Authors: Heather Sunseri
“Excuse me?” I examined the tile
floor. A used Band-aid littered a nearby corner. “I’m not sitting on this
disgusting floor.”
He closed the distance between us.
His fingers wrapped around my good arm. “Sit.”
I should fight him. Kick him in the
shin. Punch him in the face. Something. Instead, I leaned against the wall, and
holding my elbow, he guided me down the wall.
He knelt on one knee in front of
me. “You’re going to have to trust me.”
“Trust you?” My breathing sped up.
I searched his eyes and found a warmth there that I struggled to believe. “I
barely know you.” I wanted to trust him, but fear wrapped itself around my heart
and squeezed. My arm throbbed.
“I know.” His voice was calm. “This
isn’t ideal circumstances, for sure.” There was zero humor to his voice. I sensed
something, though. Regret, maybe.
“What are you going to do to me?” A
tear escaped down my cheek, and he wiped it away with his thumb. His touch felt
gentle.
“I want you to take a deep breath
when I say ‘now.’ You are going to feel intense pain at first, but then it will
be gone. Try not to scream. Okay?”
I shook my head.
Try not to
scream?
“No, it’s not okay. Don’t—” I wanted to scoot away from him. Run.
But he didn’t give me time to think.
“Now! Deep breath.”
I did as I was told and sucked in
the deepest breath. My eyes locked onto his as I held it.
Jack wrapped both of his hands
around my broken wrist. Pain exploded through my arm. I was paralyzed by the
fire beneath his palms.
He closed his eyes. Tears escaped
mine. My mouth went dry.
Almost as suddenly as the blast had
shot through my arm, the ache dulled. Jack let go of my arm. I released my
breath. I was close to passing out from the lightheadedness and pain. Jack’s
hand supported the side of my head, lowering me to the cold floor.
He stood and darted to a bathroom
stall. I wasn’t sure, but it sounded like he threw up. He returned to the sink.
I heard running water. My vision was fuzzy.
Next, I felt the coolness of his
fingers linger around my forehead. I tried to focus on his eyes, but couldn’t.
“You’re going to be fine.” One arm
slid under my legs, the other hugged my back, and he lifted. He bent his head
into my neck, his breath next to my ear. “I’m sorry.”
I woke in a haze. An orange glow
shone through the blinds of a window to my left. I smelled a strange mix of
alcohol and Clorox. When I moved, my head hurt a little.
“Hey, hon,” a female voice to my
right said. “I’m Barb, the nurse. How you feelin’?”
A lady dressed in white scrubs
decorated with different colored band-aids fiddled with a stethoscope hanging
around her neck. Her platinum blond hair was tucked into a short ponytail.
“What happened?” I inspected the
length of my body, still clothed in my navy sweats and hooded sweatshirt.
“You bumped your head. You’ve
suffered a slight concussion, I think.” She lifted my arm and slid a blood
pressure cuff over it.
“How long have I been out?” I asked
as she pumped.
“Oh, not long at all. Thirty
minutes, maybe.” She set the sleeve aside and shone a light just above my eyes.
“Follow my finger.”
I did as instructed.
“Nice knot, though.”
I lifted my fingers and brushed the
spot on my forehead.
Jack
. My eyes darted around the room. Then at my
arm. I wiggled my fingers and then swallowed hard. “The guy who brought me in?”
She placed the stethoscope over my heart
and listened. “He said he would check in on you later.” She smiled. “Handsome
young man. He seemed very worried about you. Attentive. You’ve got yourself a
keeper there.”
Yes, handsome. And frightening. I
massaged my arm. No pain whatsoever. My arm had been broken. I was sure of it.
I had practically passed out from the pain.
Had he healed it? Was that humanly
possible? He had said I wasn’t ready. Ready for what, exactly? Had he healed me
with his mind?
If that was the case, my mindspeaking
ability seemed trivial in comparison.
I threw my head back against the
pillow, wincing from the headache as I did. “Can I go? Are you keeping me for
any reason?” I had to find Jack. He couldn’t just leave me after doing whatever
it was he did.
“You suffered a concussion. You’ll
need to sleep here overnight.”
Oh, no I won’t.
“Barb, is
it?” When she nodded, I reached for some tissues beside me and began building
my case.
Look, Barb. It’s only a slight concussion. My roommate can watch me
overnight and make sure no worrisome symptoms pop up. You will allow me to go.
Make notes in my file that I appeared to have no long-lasting symptoms.
Barb began scribbling in my medical
file, then smiled. “You’re all set.”
“Great.” I swung my legs around and
planted my feet firmly on the ground. Barb backed away forcing me to rely on my
own balancing ability.
Placing my full weight on my feet,
I stood, swaying slightly. I steadied myself with one hand and wiped my
bleeding nose with the other. “I feel fine,” I lied. I wiggled the fingers on
my right hand in front of my face. More fine than I should feel.
I slid into my sliders and reached
for my bag at the end of the bed. “Thanks, Barb.”
“You’ll call if you feel light
headed again?”
Maybe. “You’ll be the first.”
I walked slowly, stretching my
hands out for balance. The minute I was at the door, I pushed through with
caution and dug for my phone. The sun was fully set on the horizon, leaving
just a faint glow in the west. Students congregated outside the library, across
from the infirmary. Some girls screamed. I jerked toward the sound. Just some
students horsing around, but the quick motion made me dizzy.
I dialed the only number I had for
my father and reached his voice mail. “Dad. You have to call me. Something
strange happened tonight. I really need to talk to you.”
Not to be confused
with every other night that I need to talk to you.
“You never called me
after the dinner, and… Just call me. Okay? I… I love you.”
I shut off the call and slid the phone
in my pocket. Where in the world would I find Jack this time of night? Did I
even want to find Jack?
~~~~
“But, Lexi,” Danielle said. “Bree
worked the dinner shift tonight. She was in charge of scraping.” Danielle
smiled at that. It always gave us satisfaction to see Princess Briana Howard
scrunch up her nose at the smells while scraping half-eaten Salisbury steak and
applesauce off the dinner trays into an over-sized trash can.
“Are you sure? She was there the
whole time?” That blows that theory all to pieces. Who would want to scare me
like that if not Briana?
“Yeah.” Danielle straightened her
legs out in front of her on the floor and leaned her chest forward, reaching
her hands to curl her fingers around her feet. “Now, tell me again how you
ended up in the infirmary?”
I leaned back against my headboard,
staring at a pile of books in front of me. “I told you. I ran from the locker
room, straight into Jack. We bumped heads. And I ended up with a slight
concussion.” I wished that was the whole story. I rubbed my right arm where my
wrist had been broken. I was sure of it. Now, it was like nothing had happened.
No pain. No bruising.
Panic bubbled up in my chest again
remembering how Jack had touched my arm. Healed the broken bone. A chill ran
down my spine. When I’d gone looking for him, no one knew where he was. Not his
roommate. Not Briana. Like she’d tell me if she did know. Not many knew who
Jack was yet. Obviously, I didn’t know who he was.
“No, I mean the part about you
falling on top of him. Tell me that part again. I like that part.” She lifted
her head. A side braid snaked around her neck and hung past her shoulder. A
playful grin spread across her face. “What?” she asked when I cocked my head. “You
could use a little sexy in your life. Did you get a load of his abs?”
“There’s absolutely nothing
romantic going on between me and Jack. Besides, he’s already been admitted to
The Program and is applying for pre-med.” I bent my head into the hood of my
sweatshirt. The smell of his shower gel lingered there from where he carried me
to the infirmary. I still remembered the warmth of his breath on my neck.
When I woke up in an infirmary bed,
he was gone, but his scent was there, and the lightheadedness from his touch to
my arm hung on like a good flu.
“Oh, that’s right.” Danielle rolled
her eyes. “You don’t date doctor-types.”
“Or Wellington guys.” I picked up
my trig book and draped it across my lap. I had to put the past twenty-four
hours and Jack out of my head and study. How did I ever expect to be accepted
to a pre-med program if I didn’t keep my grades up? Just because I had no
intention of applying to The Program didn’t mean I didn’t want to go to medical
school. “Wait a minute. When did you see his abs?”
She shrugged. “A group of us played
lacrosse out on the front lawn this afternoon. He may have removed his shirt
for part of it. Man-oh-man.” Her legs now spread wide, she used ballet arms to
stretch a hand to the opposite foot. “He’s not my type, of course, but
definitely something new and improved to look at around here.”
“What do you mean not your type?
What’s not to like? Sandy blond hair. Blue eyes with the depth of the ocean.” I
fluttered my eyelashes, lifted my hand and fanned my face. “Swoon.”
Danielle reached up on her bed and
threw a pillow at me. “I knew it! And here I thought you weren’t interested.”
“Easy,” I yelled. “The head.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Anyway, I’m not interested, but I’m
not blind, Danielle.” I flipped the page of my book. “Remind me again. Why am I
taking this class?” I tried to change the subject.
“The same reason you take all the
advanced classes. So you can be a famous doctor like your father some day. You
and Jack were cut from similar molds, apparently.” She pushed herself up to her
feet, straightened her legs, and leaned her chest against her knees.
“Oh, yeah.” I shook my head as her
words sunk in. I didn’t want to be famous, but I did want to become a doctor. A
pediatrician, maybe. So I had to do well on this test and every other if I was
going to get accepted to a top pre-med program early. “I just hope Dad
understands when I don’t turn in my application to The Program.”
“I guess I’m lucky. My parents
couldn’t care less what I do with my life after high school.”
I frowned at Danielle. “Have you
talked to them recently?
She shook her head.
My phone alerted me to a new text.
“Lexi, love, I need that
address.”
I dialed the number where the text
came from. It wasn’t even a real phone number. Just a free texting service.
“Something wrong?” Danielle had
finished her stretching and was opening her own books in the middle of her bed.
I stared at my phone. “I don’t
think so.” Except, I was certain that these texts were not originating from Dad.
He never called me “Love.”
Something strange was going on. I
couldn’t find Dad. I couldn’t find Jack. I needed answers.
Jack successfully avoided me the
whole next day. And the day after that. He was supposed to be in most of my
classes, but it was as if he never existed. Never transferred to Wellington.
By Thursday afternoon, I had worked
up quite an attitude. I was nearly late to trigonometry, sneaking in just as
the bell rang.
There, in the back of the room
sitting next to Briana, was Jack. He laughed at something the prima donna said.
When he met my glare, the corners of his lips tightened into a straight line.
One smoldering look from him
ignited electric shocks in the synapses of my nervous system and traveled from
the center of my brain to the pit of my stomach, then on to the tip of my big
toe.
What was he doing to me?
I dropped my bag to the floor
beside my chair, and sat heavily just as Mr. Crain handed me my test. A big fat
“C” was scribbled in red at the top. That wasn’t going to help my cause to get
accepted to a top college or make my father proud.
Trying to calm myself, I stuffed
the test in my bag. As I did, I checked my phone again, hoping for a message or
something from Dad. And not another text from an unknown number.
I hadn’t heard from either since
the night I hit my head and broke my arm.
I tried to sneak another look behind
me. When I turned my head, my eyes met Jack’s, staring straight at me.
Briana reached a hand and brushed
her fingers along Jack’s arm. After a whisper, a giggle, and a hair flip, he turned
his attention back toward her.
I concentrated my thoughts at her
hard.
Scoot away from him, Bree. You don’t even like that idiotic loser. Plus,
he thinks you’re pathetic. Do you really want to be associated with a jerk like
him?
Briana immediately scooted her
chair a couple of inches away from Jack. Her hair fell forward, shielding her
face. She situated her body to face toward the windows and away from Jack.
He raised an eyebrow at her sudden
movement and then redirected his gaze at me, catching me in a grin.
I felt the blood leak from my nose.
I whipped around and dug a tissue from my bag.
I had so many questions for Jack. I
didn’t need Bree hanging all over him in the meantime.
Had I imagined my broken arm? And
the fact that his touch healed it?
What about the headache the first
day we met?
An hour passed. Class was nearly
over. Fortunately, the bleeding stopped. But my notebook page in front of me
was blank. I had managed to blow off the entire class.