Chapter Eleven
Mackenzie
I wanted to tell Chance so many things on the drive to the hospital, but I just couldn't. Everything was too fresh, too new between us, and then there was the whole fiasco that had been our first date, which we'd only just patched up. We'd made serious strides since that first date, and he'd showed such generosity, insight, and compassion by organizing the surprise appearance by James Masters — an experience I knew I'd never forget. When I'd got the call about my dad, it wasn’t how I’d thought the night would go. But Chance had just taken charge and organized everyone efficiently, and had got me to the hospital quickly and safely. And I felt so grateful for what he'd done and so thankful that he'd done it, but I'd hardly been able to express it. I don't know what it was – worry about my dad or maybe guilt about having judged Chance wrongly before – but I just hadn't been able to express what I wanted to express. Still, I knew there'd be time to do that later.
While speaking to him on the hospital phone, Lilly arrived, and so I said goodbye to Chance and spoke to her instead.
“Hey, girl,” she said as she picked up the phone. “How's your dad?”
“He's not good right now, but he'll be all right. He's on the dialysis machine now.”
“Oh no. So he had another episode?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Any success in that donor list for a new kidney?”
“No, nothing yet. He's not in the red zone, even though his disease has progressed, so there are still many more months – perhaps years even – of waiting for a suitable donor kidney.”
“I'm so sorry, Mack. I really wish there was something I could do to help.”
“There isn't much anyone can do to help at this point unless they've got a few hundred thousand dollars lying around that they don't need and maybe a compatible kidney,” I replied with a sigh. “But thank you, Lil. I really appreciate the sentiment.”
“Sure thing. I mean, you are my best friend. Anything you need, just let me know. I'm always here for you.”
“Thanks, Lil; you're an angel. I’m glad you were there tonight. And that Chance... he was a real star, wasn't he?”
“He was. I was rather impressed with the way he handled everything,” she agreed.
“Yeah, I was too. Is he still there?”
“No, he and Jason have just gone outside. Jason took care of the money from the bar, and I got all your equipment home and locked up safe. Do you want me to bring your apartment keys up to you?”
“I don't think the doctors will let anyone up here just yet, but can you wait a few minutes or so for me? I think I'm gonna stay at my parents' place tonight, but there's another problem we need to deal with first.”
“Oh yeah, what's that?”
“We can't find Will. He's not answering his phone, and he doesn't even know that Dad is in hospital.”
“Oh no! Well, Jason and I will do whatever we can to help you find him.”
“Thanks so much, Lil. I owe you for this.”
“No, you don't, Mackenzie. That's what friends do for each other.”
“All right. Well, when Jason comes back, can you and him just have a look on Facebook and Instagram? Just see if he's checked in anywhere, or was tagged in any events or anything like that tonight. Anything that might give us a clue as to where he might be. He really needs to know about Dad, even if he is, as I suspect he is, blind drunk somewhere right now.”
“Sure thing. Jason and I will get right on it,” she assured me.
“Thanks. Just wait for me in the reception area. Like I said, I'll be down in a few minutes.”
“We will be right here.”
I put the phone down and called the nurse. “I'm finished with this phone, thanks so much.”
“All right, sugar,” she said. “Don't worry about your dad now, he'll be fine in a few hours.”
“I know, the doctor told me,” I said.
I walked over to my mom who was sitting on a bench outside the room in which my dad was. I sat down next to her and put my arm around her shoulder. She was crying softly, and I hugged her tight.
“I got to play a song with James Masters tonight,” I said trying to distract her. “It was amazing.”
She looked up and smiled, even though there were tears in her eyes. She had eyes like Will's, and that reminder made me even more upset about the fact that he wasn't there with us.
“I bet that was wonderful, dear,” she said. “A dream come true for you. Did anyone take a video of it? Your father and I would just love to see it.”
“I'm sure plenty of people took videos, Mom. It'll probably be all over YouTube soon. Hell, I'll probably get more views on YouTube from this video than from any other I've done.”
I paused, reflecting on what I had just said. I couldn't believe that I hadn't even thought of that. There I was, playing and singing on stage with a country legend in front of a small roomful of people. It was guaranteed that at least a couple of them would've taken out their cellphones and started filming as soon as he walked out onto stage. And with his name in the video title, tens of thousands — or even hundreds of thousands — of people would be seeing a video of me performing. With James Masters. It could be a fortuitous moment for me in terms of my music career. Not that this was the time to think of such things, no matter how exciting they were. I needed to be there for my parents.
And my brother needed to be here for them as well.
“Mom, Lilly and Jason are downstairs. They're going to help me find out where Will is. I know the doctor said Dad will need to be here for a bit, so I'm gonna go out with them and try to track Will down and bring him back here.”
She sighed. “Hopefully that boy is in suitable condition to be brought in here,” she said, shaking her head. “If he's drunk as a skunk, which he might well be, don't bring him back here. He'll just embarrass us all.”
“I know, Mom. But wherever he is, and whatever state he's in, he needs to be told about what's going on with Dad.”
“Yes, he does. All right, Mackenzie, you go and do that. Give me a call when you find him.”
“I will, Mom. Stay strong. Dad's gonna be all right,” I assured her.
“I know... I know.”
I gave her a quick, tight hug and then hurried downstairs to the reception area. Jason and Lilly were there waiting for me. Lilly immediately gave me a big hug, and when she was done, Jason also gave me one.
“Guys, thank you so, so much for all your help,” I said. “I'm so lucky to have friends like you.”
“Don't mention it,” Jason said. “We're just doing what friends do.”
“Have you guys managed to track down Will?” I asked.
“We have, actually. Well, I mean, we have a good clue as to where he was last seen.”
“And where was that?” I asked, though I almost hated to.
“I managed to get hold of one of his Facebook buddies. He said that he and Will had been out having a beer at a sports pub earlier. He had gone home, but Will had wanted to go on drinking, and had gone to this place downtown called The Basement. You heard of it?”
“Yeah, I think it's some kinda biker bar or something,” I said. “Why the hell would he go there?”
“Shit, well I hope he doesn't get himself into any fights or any other sort of trouble,” Lilly commented.
“Yeah, me too,” I replied. “Do you guys know how to get there?”
“I've already put the location into the GPS,” Jason replied. “All we have to do is get in the car and follow the directions.”
“Perfect,” I replied. “Let's get moving then.”
Fifteen Minutes Later
We walked down the stairs that would take us to the entrance of the bar, and in front of the door there was a big, burly bouncer covered in tattoos.
“Ladies are free, but you pay five bucks to get in,” he said, glaring menacingly at Jason.
Jason dug reluctantly in his wallet and handed the bouncer some money. He smiled and let us in.
As soon as we were inside, our eardrums were assaulted with a blast of loud, angry heavy metal. The place was a real dive bar, all right — dimly lit, grimy and full of tattooed, leather-wearing biker and heavy metal types.
“Damnit, what the hell is your dumb-ass brother doing in a dump like this?” Jason asked, clearly uncomfortable being there.
“I have no idea,” I said, “but let's just find him and get out of here as fast as we can.”
“I'll go look in the men's bathroom and check the far end of the bar,” Jason said. “You two scan the crowd and check behind that pool table where all those people are. Meet back here in five minutes, all right?”
“Sure thing,” we agreed.
Jason headed off toward the pool tables. I tried to ignore the sensation of eyes roving all over my body. I'm sure Lilly could feel the same. I wanted nothing more than to get out of this place as fast as we possibly could.
We found Will soon enough, thankfully. He was sitting on a bench with two bikers behind a pool table, having some sort of drunk but intense conversation. Luckily, it seemed that he hadn't managed to get into any fights...yet.
I walked up to him and grabbed his arm, pulling him forcefully up from the bench.
“Will!” I said. “We need to get out of here right now!”
“Well, hello to you too, Sis,” he said with a frown, looking annoyed. “Nice to see you.”
“Why haven't you been answering your phone?” I snapped.
“I just didn't feel like looking at it. Shit, I just wanted to have fun tonight and not worry about anything. And that's what I'm doing. Why are you coming here to spoil my fun?”
I could see from the glassy look in his eyes that he was fairly drunk, but at least he wasn't totally smashed.
“There's an emergency, Will! Damnit, couldn't you at least have just looked at your phone once? Dad's in hospital for God's sake!”
That changed his attitude pretty quickly.
“Oh shit. Is he all right? Is he gonna be okay?”
“He will be, but Mom’s at the hospital with him and she's worried sick. I had to be there for her all by myself. Now, could you please get your stuff and come with me so we can get the hell out of this place and back to the hospital? Mom needs us both there. I'm gonna stay at her place tonight, and I'd suggest that you do too, so that tomorrow morning they've got us both there for support.”
He stood up, his face pale.
“All right, all right, I'll come with ya,” he said. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
As we were turning to leave, however, Lilly grabbed my hand and pointed.
“Umm. As much as I hate to say this... look!” she nodded in a direction across the bar.
I followed her gaze, and got a shock when I saw Chance walking out with some slutty looking girl in a white, skintight cocktail dress.
“What the hell?” I murmured.
“C'mon, let's follow him out,” Lilly said, and we moved swiftly and quietly through the throng of people. Will stumbled along behind us, and near the entrance, we ran into Jason.
“I checked the men's rooms, and there was some passed out guy in one of the stalls, but it wasn't Will,” he said as he saw me. “So I headed over to the far end of the bar, but—”
He stopped as he saw Will lumbering along behind me, and he shook his head.
“Ah well, I see that you managed to find him. And I'm not surprised at all to see he's in that kinda state.”
“Not now, Jason,” Lilly interjected. “We just saw Chance in here.”
“What?” Jason questioned.
“Yeah! He's just left the bar with some skank in a white dress.”
“That asshole! Right after I warned him, hell, less than thirty minutes after I warned him! Why, I outta go out there right now and smash a damn bottle over that bastard's head!”
“Hold your horses, hold your horses,” cautioned Lilly. “Look, maybe it was his sister or something, we don't know yet.”
“His sister?” Jason scoffed. “Yeah, that's a likely story.”
“Could you two stop bickering, and let's just follow him out and see what happens,” I said. “We can't jump to conclusions yet.” That’s what I said, but my heart was racing with anxiety and I felt kind of sick.
“Okay, okay,” Jason said. “You're right. We can't just judge. Let's go out there and see what's going on.”
We headed swiftly out the door, and then crept up the stairs, taking care not to let Chance and his mystery woman see us. As we got up to street level, I peered across the road and saw the woman leaning up against Chance as they walked, with her hand slipped inside the back pocket of his jeans, clearly feeling up his ass – and he did nothing to stop her.
“Oh man, that looks bad,” murmured Lilly. “That looks real bad.”
They were talking, but were too far away for any of us to hear what they were saying. Then, it happened. The woman reached up, grabbed Chance's neck and pulled his face toward hers – and then she started kissing him passionately.
I looked away and just sat down on the steps, feeling like I was gonna puke. Lilly immediately put her arms around me.
“Oh, Mackenzie, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry,” Lilly said to me.
“That asshole! I'll kick his ass! I'll bust his player head in!” growled Jason.
“No,” I said softly. “No. Let's just leave it. My mom needs me and Will right now. Just take me back to the hospital please. And let's never talk about Chance again, all right? Now please, let's just go. Let's just go.”