Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76717 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76717 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
“Excellent. See you then.”
He thinks he’s going to talk to me about the surgery.
And sure, we can talk a little bit about that.
But what I really want is to understand the practice of psychiatry. I want to know if it could’ve helped Lindsay.
Because I’m slowly believing that something took Lindsay from me.
And it wasn’t psychiatry.
Chapter Eleven
Angie
After I’m done with the morning’s classes, Tabitha grabs me.
“Did you hear about Ralph?” she says.
My heart jerks at the name. “No. What about him?”
“He’s in the hospital,” she replies, her eyes wide. “Someone beat him up pretty badly.”
I gasp. “What happened?”
“No one knows for sure,” she says. “Just that he was found unconscious in his studio early this morning.”
“Who found him?” I ask. “He lives alone.”
“Eli did. He dropped by Ralph’s place this morning.”
“What for?”
“He had to return a book he borrowed on the way to school. He said it was the weirdest thing. Ralph’s door was unlocked. When he didn’t answer, Eli tried the door and decided to go in and leave the book. He found Ralph.”
Chills skitter through me. “Is he…?”
“He’s stable,” Tabitha says. “But someone worked him over pretty good.”
“Where’s Eli?”
“He’s at the hospital with Ralph,” Tabitha says. “Apparently Ralph doesn’t have any family, so Eli felt he should stay.”
“We should go to the hospital.”
“What for?” Tabitha asks. “I thought you hated Ralph. Said he was a dick.”
I sigh. “First of all, I don’t hate anyone. And second, yeah, he’s a dick, but he’s a classmate, and if he doesn’t have any family…”
My words come out jumbled.
Jason walked me home last night, but then he went back to his place. All I can think about is whether he had something to do with this.
But why would he?
Why would Ralph be involved at all? So he saw Jason and me kissing. So he emailed HR. If he really wanted to make trouble for Jason or for me, he wouldn’t have stayed anonymous.
Then again, people do strange things all the time for inexplicable reasons. I learned this in my psychology classes. The human mind is a complex maze of emotions and thought processes that even the individual themselves might not understand, let alone an outsider.
Tabitha’s voice cuts through my thoughts. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just thinking.” I give her a faint smile.
She doesn’t look convinced. “You’re not holding yourself responsible for this, are you?”
I cock my head. “Why would I?”
“Because you’re Angie,” she says. “You always try to shoulder everyone’s problems.”
I look at her. She’s right, but how would Tabitha know that? She and I have been lab partners for all of two weeks.
“How do you know me so well already?” I ask.
Tabitha shrugs, a small grin playing on her lips. “I’m just observant. And a bit intuitive. Combination of the two. It’s part of being a good scientist, isn’t it?”
“I suppose,” I reply, my thoughts still racing.
“Look, Angie,” she continues, her voice taking a more serious tone. “I know you want to go into psychiatry and help people. And that’s admirable, really. But you can’t save everyone. You can’t fix everything.”
I swallow, my eyes stinging with unshed tears.
The only person I really want to save right now is Jason.
“Let’s go to the hospital,” I say finally. “Ralph might be a pain in the ass, but he’s still our classmate.”
The hospital is only a block away from the medical school, since the school is technically part of the whole complex.
As soon as we reach the hospital, a nurse directs us to Ralph’s room. We peek inside the room and see Eli watching over an unconscious Ralph. Eli doesn’t notice us at first, but when he does, he leaps up from his chair, a look of relief washing over his face.
“Angie, Tabitha… I’m glad you’re here,” he says, pulling us into the room. “The police were here asking questions earlier. I didn’t know what to tell them.”
“What did they ask?” I glance at Ralph on the hospital bed.
“They wanted to know if he had any enemies or if anyone would want to harm him.”
“And what did you tell them?” Tabitha asks.
He shrugs. “I told them that Ralph was a bit of a jerk sometimes but generally harmless. I don’t think he pissed anybody off enough to get this kind of beating.”
I share a glance with Tabitha before turning back to Eli. “That’s probably the best answer you could have given.”
Eli runs a hand through his disheveled hair. “He’s going to be okay, right?”
“Let’s hope so.” I take a seat next to Ralph’s bed.
He’s lying motionless in the stark white hospital bed, his face a swollen mess of bruises and dried blood. One eye is sealed shut, the other barely open beneath a purpling lid. His chest rises shallowly.
We sit in silence for a while. The only sound is the soft chirp of the heart monitor and the occasional shuffle of a nurse passing by outside the room.