Sunflower

Chapter 18

Lucy

I'm about to go hysterical. Off the deep end. Marbles lost. Outside my mind. Nutty. Bat s**t crazy. I can feel it in every fiber of my being. This isn't how it was supposed to be. Chris and I were supposed to live happily ever after. We were supposed to grow old together. We even made plans to sit on our front porch rocking chairs and yell at the kids in our neighborhood to keep the noise down. We were supposed to go to Paris, to climb the Eiffel Tower. We were going to swim with dolphins in Hawaii.

We had all these plans, all these dreams we wanted to chase together. And now that's just over. We're over. After so long...

And it's all my fault.

I lost my best friend.

I squeal out when I hear a tap on my window. I sigh in relief when I see it's just the hostess from Yanni's. She's probably back to give me a hard time.

I roll my window halfway down and give her a board look. "What do you want now?"

"Here," she says, handing me a slice of pie.

I take it from her, furrowing my brows in confusion. "Thank you?"

"I feel like you could use this, sweetie," she says, reaching through the opened window and patting my head like I dog before walking away.

I stare at the pie long after she's gone, wondering what kind of sad mess I've become that people are giving me pie.

"Lucy?"

"Chris?"

He jogs over to my car and while I want drive away and pretend the past twenty minutes of my life never happened, I decide it's probably better to face him. I just acted totally crazy, after all.

"What are you doing here?" he asks, stopping next to my window.

"Pie," I shrug, holding up my slice and suddenly grateful I now have a reason to have been at Yanni's.

"But...you hate lemon meringue," he says.

"Oh...yeah...it's...not for me," I answer.

"Who is it for?"

"For...my...friend. Justin. He...used to live in the same apartment complex as me back in college. Huge lemon meringue fan."

"Justin? You mean the guy that lived across the hall from you?" he asks.

I nod apprehensively, digging this hole deeper and deeper when I should just be going and putting some distance between me and this nightmare.

"So you've moved on too..."

"Too?" I shoot back, cursing under my breath for sounding so pathetic.

"I didn't move on, if that's what you think. I told you, Jenny is here because of the internship. But if I wanted to move on, what business is it of yours? You broke up with me. It shouldn't matter what I'm doing anymore."

"No reason to be rude-"

"Rude?! Lucy, you caused a scene in front of a total stranger! In a crowded restaurant! What the hell is wrong with you?!" he snaps.

"Nothing," I say, pressing the button to roll my window up.

Chris bangs on it, begging me to talk to him, but as far as I'm concerned, there's nothing left to say. I've got to do what I set out to do- take some time off and take care of myself.

I drive away, forcing my eyes to stay on the road in front of me and not wander up to the rear view mirror to see if Chris is still standing there.

Chris

I leave for Australia in exactly six hours and I should really be sleeping right now, but I can't. Ever since I saw Lucy today, I've been a mess. Something is wrong with her, I can feel it. And it's causing me to question everything. I can't back down from this internship now. I can't let everyone down. But how am I supposed to leave here in the morning not knowing if Lucy is in trouble?

I wish she wasn't on my mind every waking second. I wish I didn't still worry about her like I do. Especially after the way she's treated me over the past couple of weeks. I should be eager to get away from her and leave this heartbreak behind.

I dread leaving her though. The thought alone makes my stomach twist into knots. I feel sick knowing it will be two whole years before I ever look into those sunflower-like irises again.

Two whole years...

The past two years went by quickly, mostly because so much happened. Lucy lost her little brother, her parents went through a bitter, ugly divorce, and then Lucy had that horrible car accident and I almost lost her forever.

I still think about that night all the time. It was the most traumatic experience of my life.  When she called me, she was so disoriented. She had no idea where she was or what happened. It was the most terrifying few hours of my life.

1 year ago, Staten Island, New York

"Okay, this is for all the marbles!" Sam calls out, setting his bear down and getting ready to aim his dart.

I've beaten him every round so far, but since he owes me well over $200, I figured I'd give him a chance to settle his debt. After all, I know he's been saving up for an engagement ring for Annie.

He throws his dart and while it comes very  close to hitting the bullseye, it eventually bounces off one of my darts and hits the ground.

"No!" he whines, burying his face in his hands.

"Don't worry about it," I chuckle, patting him on the back.

"No, a bet is a bet," he says, reaching onto his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. He hands me two crisp one hundred dollar bills, sighing dramatically. "Annie is going to kill me. I'm sure my bar tab is at least $50 on top of this."

"I'll take care of your bar tab," I smirk, taking his money and sticking it in my pocket. "It's the least I can do after destroying you."

He scoffs and rolls his eyes, heading back over to our table. I follow behind him, but my phone starts buzzing in my back pocket. I take it out to see Lucy's picture and I grin like an i***t.

"Hey babe," I answer.

I wait a few seconds, but there's nothing.

"Lucy?"

"Chris! I didn't...I don't know...it was just so fast and..."

I can't understand a thing she's saying through her sobbing, but she was visiting her dad tonight, so I can only assume he's done something to upset her.

"Baby, calm down, okay? Where are you?" I ask her.

"I don't know!" she cries.

"It's okay, I'll find you. Are you somewhere safe?"

She doesn't respond, but I can still hear her crying, so I know she's still there.

"Are you hurt?" I ask her.

Still nothing.

"Lucy, please. Tell me you're okay!" I beg her.

"I-I didn't...I didn't mean...to..."

"Do I need to call for help?"

"No! Please don't!" she cries.

"Stay where you are. I'll be there as soon as I can."

I end the call and quickly track Lucy's GPS signal. From the looks of it, she's not too far from her dad's place. I should be able to make it to her in under an hour.

I stop by the bar and let Sam know I'm leaving before high tailing it out to Staten Island. My heart has been pounding since the second I heard Lucy's panicked voice. I'm sure nothing's wrong and she's only upset over something her father said. It's so easy for Frank to get under her skin.

I hope that's all it is anyway. If something happened to her, I don't know what I'd do. She's my whole world. My everything.

It feels like it takes me forever to get to her, but I finally make it to the street she should be on. It's dark out, but I can see what looks like her emergency flashers in the distance. I speed up and pull over to the side of the road once I make it to her car.

I get out and the first thing I notice is the smoke rising from her engine. I run over to her car and check to make sure she's not in it, and thankfully, she's not. The front of her car is smashed, crinkled up like an accordion. It looks like she might've hit the tree across the street and spun out to the other side.  I look around for her, my chest tight with dread and my heart pounding in my ears. She didn't want me to call for help, but is she hurt?

"Lucy!" I call out.

I look down at my phone and it looks as if she should be somewhere in this area. There's a few businesses down the street, all of which are closed, so there's no traffic in this part of town. There's barely any trees, but there's a large open field where an old bank was just demolished. I run over to the empty lot and look around in every direction.

"Lucy!" I call out again.

"Chris?"

My heart floods with relief at the sound of her voice. She sounds close, but I still don't see her.

"Lucy!"

I look around and finally spot her in the distance. I hurry towards her, but I notice that she's limping and holding onto her left arm. She must be hurt.

When I make it to her, she cries out and jumps into my arms, wrapping her good around around my neck. She begins sobbing uncontrollably, barely able to breath.

I pull away from her and look her over before taking her face into my hands. There's a cut on her right cheek and her lip has a bit of dried blood at the corner. "Baby, we should get you to a hospital."

"No!" she objects. "I'll be fine."

I push her hair away from her face and notice the large gash across her forehead. Which explains why she was acting so strange when she called me earlier. She's disoriented.

"You could have a concussion. We have to go to the hospital," I say, taking her by her good arm and pulling her along with me.

"No! Please! You can't! I'll get into trouble!" she cries, pulling away from me.

"For what?! You had an accident. Why would you get in trouble?"

As I study her eyes, I can tell something's wrong. She's frazzled, out of sorts. It's probably because she's in need of medical attention. But she's not going to the hospital willingly, so I'm going to have to get creative.

I press my lips together and nod. "Fine. Let's go home so I can take care of you then."

She hesitates, but finally takes my hand and lets me lead her to my car. I help her get in and we start back for Manhattan. It'll take us a while to get there, and I'm really hoping Lucy falls asleep on the way so she can't protest going to the hospital. I have no idea why she's so adamant about not going, but I'm afraid of what might happen if she doesn't.

Sure enough, within a few minutes, Lucy is out like a light. I keep an eye on her to make sure she's still breathing, but I'm starting to worry. If she has a concussion, I shouldn't let her sleep. But if she doesn't sleep, she'll fight me about going to the hospital.

I'm in a sticky spot.

I take out my phone and call Annie since she's a nurse. She'll at least be able to tell me if this is a medical emergency or not.

"No," Lucy snaps, slapping my phone out of my hand. "Don't call anyone. I told you, I'm fine."

I throw my head back against the headrest and let out an exhausted groan. "Lucy, you're hurt. We can't just ignore it."

"I can't go. I'll get in trouble," she says, starting to break down again.

"No, no. Don't cry. You won't get into trouble. You didn't do anything wrong," I assure her.

"Yes, I did!" she cries.

Giving up for now, I decide to head to our apartment instead. I'm starting to fear there might be more to the story and until I find out, I can't risk getting Lucy into trouble. For now, I'll dress her wounds myself. I'll do whatever I have to do to take care of her and make sure she's okay.

I take her hand and lace our fingers together, bringing it to my lips and kissing it softly. "It's okay, baby. Whatever you did, I'll help you fix it. I'll make sure everything is okay."