had just this morning threatened to make her get a summer job at the diner doing dishes.
Angry because this was all Jared's fault.
Angry because, despite it all, she still missed him.
God, she was the worst kind of pathetic.
Ring! Ring!
Pathetic and ringing, apparently.
Ring! Ring!
Frowning slightly, Kim felt through the folds of the blanket she was currently huddled under on the couch. She finally found the phone stuffed between two cushions, where it had been abandoned after her mom called on her lunch break to see if Kim had listened to her threat and had "gotten her lazy ass off the couch yet." (For the record, Kim lied and said she was just about to head out for a walk on the beach before hanging up and going back to trying to understand what was happening on her new favorite Spanish soap opera.)
Ring! Ring!
Kim frowned deeper when she looked at the caller ID. The last thing she wanted to do right now was talk to anyone, let alone her grandma or, more likely, Kylie. But ignoring the call probably wasn't the best idea either.
"Hello?" Kim questioned, placing the phone to her ear and attempting to keep her tone as even as possible—Gram and/or Kylie were sure to report back to her mom that she remained in her sullen mood, after all.
"Kim?" Came the response, and Kim automatically sat up at the panicked sound of her grandma's voice.
"Gram? Is something wrong?" Kim questioned urgently.
"Kylie had an accident."
Kim was sure her heart stopped at those four words.
"I need to take her to the hospital; I think she broke her leg—it looks pretty bad right now. My neighbor is going to drive me but your mom should meet us there and I couldn't get a hold of her," Her grandma continued in a rush.
"You just take care of Kylie, Gram," Kim said, forcing herself to remain calm. "I'll track mom down. Are you taking her to Forks Hospital?"
"No other option, is there?" Her grandma replied, a hint of bitterness overtaking the panic.
"We'll meet you there," Kim stated, choosing not to comment on the disdain for Forks Hospital her grandma and many of the more traditional, older members of the tribe held.
Five minutes later, Kim had managed to track down her mom and was hurriedly throwing on the first semi-clean clothes she could find before her mom picked her up on the way from the diner to the hospital. So consumed with worry for her sister, Kim didn't even realize that she had so easily stopped feeling sorry for herself over Jared's absence, let alone that the clothes she was now wearing were the exact same ones she had worn the last time she saw Jared, days ago at Sam's house.
The honk of a car horn outside alerted Kim to her mom's arrival, and she quickly ran out the door and jumped in the car. Katie began pulling out of the driveway before Kim even had a chance to buckle her seatbelt.
The drive to the hospital was filled with a tense silence. Katie tended to internalize all of her worrying, and Kim wasn't about to try to break her mom out of that because she really wasn't sure what she could say to comfort her when she was just as worried about Kylie. Honestly, they didn't even know what had happened to Kylie or how bad it really was. But Kim knew her grandma wasn't one to fret over the small stuff and the way she sounded on the phone was more panicked than Kim had ever heard her before.
Upon reaching the hospital and entering the emergency room, Katie immediately made her way over to the front desk with Kim hot on her heels.
"I'm looking for Kylie Connweller; I'm her mother," Katie told the woman behind the desk, and Kim easily recognized the forced-calm tone she used.
After being directed to a room just down the hall, Katie and Kim quickly made their way there, only to enter and find it empty.
"It was room one-oh-eight, right?" Katie questioned, looking briefly at Kim for confirmation before turning back to frown at the empty room they were standing in.
"I thought that's what she said," Kim replied. "But maybe she read it wrong; I'll go back really quick to double-check with her."
But before Kim could make a move to exit the room, the door opened and a nurse entered, followed shortly by Kim's grandma pushing Kylie in a wheelchair.
"Mommy!" Kylie said excitedly, perking up immediately at the sight of her mom and sister. "And Kimmie! Guess what! I just got an x-ray of my leg and the doctor said he can show me a picture of my bones! Isn't that so cool?"
Kim couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Clearly there wasn't anything too wrong with Kylie if she was acting like her normal cheerful self. Maybe her grandma had over-reacted to the whole prospect of Kylie being injured. Of course, now that Kim was actually thinking about it, she really hoped that her grandma's panic had been over Kylie being injured and not her superstitions about the hospital.
After Kylie had been transferred to the bed, the nurse informed them that Dr. Cullen would be in just as soon as the x-rays were ready and then left the room.
"What on Earth happened?" Katie demanded as she perched on the side of Kylie's bed and gently brushed a few stray strands of hair out of her daughter's face.
"I climbed the big tree in Gram's backyard!" Kylie exclaimed at the same time her grandma said, "It's my fault, I wasn't watching her close enough."
Katie frowned at her daughter. "What have I told you about that tree? Not until you're older."
"But I am older, mom," Kylie protested. "I'm a whole year older than last time I tried."
"And did you fall out and break your leg anyway?" Katie questioned. When Kylie looked away guiltily, she continued, "You're still not old enough, honey. And you're lucky that the only thing that happened was a potentially broken leg."
Any further scolding for Kylie was interrupted, however, by the door opening once more. Kim looked over to see a pale blonde man enter the room. He was wearing a white lab coat and, quite frankly, he looked inhumanly beautiful. This must be Dr. Cullen.
"Good afternoon," He said with a smile, his gaze focused on the bed containing his small patient.
He began walking across the room but as he reached Kim, who was closest to the door, he seemed to falter momentarily. He gave Kim what could only be described as a quizzical look and she couldn't help but take an involuntary step back at the sight of his strange golden eyes.
The doctor recovered quickly though, barely missing a beat as he turned his smile back on Kylie. "And how are you feeling now, Miss Connweller?"
"I think that lollipop helped make my leg feel better," Kylie told him seriously. "I should probably eat another one."
"Kylie!" Katie scolded lightly, though Kim didn't miss how her mom sat up straighter in the presence of the attractive young doctor.
Dr. Cullen laughed, however—even his laugh was perfect, Kim thought to herself with a slight shiver. Personally, he was starting to give her the creeps. Maybe her grandma had been on to something with avoiding the hospital once Dr. Cullen started working here…
"Her leg is definitely broken," Dr. Cullen informed Katie, then. "It's a clean break, though, so we should be able to get a cast on her as soon as possible."
From there the discussion evolved into how Kylie was going to get around and how to take care of her cast, which Kim tuned out in favor of actually talking to her sister, who she hadn't seen in two weeks and who she had secretly kind of missed having around. She tuned back into the conversation, however, when she heard her name mentioned.
"—Kim to help me out," Katie was saying and Kim looked up to see that her mom and grandma were in the middle of what appeared to be some kind of disagreement that she somehow played into. Also, while she hadn't been paying attention, Dr. Cullen had apparently put the cast on Kylie and then left because he was now nowhere to be found and the younger girl's leg was bright pink.
"Kim can help you with what?" Kim interrupted.
"Absolutely nothing," Gram replied promptly, "Katie, I already told you I'll be fine taking Kylie back home with me. There's absolutely no reason we can't spend the rest of the summer exactly as we had planned."
Ah, so that's what they were arguing about then: who was taking Kylie home with them.
"Mom," Katie sounded extremely frustrated, "There is one very big reason our plans are going to have to change: Kylie won't be able to get around your house anymore. She can't navigate all of those stairs and you and Aunt Liz won't be able to carry her. Kylie will have a much easier time at our house, plus she'll have Kim and I to help her out."
They were interrupted once more by the door opening, this time it was the nurse from earlier with a pair of crutches for Kylie to try out. No matter, though, Kim had a feeling she knew who was going to end up the victor in that argument; her mom always had been very singularly determined to do what she thought was best for her kids. Even if it did mean that Kim's summer of freedom was coming to a very abrupt end.
She didn't really mind, though. She really had missed having Kylie around…and it was about time she had a real distraction from Jared's overwhelming absence. (Funny, it was ages since she'd actually thought about him last; clearly she was making progress with using Kylie as a distraction already.)
Sure enough, several hours later—after all of the paperwork and then driving her grandma back to the Hoh reservation—Kim, Kylie, and Katie were all at home in La Push once again. As her mom parked the car, Kim turned to the back seat to see that Kylie had drifted off to sleep at some point during the drive home. Well, it was understandable considering the eventful day she'd had.
"I'll carry her inside," Kim offered, turning back to address her mom face-to-face. "Can you just get the doors for me?"
It was lucky, Kim thought to herself, that Kylie slept like the dead, otherwise she was sure to have woken up at some point during all of the maneuvering Kim had to do to get her sister out of the car. Also luckily, the seven-year-old still weighed relatively little, even with her new, slightly bulky cast. Of course, Kim was sure that opinion was sure to change within a few days of having to lift up and carry her sister to places she simply couldn't get with crutches.
Actually, scratch that thought. Standing here waiting for her mom to find the house key she had literally just been carrying was long enough for Kylie to get heavy in Kim's arms. Before she could suggest that her mom make sure she hadn't dropped the keys in the short distance between the car and the front door, though, a strange feeling washed over Kim. The skin on the back of Kim's neck prickled, like that feeling people always described when they thought someone was watching them.
Slowly, nervous about what she might see, Kim turned and scanned the front yard and the line of trees on the other side of the road that marked the edge of the forest. She couldn't see anything, but that didn't mean much considering the sun had long since set and it was quite dark outside.
The feeling of the being watched only intensified.
"Found them!" Katie suddenly exclaimed triumphantly and Kim jumped in shock. Katie didn't seem to notice the fright she gave her daughter as she quickly unlocked the front door and ushered Kim inside.
Once inside the house, Kim forced herself to shake off her earlier feelings as she watched her mom lock up the front door again. Everything was fine. If there was anything out there, then it had probably just been some kind of animal. It wouldn't be able to get into a locked house.
Everything was just fine.