Chapter 16

Alice

The interview lingered in my mind. I spent the rest of the night locked away in my bedroom, furiously working to get the bones of the article laid out.

As I typed, I scolded myself over and over for letting my emotions get the better of me yet again. But I couldn’t help it. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, the memories of Connor’s and my relationship in high school were still fresh in my mind. I knew that I was paying the price for keeping it all suppressed and hoping that time would make everything just go away.

And his cryptic reference to a crash intrigued me. He’d never mentioned this earlier, and the subject seemed difficult to even bring up. Plus, I hadn’t even scratched the surface about Hunter’s mother.

Then, on top of everything was the little matter of Connor and me screwing the other night, and that all I wanted was to just do it again.

It was beyond overwhelming, but I knew that all I could do was be professional.

“Professional, dammit,” I told myself, standing in front of the mirror as the glass of wine swirled around in my head. “You’re a professional.”

I took a deep breath, worked on the article for another hour or so, and collapsed into bed.

More than a small part of me wished Connor was there to warm it up.

The next morning, and Connor and Hunter went out for breakfast while I worked more on the article. My professional interest was kicking in and blending with my natural curiosity about Connor – my thoughts were totally occupied by the idea of wringing Connor like a sponge and getting every last little drop of information out of him.

“We ready to start?” I asked, nearly pouncing on Connor as he stepped out of the elevator around noon.

“So soon in the day?” he asked.

“Why?” I asked. “You’re busy or something?”

He gave me a curious look.

“No, I’m off. But you seem especially eager.”

I checked myself, remembering what I’d said to myself in the mirror last night.

“Just ready to get started. And you did leave me hanging last night.”

He tiled his head to the side for a brief second.

“I suppose you’re right.”

He turned to Hunter.

“Hey, champ!” he called out.

“Yeah?” asked Hunter, who was already busy turning on his PlayStation.

“ Miss Alice and I are going to be working on the balcony. Don’t bother us unless it’s important, OK?”

“’K!” he called back.

“Let’s do it,” said Connor, turning back to me.

I made a beeline for the balcony after scooping my laptop up from the bedroom. I couldn’t believe how eager I was.

“OK,” said, pulling the laptop open so fast I worried I might just yank it in two. “Car accident.”

“Oh, right,” said Connor, his expression darkening just a bit. “That.”

He cleared his throat and opened his bottle of fancy water. I tapped the trackpad and we were off.

“It was back in college. Sophomore year. I was riding around town somewhere in Queens with Marc, a friend of mine, some rich kid with a fancy car that he shouldn’t have been anywhere near. Me, him, and two girls. And, as was usual in those days, we were all drunk as shit.”

I said nothing, letting him go on.

“It was late at night and we were all looking for some party. Music was blaring, the girls were carrying on, and Marc was driving like a wild man, whipping around turns so hard that it made us all tilt to the side like we were in a jet or something.”

“I remember clearly, for the first time in my life, thinking that I should slow down. Not just in the literal sense of not being in a car going sixty in a residential, but that I should slow my life down, do what the guidance counselor said, and make something of myself.”

“Then, everything did slow down. That is, in the way things do when something traumatic is about to happen. Marc whipped around another corner, but this one wasn’t empty. Not at all.”

He took a sip of his water and I leaned forward in rapt attention.

“We slammed right into the back of some construction truck, one filled with long, PVC pipes. The car hit the back so hard that one of the pipes shot out like a bullet, smashing through the windshield and right out the back.”

“Oh my God,” I said. “Was anyone…”

“Not by that, thank God,” he said, shaking his head. “But I remember as clear as day how that thing looked pierced through the windshield, cutting right through the interior of the car. I remember reaching out to touch it, feeling the cool, smooth texture of it, and being keenly aware that if any of us had just been a few inches in the wrong direction…”

He shuddered, and I did the same. What might’ve happened was almost too horrible to consider.

“Then what happened?”

“The girls were fine. Shaken up as hell, but they were fine. I got them out of the car as fast as possible, barely noticing that I looked like someone had tossed me into a thorn bush and yanked me out hard. But I was too jacked up on adrenaline to notice it.”

“And Marc?”

“Marc was a different story. The front driver’s side took the brunt of the impact and got crumpled up like a soda can under a boot. I took one look inside and saw that while he was alive, he was pinned in there. I called an ambulance and they managed to pull him out. I rode with him to the hospital and saw just how badly mangled his leg was.”

“So, we showed up at Beth Sinai and the doctors gave me a quick look over. I was lucky as hell—just a few bumps and bruises and scratches here and there. But Marc...”

He took another sip of his water and swished it around in his mouth. I could tell that this was beyond difficult for him to talk about.

“Anyway, being at the hospital changed me. Realizing just how close I’d come to let my stupid party-animal shit get the better of me was almost enough to straighten me out then and there. But there was something else.”

“Something else?”

“Yeah. Being in the middle of that place, watching the doctors and nurses run around here and there, doing good work, meaningful work… It made me understand just what I was missing out on by wasting my life partying and chasing girls. Made me realize that I could be like them, doing some good with whatever talents I had. So, I decided right then and there that I was going to be a doctor, whatever it took.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that. Met up with that same guidance counselor and switched my major over to premed that next day. She was pretty pleased to see that her words had made more than just a little bit of an impact.”

“And on that day, Doctor Rex was born. Hell of a superhero origin story.”

He raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“Careful with those things,” he said. “Hunter’ll get you hooked if you’re not careful.”

I smiled.

“And what happened after all of that?”

“The girls didn’t want anything to do with me,” he said. “And I don’t blame them—Marc and I almost got them killed. I only had a few dings, like I said. Didn’t even need to miss a day of classes. Marc, on the other hand…”

He sighed.

“He wrecked the shit out of his leg. The doctors did the best they could, but he was able to walk right on it ever again. And on top of that, he had a DUI to worry about. And the charges from the accident. He’s lucky as shit that he came from a family with money, but they didn’t help him out all that much. Ended up dropping out of school to take some shitty jobs to pay everything off.

“A life ruined in one night,” I said.

“My thoughts exactly,” said Connor. “But he got lucky. We all did. And learned how quickly someone’s life could change.”

He shook his head before reaching over and tapping the trackpad, ending the recording.

“That work for today?” he asked, clearly a little drained by the process.

I was right there with him.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ve got more than enough to work on for now. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said, getting up.

But before leaving the balcony, he turned around in the doorframe and spoke.

“Hey,” he asked. “You busy this Friday?”

“Nope,” I said. “You’re basically all I have to do.”

I shot my hands to my mouth, realizing just how dirty what I’d said sounded.

“Good,” he said. “Because I’ve got a big night coming up. And you’re going to be there.”