Friends With Benefits

Somehow, I got myself together and called Sara to let her know what had happened. Mrs. Murphy called me back. She was at the hospital and didn’t have any update on Will. She hadn’t been able to find out what was going on with Fletch just then and asked me if I could call Will to let him know what was going on. I called will several times, leaving him four rather upset voice mails followed by six angry texts before giving up.

At first, it was just Matt and I in the waiting room set aside for family and friends of emergency victims. After pressing the head nurse, I found Mr. and Mrs. Murphy and Kristy were in one of the vacant hospital rooms, talking with the police officer who had worked the accident about what had happened as well as with the doctor’s about Fletch’s condition. It unnerved me that I wasn’t allowed to be told what was going on since I wasn’t family. Matt tried to comfort me the entire time, saying if it were terribly serious, they would probably be too busy operating on Fletch to pull his parents aside and have a long drawn out talk with them. However, I let all of my years of watching medical shows get the best of me.

Within a few minutes of our arrival, Sara and Eric showed up with Chuck in tow. Though I wasn’t exactly pleased to find out Chuck had come, Sara explained that she had called Eric while he and Chuck were hanging out. Chuck had volunteered to go as well, saying he wanted to make sure Fletch was all right. That softened my attitude toward Chuck somewhat, but I still knew Fletch would probably harangue all of us for letting Chuck into his hospital room when he woke up. I couldn’t let myself think in terms of “if” he woke up.

As soon as she saw me, Sara took the seat opposite of Matt, wrapping her arms around me in comfort. Soon after arriving, Eric and Chuck were feeling particularly restless and useless, Sara sent them off to get coffee and donuts for all of us, including Fletch’s parents, as a way to pass the time. I got up several times to ask the head nurse if she had any news or could tell me what was going on, but I kept getting the same frustrating answer: that she could only talk with family about a patient. I didn’t even know what HIPAA was early that morning, but after an hour had passed, I was cursing our country and people’s desires to keep their personal medical information secure and private.

“He’ll be okay,” Sara assured me for the zillionth time. Eric and Chuck had just come back with coffee and were distributing it to everyone. I sighed as I took my cup, not caring for the chocolate covered donut Matt had secured for me, knowing they were my favorite.

“I hope so,” I sighed. “Don’t you think they’d let us back to see him by now? Don’t you think his parents would have had time to come out and tell us?”

“Hospital procedure,” Sara shrugged. “And his parents are just probably so relieved he’s alright that coming out to us probably just slipped their minds…”

“Or he’s terribly mutilated and they have to sew both of his legs back on,” I pouted.

“Don’t be so over dramatic,” Sara shook her head. “When my sister Lola got into a wreck when she was seventeen, it took them an hour for my parents to even convince the hospital staff they were her parents. All she had was a cut on her forehead and a broken wrist, but it took them like two hours to let anyone back to see her and then they kept her overnight to make sure she didn’t have a concussion. And then, it took us like three hours the next day to fill out all of the paperwork to leave. And another thirty minutes after that since its hospital policy you have to leave in a wheelchair after a wreck. She argued with the nurse forever before my mom intervened and told her to get in the stupid chair.”

“Hospital stuff takes time,” Eric nodded. “When I was seven, I fell out of a tree and broke my arm. I was in the hospital for six hours, though most of that was spent in the waiting room.”

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Matt agreed. “And since it was a wreck, the police officer probably has to get statements and has to get permission to talk to Fletch with a parent since he’s a minor. Between all the bureaucracy of police paperwork and hospital procedure, I’d be surprised if we see him for another couple of hours.”

“I don’t like that, Matt,” I grumbled. “I want to see him now. I want to know that he’s okay.”

“I’m sure his fine,” Sara said again, beginning the cycle anew. I was about to respond when my phone went off. It was Will’s number and I gladly answered it.

“What’s up?” Will asked. “You left me a lot of messages…”

“Did you read or listen to any of them?” I demanded to know.

“No,” Will admitted. “I’ve been kind of busy. I didn’t think it was that important…”

“I leave you nearly a dozen messages and you don’t think it’s important?” I shouted at him.

“Okay, okay,” Will said worriedly. “What’s wrong?”

“Fletch is in the hospital,” I said. “He was in a car accident.”

“How is he” Will asked.

“I don’t know. His parents have been back in the emergency wing for nearly an hour and they won’t tell us anything since we’re not family,” I sighed.

“Shit,” Will said. “Do they know when they’ll know anything?”

“No. That’s why we’re all sort of camped out here at the hospital,” I explained.

“Who all is there?” Will asked.

“Sara, Eric, Chuck, Matt…” I began. “Why does that matter?”

“Just making sure you weren’t alone,” Will shrugged. “It might be an hour or so before I can get there…”

“Your best friend just had a possibly life threatening car accident and it’s going to take you an hour to get here?” I said furiously. “You better have a damn good excuse about why you aren’t here right now!”

“Um…I’m on a date?” Will said weakly.

“You’re ditching Fletch for a date? For some girl?” I practically yelled into the phone. “Excuse me, but I’m pretty sure if you had been scooped out of a ditch and rushed to the hospital, Fletch would be here for you. He wouldn’t be gallivanting around town with some whore.”

“Veronica isn’t a whore,” Will insisted.

“My name is Vanessa!” I shrill voiced called out in the background.

“I don’t care who she is,” I said furiously. “You are Fletch’s friend. You are supposed to be there when he needs you the most and I can’t think of a time you need your friends more than when you’re lying in the hospital after a car accident.”

“I’ll try and get there…” Will began.

“That’s some consolation,” I snapped. “If he dies tonight, I’ll tell his parents you tried. Hell, I’ll tell them you’re considering going to his funeral…”

“Ailee, look…” Will began.

“No, Will, you look,” I hissed at him. “I don’t care if you have to ditch that girl in the middle of the desert with no way of getting out. You are going to hang up this phone. You are going to get into your car and you are going to come to the hospital to wait with the rest of us. And maybe, if you do it quickly enough, I’ll consider still being friends with you when this is all over…”

“No need to be dramatic, Ailee,” Will sighed.

“I’m not being dramatic. I’m being serious,” I told him authoritatively. “If you are not in this emergency room in the next thirty minutes, I will never speak to you again. You can consider our friendship one hundred percent over at that point.”

“Ailee, we’ve been friends since we were in diapers,” Will said, flabbergasted. “You can’t just call off our friendship like that…”

“Then you better hit the road and get here,” I shouted at him before hanging up the phone. I lifted my head to see all of my friends and Matt staring at me.

“Damn, Iverson,” Chuck spoke first, “you’re an ice cold bitch when you want to be.” I opened my mouth, but Eric interrupted me.

“Chuck meant ‘bitch’ in the complimentary sense,” Eric said. “Like if I came over to Sara’s and said ‘what up my bitch’ or something…”

“If you ever said ‘what up my bitch’ to me,” Sara informed him. “I would forcibly remove your testicles with a spoon.” All of the guys flinched, but I smiled in spite of myself.

“I’m glad you finally told Swain off,” Matt admitted. “That kid needed an ego deflation.”

“I just hope he comes,” I sighed.

“With threats like that,” Chuck said, “I’m afraid to leave…”

“No donuts for Will when he gets in,” I ordered them. “Will doesn’t deserve our worry donuts.”

“Dually noted,” Eric nodded as Chuck gave me a mock salute.

Will arrived barely ten minutes later, but, unfortunately for him, I hadn’t gone out of tiger-girlfriend-mode. Any relief I had at seeing Will immediately drained upon seeing who he had brought along with him. I was sure Will never had any lessons on dating etiquette, so there was no way he knew anything about hospital etiquette. Personally, I thought it was bad taste when he brought his date with him to the hospital. Vanessa was a tall, leggy, orangey-tanned bottle blonde – in other words, just Will’s type. She was giggling and stumbling in her too-high-heels as they walked into the waiting room, not behavior for someone who is possibly about to loose a friend. Though Will tensed and went silent when he saw the fire in my eyes, Vanessa was still giggling and toying with his hair when I approached them.

“What are you doing?” I hissed at Will.

“You said Fletch was in the hospital and I needed to be here, so I’m here,” Will shrugged.

“You brought a date?” I said, pointing at giggly Vanessa.

“Well, we were out. And She doesn’t have to be home until midnight…” Will said, trying to convince me what he had done was okay.

“You brought a date. To the emergency room,” I clarified. “To the hospital, where your best friend might be dying…”

“It sounds bad when you put it like that…” Will began.

“It is bad!” I hissed at him. “Will Swain, this is the absolute lowest thing you have ever done in your entire life! You act like you’re too busy and then you have the nerve to bring some girl here just because you’re hoping you have a shot at getting in her pants?”

“He’s got more than a shot,” Vanessa giggled. Will, however, wasn’t laughing.

“You’re supposed to be Fletch’s best friend, but you’re the worst friend on the face of the planet, Will,” I shook his head. “If this were reversed, if you were the one who had gotten hurt, you better believe Fletch would have dropped everything he was doing at that second and come here right away to wait for news about your condition. You better believe he wouldn’t be so self-absorbed that he thought more about whether or not he was going to get laid that night than he did about if you were going to make it through.”

“Ailee… please…” Will began.

“Don’t call me Ailee. Not any more. You lost that privilege the second you came through the door with her…” I hissed at him.

“Wait… is this like your girlfriend?” Vanessa gaped at Will in horror.

“Will, there’s a lot of stuff you’ve done that I didn’t like over the years, and I’ve always forgiven you,” I told him. “I don’t think I can forgive you for this. Not now anyway…”

“Ailee,” Will began.

“Oh my God, is this your girlfriend?” Vanessa shrieked. “Your girlfriend called you to tell you your best friend was dead in the hospital and you just kept sitting there, tonguing my ear?”

“Her ear?” I gaped at Will. He blushed.

“Chicks like it,” Will shrugged.

“That is disgusting! You’re disgusting!” Vanessa said, beginning to whack Will with her purse. “I’m sorry, but I can do better. A lot better.”

“Valerie… look…” Will began.

“It’s VANESSA,” she hissed at him. “You haven’t called me the right name the whole night!” She smacked with her purse again, this time really hard and across the face. “I can’t believe you!”

“I’m sorry, I just…” Will began.

“Don’t call me,” Vanessa seethed before turning on her heel and storming away. I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at Will pointedly.

“Okay,” Will sighed. “I’m the worst person on the face of the planet. And I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Ailee…”

“It’s Aileen now for you,” I hissed.

“Aileen,” he flinched. “I’m going to be better now. I promise.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” I snorted. “How could you not come here?” Will looked down at his feet.

“I hate hospitals. You know that,” Will shrugged. “Ever since my grandfather died… Hospitals are like big, clean buildings where people go to die… and if… if Fletch is going to die… I don’t want to remember him cut up and bleeding in some hospital room… I want to remember him joking and kidding around with us…”

“Will,” I sighed, “that’s not a very good excuse…”

“I know,” Will admitted. “Just… if he’s really bad… can you go in first? If he’s really bad… and he’s not going to make it…I don’t… I couldn’t handle it, okay? I’m not Mr. Brave Football Player all the time, you know?”

“Alright,” I agreed, “but you’re still skating on thin ice. You better become a fixture at this hospital until Fletch gets better. Otherwise, I might tell him how you flaked out during his time of need.”

“Deal,” Will nodded.

“Oh, Aileen, Will,” Mrs. Murphy called from the hallway. We both turned to her expectantly. I searched her face for any sign of what had happened to Fletch, but found none. “We just finished filling out all the paperwork and talking with the police… Let me tell you what happened…”