With a Friend in the Dark
He knows he could have called Maddie and she would have been there, though the memory of her disappointment last time stopped him. As for everyone else—even if he weren’t prohibited from talking to them by his lawyer, Buck doubts anyone would have come. The last time they talked was when they ran into each other in the grocery store a week back, and, since Buck is not eager for a repeat of that interaction, he doesn’t even consider calling anyone in to hold his hand for what is, he tells himself, probably just another little blip on his road back to the 118.
He is able to convince himself of this up until the moment Dr. Gutierrez walks into his room and says, “Well, Evan, you just can’t seem to do anything the easy way, can you?”
Because, as it turns out, there is a circumstance under which a tiny clot that doesn’t cause you to vomit blood in front of all of your friends and family is worse than three big ones that do: that circumstance is called ‘being on blood thinners.’***In the midst of the lawsuit, Buck is diagnosed with cancer. Dropping the lawsuit is easy. Finding forgiveness, less so.