The Broken Lake (3 page)

I moved his hands. “I’m okay, really.”

A big, unintentional sniffle sent his car door flying open and him rounding the front end of his hood to get to me. A couple of blinks later and he pulled me out of the car like a toddler.

“Shh,” he whispered. “It’s all right. It’s okay.”

I buried my face in his chest and squeezed him with all the strength I had.

“Come on, Sophie. Stop it. Tell me what it is.”

I couldn’t speak again.

“Now, now. You’re fine,” he assured. He rested his cheek on the top of my hair and gently rocked me back and forth long enough for me to calm down.

“I just want you to stay with me,” I murmured.

Sparing me the pullback to view my face, he kept his face in my hair and whispered, “I will. I told you I will. You know I will.”

“Okay,” I answered, hoping it could be dropped and forgotten. I knew better.

“What is this all about?” he prodded.

I very unattractively wiped my nose with my hand and shook my head. “It’s stupid.”

“No, it’s not. You’re upset. Now what is it?”

“It’s nothing.” I tried to slide myself back into the car, and he wasn’t having it.

“No you don’t. You can’t drop this now. What did I do?”

Wiping my nose again in defeat, I mumbled, “You didn’t do anything. It’s me. I just had a moment, that’s all.”

Still not letting me escape into the car, he grabbed hold of my face, and I felt my cheeks squish my lips together. It was a lovely sight, I’m sure.

“Sophie, what kind of moment?” he pressed.

My gaze touched every part of his face until I had no choice but to settle on his deep brown eyes, and that only confirmed why I was avoiding them to begin with. I could never refuse them. They were the perfect shade of dark chocolate, with depth that went on for miles. They made it impossible for me to pull away.

“I’m not staying with you tonight if you don’t tell me.”

My mouth fell open at his threat and my eyebrows scrunched together.

“Okay, so I will stay with you, but I won’t like it.”

I pressed my lips together firmly until he corrected himself.

“Okay, I will like it, but I’ll go crazy.”

I caved. “Okay, fine. I was just worried you wouldn’t want us to be together after what happened, and then when I figured out that you did, I was so happy. Then I realized I was
too
happy, and then I got all scared that it would go away again. I don’t want to die.” There, I said it.

He took a deep breath and lowered himself, so that he was eye level with me. He was about to say something but decided against it. Instead, he kissed my salty lips until even I began to like the taste. Placing my palms on the sides of his cool face, I pulled him closer to me. If my body hadn’t been so overwhelmed with electricity shooting through my limbs, I might have wanted to cry again.

“Sophie,” he said, pulling back just enough so his forehead still touched mine, “you are not going to die, and I am not leaving you, and you’re not leaving me.”

“But…”

He cut me off with another kiss that pushed me back against his car with more assertiveness than I was used to. He was emitting a fire with the intention of burning everything in his path, including my brain, my voice, my fears, my doubts. It was me and him, and no one else on the planet.

It didn’t matter that we were on the side of the highway. It didn’t matter that he was a human mutation. It didn’t matter that I was the walking dead. It didn’t matter that it could all be gone in the blink of an eye. Nothing else mattered but me and him, and one question that I couldn’t help but ask.

I broke for air. “Does this mean you’ve worked on your clarity?”

With Wes, clarity was time, and time was of the essence. When the cold-blood transfusion was administered to save him from bleeding to death, it transformed his cells. Not only did it make it impossible for him to regulate his body temperature, it changed the way he ages. It changed the way he thinks. It changed his concept of time. It changed everything.

It had taken him years to concentrate well enough to keep his mind on pace with what was going on around him. His biggest fear was that 365 of my days would only feel like an instant to him. He had mastered it well enough, except, he told me, when I made him lose concentration.

He chuckled. “I’m working on it now.”

“Really?”

“Really.” He kissed me again.

“So does that…”

“No, Sophie. Don’t push it. I just want you to know how I feel about you.” He kissed me again, gently. “I love you.”

“You loved me before,” I noted. “What’s different now?”

“What’s different is that I thought I’d lost you again and realized I don’t want to waste time not showing you how much you truly mean to me. I love you more than anything, and I want you to know.”

I smiled. “But I do know.”

“No you don’t. Not really. I have loved you forever, and love you now—more than air. It’s that simple. I would give it up for you in a heartbeat.” He grabbed my face again and gave me a light shake to let me know he seriously wanted my attention. “I love you, and I’ll never leave you again. I promise.”

Something in me wanted to weep again, but then the old Sophie came back, and I got a grip and simply, but honestly, stated, “I love you too.”

He took me home, and although I still felt a nagging worry deep inside, the fighter in me was coming back. I didn’t have to give in to fear, and I wasn’t going to. But I was going to spend as much time with Wes as the seconds would allow.

As we pulled up to my house, my mom was peeping out between the front curtains. “You promise you’ll be back. Right?”

He ignored the question and walked with me up my steps.

“Wes?”

“Sophie, don’t ask me silly questions.” I was about to demand a confirmation when Mom opened the door, prompting us to step inside.

“Did you guys have a good time?”

“Of course we did,” I answered, smiling artificially.

She noticed and gave me a wide stare. “Good. Now you need to get some rest.”

“No, I don’t. I’m fine,” I replied with equally wide eyes.

Wes was standing there, uncomfortably in the middle of our stare war, when my mom turned, thanked him for returning me safely home, and practically shoved him out the door.

I yelled after him, “Talk to you later, Wes. I’m going to get my mom a cappuccino!” I turned to face her. “That was not necessary, Mom. He could’ve stayed awhile.”

“I know, but I really want you to get some rest.”

“No you don’t, you just didn’t want him here.”

“That’s not true, Sophie.”

“You’re not fooling anyone, and it was downright rude.”

She dropped her shoulders in admission. “I’m sorry. You’re right and that was not called for. I don’t mean to be rude. I’m just worried that you’re growing up too fast. He’s way…” I thought she was going to say out of my league, and I was
really
going to put her on mute. “He’s way too old.”

I thought about a few responses then decided not to argue, so I started up the stairs.

“Sophie, stop.” I turned. “Honey, I’m sorry. Give me a break. I almost lost you. I just want you to be a kid and graduate high school and do what normal kids do. Not be into high-technology, medical-breakthrough, secret-lab stuff that can get you kidnapped.”

“Two things wrong with that. One, it was not Wes’ fault. And two, I’m not a kid anymore. I’m sorry, Mom. I love you, but you have to relax. Wes saved my life and you owe him more than a shove out the door.”

“Okay, you’re right—again. I’m sorry.”

I finally made it to my room. I had accepted her apology, but it wasn’t owed to me. It really bothered me to see her shove him out like that. Being an outcast is all he has ever known. Before his transfusion, his hemophilia prevented him from interacting with other kids, or even having a normal life. Since his transfusion, he hasn’t been able to truly make friends and let them in enough to trust them.

Wes was an exceptional, kind, giving, and selfless person who deserved more love and acceptance than I could give. And thinking about how my mom shoved him out made me want to go back downstairs and…

“Sophie?”

Oh, my gosh. She knocked on my door and walked right in.

“Mom.”

“Hi.”

Hi? This can not continue
. In the last year, I could count on one hand how many times she had come into my room. Now, at a time when I valued my privacy the most, she was popping in.

“What is it, Mom?”

She tiptoed across my room, to my bed, and sat at the foot. “I just wanted to see if you needed anything.”

“I don’t need anything, but you already know that. Why are you really here?”

“All right. I just want to spend some time with you.”

Yikes.

I sat down beside her. “Mom, please stop this. You’re going to drive me crazy. I just want things to get back to normal, and it can’t with you hovering like this.”

She stared at me like she’d lost her favorite puppy. I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings, but that was how I felt. Yes, I did want my privacy back, so I could spend it with Wes, but her hovering was making me remember my near-death experience even more.

“I just want to see you more. I feel like I don’t have much time left with you.”

“Is that what this is about? It doesn’t have anything to do with what happened?”

She flinched at the question. “I would be lying if I said it didn’t. I was scared to death while you were gone. Now I have you back and I know you’ll be safe, but it made me realize that I don’t have much time to take care of you before you’re gone.”

A golf ball-size lump built in my throat at the mention of time left and gone, all within one minute. I shook the thought, but knew I couldn’t argue with her concerns. It wasn’t fair to push her away.

“Okay. I get it. I will spend more time hanging out downstairs, but you can’t act weird. I just want things to be normal.”

She stretched out her hand and, like we were making a secret pact, we shook hands and both whispered, “Deal.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked.

“I’m good, Mom. Really.”

“There isn’t anything you want to talk about?”

I shook my head. “No. Really. I’m fine. I promise.”

She gave me a hug. “All right, but I’m here. Any time. You hear me?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I do. Thanks.” Then I guided her to my door, watched her walk downstairs—and quietly locked my door behind her. A few deep breaths later, I put on my cutest pajamas and unlocked my second-floor terrace door and waited for Wes.

Normalcy
was all I kept saying to myself, but the truth was, it didn’t feel normal at all. I wanted him with me like I had wanted my childhood blankey. I felt alone without him. I briefly wondered if I was being unreasonable, but then decided I wasn’t. I almost died—almost didn’t have a chance to feel him near me again. Now that we were given more time, that is exactly what I wanted. I needed it like…what was it he said? Air.

Air, which was getting thinner and thinner as the minutes passed until his arrival. It was past twelve by the time he climbed the deck steps and showed up.

“What took you so long?” I whispered sternly.

He bent over to give me a kiss and then murmured. “I was giving your mom a chance to settle in with her cappuccino.”

I laughed and pulled him down onto my bed, pressing every single inch of me against his cool, perfectly sculpted physique. I even pressed my toes against his shins. I made sure every part of me was soaking up his presence then buried my face in his sweet, fresh scent, and closed my eyes. The air that filled my lungs took the place of the soft blanket on my bed. It wrapped itself around my nerves and bones, keeping warm a heart that was beating for an undetermined amount of time. I pressed myself even closer to shake the thoughts of how many beats remained.

“I love you,” I whispered into his chest.

He kissed my cheek, whispered it back to me, and began stroking my hair. And I knew that, for the moment, my normalcy was back.

M
r. Healey told me I could have as much time off as needed from the bookstore, but I wanted to work. It brought things back to normal faster, and I couldn’t imagine Ms. Mary working every afternoon in my place. She was on the verge of retirement and the few afternoons she worked opposite me were more than enough for her.

Going back was good for me, and so was inhaling the musty vanilla scent that I used to shower off as soon as I got home. Now, since nearly losing all the senses I had, I grew to appreciate everything, including the scent of Healey’s Used Books. I breathed it in, just happy to be back.

But the actual working part ended up being quite a challenge. I couldn’t ring people up with a cast on my hand and my fingers still sore. Even if I could fumble my way through the register, bagging was impossible. I ended up shelving most of the time and even that took me twice as long, but Mr. Healey was nice about it. I guess some help at the store was better than no help at all, and I was more than willing to do it. So much that I shelved each book with a small smile.

As usual, Dawn Healey arrived at work after me and she sprinted to where I was. “You’re nuts,” she announced.

I laughed. “What?”

“You’re nuts. How am I ever supposed to get my dad off my back about my laziness when you’re practically working in your hospital gown?”

I chuckled. “I’m not in a gown.”

“Might as well be. But, seriously, you don’t have to be here yet. The store could certainly manage without you for a while.”

“Yeah, I’ve been told that a thousand times. I
want
to work. It makes me feel normal again.”

She pressed her mouth together and drew it up on one side. “Fine, but if I almost died and my boyfriend rescued me on a white horse, we’d be riding off into the sunset right about now, saying good-bye to this place. That’s for sure.” She turned around to go put her stuff in the back. After a few perky strides, she turned. “I’m glad you’re here, though.”

Glad I was here?
Me too, and that’s an understatement.
As I shelved some more books, I started wondering. Riding off with Wes wasn’t such a bad idea. In fact, I could see visions of it dancing around in my head. I even paused for a minute to give the images the attention they deserved, but my thoughts were interrupted before I could get too carried away.