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  The lady on the other line spoke quickly and I smiled and replied in fluent Spanish.

  I ended the call as my sister crossed her arms. “What did you say?”

  “I told her I needed Pilar to come home, that her daughter is being taken to Children’s, and she is very sick. Exactly what’s happening.”

  Giselle’s dad was talking with the doctor and nodding his head with a blank stare. He understood what he was being told, but didn’t seem to comprehend what it meant.

  Giselle wasn’t listening anymore. She was staring out the window. It troubled me to see her this way—my new friend who I had known my whole life.

  The stretcher came for her while we were in the hallway. The helicopter had arrived to transport her. Giselle’s dad kissed her hand and ran from the hospital.

  I walked back into the room as they were strapping her in for the ride. “I’ll get my dad to let me come see you next week when you’re settled in. Text me when you get there, okay?”

  “See you soon then. My dad is driving to the city now.”

  “I’ll miss you.” I hugged her as her hands gripped me intensely. “Be strong, okay?” I whispered into her ear.

  “I will.” She nodded and the doctors took her away. My sister waved from the hall and blew her a kiss as they passed by. Giselle blew a kiss back at her, but watched for me to wave once more.

  One more night in the hospital wasn’t so bad, but I would be completely alone. Not an exciting notion but better than being sent to the city.

  “So what exactly is going on, Aimes? What’s wrong with Giselle?” My sister stood beside me, watching where Giselle had left.

  “The drug we took almost killed us. But apparently we suffered from acute—”

  Alise held her hands up, cutting me off. “Whoa, dumb it down.”

  “She has kidney failure, which can lead to death if she doesn’t have her blood cleaned by machines.”

  My sister opened her mouth in understanding. “Ohhhh, okay. So why didn’t that happen to you?”

  “Could be that I’m healthier than she is. I don’t drink all the time the way you guys do. She might have already been suffering from a damaged liver.”

  “You got lucky.” Alise summed it up nicely.

  “Yeah, and Giselle got unlucky.” Sometimes talking to Alise cheered me up, like watching a chimp in heels walk around in lipstick.

  “Will you be okay?” Alise looked concerned. These were new expressions for her. She was lost on how to make them perfect. Instead, she appeared a little constipated.

  “Yeah, in time the damage should be healed, but just in case, I can’t drink, eat red meat or fatty foods, or do drugs.”

  She laughed. “So just go back to boring old you?”

  “Yeah, sleep, math club, chess club, and homework. All that clean living you refuse to attempt.”

  Alise wrinkled her nose and leapt on me. “No way—too boring.” Her abrupt and sudden hug scared me. She pulled back just as quickly. “Okay, well I have to go to Shane’s house and break up with him before he finds out I kissed Blake. I know Giselle heard everything.”

  “Yeah, I doubt she is texting your friends right now to tell them that. She has a lot on her mind.”

  Her silver eyes sparkled. “You don’t know the real Giselle, only the sick Giselle. They are different people. See you later, gator.” She walked out clicking on the shiny industrial flooring in her high-heeled boots which came over her knees.

  “Julia Roberts wants her boots back,” I shouted at her.

  She laughed, throwing her head back and waving backward without looking. She had made me watch Pretty Woman a hundred times.

  I sat on my bed and peered out the window as I thought about the last week. Where had it gone? The warm wind came in the small opening of the window, rustling the papers beside my bed and making me glance around the room. “Mom?” I couldn’t smell her and I couldn’t see her, but she was there. I let the wind wrap around me. “I didn’t forget about you, Mom. It’s just been a rough week,” I whispered to the room.

  The wind was gone as quickly as it had hit.

  “Time for you to get some sleep after all that excitement.” The nurse hurried in and pulled a syringe out. “I bet you’re tired.”

  “I am.” I lay back on the bed.

  “Well, have a good sleep, and I’ll keep a watch on the door so you don’t feel so alone.” She smiled sweetly.

  “Thanks,” I muttered as my eyes start to droop.

  The wind came back. It tickled across my bare arms and cheeks. I lazily lifted one eyelid, fighting against the effects of the drugs. The bright white-blue eyes of Wade from Port Handley were all I saw. The corners of my mouth lifted. “Hey, I know you.”

  “You can see me? Even though you’re dreaming?” His voice was a deep whisper.

  I lifted my lid again. “Of course I can, silly.”

  The warm wind floated over me. I reached a hand out. The warmth I touched made me freeze. He was real. He was really here. My heart started to pound. Both eyes opened. “Did you come back to finish me off?” I whispered, terrified but fading fast from the drugs.

  He looked crushed. I couldn’t help but stare at his beautiful lips. “No. Of course not. Why would you say that?”

  My hand gripped the back of his. “Did you drug me?”

  He frowned. “What? No. I’m not real, Aimee. I’m a figment of your imagination.”

  The warmth in my hand proved he was there, until he wasn’t. He was gone. I clenched my hand. My palm was still warm from touching him. I scanned the room. He wasn’t there. Had he really been there?

  Footsteps drew my head to the right. My insides clenched, until I saw it was Blake walking through the doorway. His face was a mask of shame. I hoped he would wear it for a while, even if I was grateful it was him.

  “Hey.” He sat on the chair across the room from me.

  “Hey.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Sleepy. If I fall asleep, you’ll have to wait for me to wake up. The nurse just drugged me and I think I was already sleeping a little.”

  “Where’s Giselle?” He pointed at her empty bed.

  “Gone.” I frowned. “It’s not good.” His eyes grew wide as I explained the whole situation with Giselle and her dad and mom and her kidneys. We talked like things had never changed, but they had, and I saw him in a new light—one I didn’t know how to feel about. Especially when he crawled into my bed and let me fall asleep on his arm.

  Chapter 11

  Friends and foes

  My room hadn’t changed in a week, but I was a stranger in it. The walls were exactly the same, and yet they appeared closer around me. The experiences I had been through in such a short amount of time seemed to have shifted my mind. As if it had narrowed in some aspects, but broadened in others. Giselle was a new addition to my life. Instead of being besties with my sister, she seemed to prefer my company. It was weird for me. I didn’t even know how to work the change into my day-to-day. The texts were coming every few minutes. Memes and GIFs and weird videos with cats doing random things.

  It really was no wonder Alise was so dumb. She had friends sending her hundreds of texts 24/7, consisting of garbled English. She didn’t have time to do anything but underachieve.

  I sat on my bed, feeling more alone than I ever had. I decided to take a walk and go see my mom.

  My dad was in the kitchen getting a glass of water and humming. I stopped on the stairs, listening to him hum. I didn’t know the song, but this was the first time I’d heard him hum in eight months. I crept to the front door as quietly as I was able and stepped outside. I wanted him to stay lost in whatever happy moment he was having. I sent him a quick text and headed off down the sidewalk. The town didn’t appear different and yet it was. The smallness of it had been stifling before I was drugged. I didn’t sense that anymore. I liked the coziness. I liked knowing everyone. And now I was scared, not of anything in particular but just in general. />
  I walked and thought about the past year and all the events that had shaped the time for me. I was unaware of the trees or the road, just the seconds that fit together to make a year. Each of them seemed so different and complex, like a spider web. Some were horrid and others were unexplainable.

  I spun around and realized I had long passed my mom’s spot.

  I was about to turn back when I saw him. He walked along the side of the road and disappeared into the thick woods. His tall, strong body would have been unmistakable in itself, but his face was one of a kind. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I remembered them exactly. My heart fluttered. I wanted to be afraid of him, but I couldn’t make myself. I vaguely remembered the weird dream I’d had in the hospital, where he had vanished.

  I almost chickened out but then I just did it. “Wade,” I called out.

  He never came back.

  “Wade, wait up. It’s me, Aimee, from the party the other night. Wade!” I tried to run to the spot he had been but my body hurt. I got an instant cramp. I decided running would take a little longer to be able to attempt and walked into the dark woods, pushing myself past the initial thick and impassable brush.

  The bushes scratched me and pulled at my clothes and hair. I was determined to see him again. When I got inside the forest I gazed around but saw nothing. I stood perfectly still, my heartbeat intensifying as several possible outcomes sped through my mind.

  Possibility number one: Wade might have been the pervert who drugged us and got me naked. Though the lovely and relaxing internal examination proved I was still a virgin. Thank you, God in heaven, a female doctor did it.

  Possibility number two: Wade might not have even been here and the poison was still wreaking havoc on my mind, and now I was alone in the dark forest hallucinating. Same as I had at the hospital.

  Possibility number three, and honestly the most likely: Wade was trying to go for a nice walk when a strange girl he didn’t know started yelling and running, albeit sadly, after him.

  I thought about it for a second while I stood motionless. I tried not to consider the fact he was probably stalking me, after not getting what he wanted at the party. I was uncertain about how to proceed. Fleeing from the forest screaming like a banshee was definitely at the top of a very short list. That option was followed by pretending someone else was with me. That would either scare him into thinking I was crazy if he was watching me or make him believe I wasn’t alone.

  Instead, I stayed frozen like an idiot with my heart racing out of control. I heard a crunch off to the side and prepared for the worst.

  “Aimee?” The voice was unmistakable.

  I opened my eyes, which I hadn’t realized were closed, and started to breathe again. “Shane, what are you doing here?”

  “It’s my yard.” He walked toward me laughing. “What are you doing standing there with your eyes closed?”

  He looked amazing—chinos, a baby blue tee shirt, and his sandy hair was messy from whatever he had been doing. Seeing him made me want to smell him. He would smell good. He always smelled like laundry soap and deodorant with a subtle mix of windblown sea air.

  “I didn’t know your yard came over this way.” I turned around, trying to see his house.

  He held a hand out to me when he got close. “Yeah, it’s twelve acres. Let me get you out the easy way. You’re bleeding.” He pointed to my forearms. “Just there.”

  I glanced down, noticing my arms were badly scratched. How had I not felt it? I had been so insane trying to find Wade that I hadn’t realized the branches were scratching me that much? I started to worry about the lasting side effects of the drugs, such as partial paralysis and hallucinations.

  “Is Wade here with you?”

  He seemed upset. “No, I’m alone. What the hell are you doing out of bed?”

  “I needed some fresh air. I couldn’t stay cooped up anymore. I would really like to meet your friend Wade. Can you take me there?” I asked.

  Shane peered down on me with his beautiful blue eyes. “Yeah, for sure. We can go now.” He seemed irritated with me for some reason.

  “Really, you don’t mind?”

  “No. Since your sister started dating that dorky friend of yours, my calendar is wide open.”

  My heart stopped. “Dating? He isn’t a dorky friend—he’s a nice boy.” I was freaking out inside. No wonder he was angry with me. My sister had broken up with him for Blake. I couldn’t believe she and Blake were dating or that they hadn’t told me.

  “Yeah, I guess they’ve been secretly dating for a few days or whatever. She’s been lying to your dad and saying she was going to her friend’s place but meeting him this last week. I guess something happened yesterday that sealed the deal.” Shane shrugged. His grip tightened on my hand as he pulled me through the woods.

  “Wait.” I pulled back a bit. “This is a hard walk for me.”

  “Oh my God. Oh my God—” He let go of my hand. “I’m such an idiot. Here, let me help you.” He reached down and picked me up before I could protest.

  I gulped. “This isn’t necessary. I can walk, just slowly.”

  “This is faster, Aimes.” He said it in a throaty way which I chalked up to him exerting a lot of energy to carry me through the woods.

  “Can you tell I’ve gained weight?” I had managed to gain back four pounds of the fourteen I was down.

  “No.” He laughed as we reached the forest’s edge and he placed me down on the grass. “You’re still light as a feather.”

  I straightened my jacket and smiled. “I’m trying to get back up. I might even go about ten over my healthy weight, in case something like this happens again. I didn’t have any extra weight to lose.”

  “Protein shakes and meal replacements. It’s what we use on the football team to gain.”

  “I might have to try that. I hate being thin.”

  He became serious. “Yeah, Giselle is pretty tiny now too, huh?”

  “Yeah.” I peered down at my feet. “She isn’t doing well. They have her on some meds now and regular dialysis. I’m going in a week with Alise to see her.”

  “Is Blake going?” Shane sounded jealous.

  “No. I don’t think so. I didn’t know they were dating. I’m sorry she hurt you, I know you liked her.”

  He scoffed again. “She didn’t hurt me, just embarrassed me. I hate that she hurt you, she and that friend of yours.”

  I was taken aback. “You’re worried about me?”

  “Yeah.” He nodded and the air between us filled with tension.

  “Oh.”

  We walked the huge backyard to his truck in the driveway. He pulled out a first aid kit and cleaned my scratches. I was winded and exhausted from all the exercise, but I didn’t want the moment to end.

  “You and I were lying out on the grass the night of the party. We talked for a long time. Then we sat in silence. Do you remember that?” He opened the door for me to get in.

  “No. I’m still lost with the details. I’m hoping by seeing Wade, it will trigger some memories. Something about him is so familiar, and he is all I really remember about that night.”

  “Oh, that’s why you want to see him.”

  “Yeah.” I attempted to climb into the huge truck, but it felt like stitches were slowly being ripped out of my side. I paused, inhaling sharply. His huge warm hands were on me as he gently lifted me up. I didn’t notice the pain, just the warmth of him.

  As he closed the door for me, I realized I had become an invalid, not that I minded. The tragedy had brought us closer together. It was nice to be close to him and not feel guilty because he dated my sister.

  “Thanks for agreeing to take me.”

  “Yeah, no worries.” Shane got into the driver’s side with a puzzled expression. “But that’s the weird part—I don’t remember you even talking to Wade. I asked him about it and he doesn’t remember you either.” He started the truck and drove around the circle driveway. “Your sister, he remembers well.”
r />   “That is weird. Maybe it was a ghost.” I laughed nervously, thinking about the fact I’d seen Giselle in her ghost body. Granted, I had been delusional and dying.

  He smiled. “Hey, don’t kid. My mom said our yard used to be some ancient native shaman’s land. My great-granddad’s family bought the land from the shaman’s family while he was on his deathbed. But I guess the old shaman was pretty pissed they had sold the land. My mom said the shaman’s family were starving here and blamed it on the land being cursed or some crap.”

  I forced myself to be the skeptic I was. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. So your yard is like a pet cemetery?”

  He nodded halfheartedly. “Maybe. We’ve never had any bad luck though. Well, except for my dad screwing some twenty-five-year-old, but I highly doubt it had anything to do with the pet cemetery, and more to do with him being a disgusting pig.”

  “Your mom must still be pretty mad.”

  “Mad isn’t the word.” His face tightened but he kept his eyes straight ahead. “Please don’t ever say anything, but I found her in the bathroom. She had taken a bunch of pills and cut herself.”

  “Oh my God.” My jaw dropped, even though I tried not to show my shock. “I’m so sorry.”

  “The worst part is when I found her, she looked at me and said let me die, Son. But I called the police and an ambulance. What kind of shit is that to say to your kid?”

  “Yikes.” My head went down as I fidgeted with my ring. “I think when she’s doing better, she’ll know you made the right choice.”

  We were quiet for a long time, both lost in contemplation. Neither of us wanted to make the other dwell on the misfortune in their life.

  “The drugs saved her life. Her heartbeat slowed down, and she didn’t bleed to death from the cuts. The doctor thought she might have known that and didn’t want to die.”