Chapter
27
The phone rang, over and over again. Still, no answer. Sighing, Jane hung up.
“Still can’t get a hold of him?” her husband, Bob, asked,
referring to Nick, who Jane had been trying to call for the past two days, to
check in on him.
“No,” Jane replied. “He’s
never home, and if he is, he’s not answering his phone.” She frowned, then added, “He’s probably out
with that new girlfriend of his, that Angela.”
“Hun, you can’t be against every girl that comes into his
life. Everyone gets dumped some
time. Everyone gets their heart broken,
just like Nick did. But it’s good that
Nick’s found someone to love again. He
trusts Angela, and that’s good. You need
to trust her too. Not every girl is
going to dump him like Mandy did,” Bob reasoned.
“Bob, she didn’t just dump him.
She nearly killed him!” Jane exploded.
Bob sighed. “She hurt him,
yes. She hurt him emotionally. But Nick did the rest himself.”
“You’re blaming Nick for what happened?!” Jane cried angrily.
“Well, no. But I’m not
blaming Mandy either. The way she chose
to break up with him wasn’t the right way, and she hurt him. It’s not Nick’s fault that he became so
depressed from it, but it wasn’t hers either.
It was, however, Nick’s decision to go out drinking.”
Jane’s mouth dropped open.
“Nick would never put his life at risk intentionally! He didn’t know better!”
“Jane, please calm down. Of
course Nick didn’t drink so much intentionally.
He’s young, and he doesn’t know his limits, so he made a mistake. It wasn’t his fault totally, but all I’m
saying is you can’t put all the blame on Mandy, and you can’t judge Angela the
way you are. You don’t even know the
girl well enough. She’s probably nothing
like Mandy.”
“Forget it. Just forget I
said anything,” Jane huffed. “I’ll try
Nick again tomorrow.”
With that, she spun and stormed bitterly out of the room, not
knowing the misery her precious son was going through at that very moment.
***
Darkness had fallen, and Nick had drifted off to sleep again. Angela, however, sat wide awake, unable to
sleep. She was afraid, afraid that they
would not get help in time, and that the man she loved would die. He was sick already, and she knew that it
would progressively get worse. The next
few hours could change her entire life, for the worst, if no help came.
The worst part was the helplessness. Angela felt horrible because she couldn’t do
anything to help Nick, to keep him alive.
She wanted with all her heart to go find them help, but she knew it was
impossible. She could barely even move.
Eventually, Angela’s exhaustion and weakness took over, allowing
her to forget her fear and guilt for the time being and drift into a restless
sleep.
***
