Текст книги "The Fallen Star"
Автор книги: Jessica Sorensen
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Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 19 страниц)
Chapter 12
I
found
the
bus
door
cracked
open—thank goodness—leaving it easy to open. The bus driver was MIA and the lights were off. With tears streaming down my face, I dropped down in the seat Alex and I had rode up in. I hugged my legs against my chest, and cried in the dark in typical Gemma style—all alone.
What was happening to me? Was I heading towards an emotional breakdown? Was I going to end up locked away in a padded cell somewhere, screaming at the top of my lungs that everything I said was true—that I wasn’t crazy?
Was I crazy, though? Was any of what was going on actually real? Or was my mind 232/695
pushing on the boarders of sanity, conjuring up a fictional world?
Absentmindedly, I touched the pocket of my jeans where the list of dates rested. I pulled off my glove and reached in, the edges of paper grazing my skin as I took it out. Letters forming my name and the dates stared back at me.
Itwas real.
Tears raindropped down from my eyes and splattered against the paper, bleeding the red ink. Everything was so complicated. I desperately wished I could just piece it all together.
Through my blurry veil of tears, I thought I saw a flash of yellow just outside my window. With my heart thumping wildly, I leaned in for a closer look and saw a tall, dark figure zipping through the pine trees at an inhuman speed, heading directly for the bus. I’d almost forgotten about the monster.
How could I have been so stupid? Again. I 233/695
needed to get off the bus. Right now.Before it was too late.
I leapt out of my seat, preparing to make a mad dash back to the telescopes where I could be safe. At least for the moment, anyway. But electricity spun through my body, and I hit a dead halt.
Alex was making his way slowly up the aisle. “What the heck are you doing out here?”
“Nothing.” The word rushed out. I shot a glance at the window. The tall, dark figure was gone.
He stopped just short of me, his eyes as round as two golf balls. “You’ve been crying.”
“So.” I stuffed the list into the pocket of my coat and wiped the tears off of my cheeks. “People cry all the time.”
“Yeah, but only when something horrible or sad happens to them.” He paused, looking out the window, then back at me. “Did something horrible or sad happen to you?” 234/695
I shook my head, afraid to speak. Afraid my voice would give away my lie.
He nodded at the window. “What were you looking at out there?”
“I was looking at…the stars.” It sounded more like a question than an answer.
He cocked his head to the side, his forehead creasing over with worry lines. “But weren’t you just looking at the stars through a telescope. Right before you ran off in a mad craze.”
I glared at him. Insulting me was not a good idea right now.
His
expression
softened
a
little.
“Gemma there’s obviously something bothering you, so tell me what it is please.” I think it was the first time I’d ever heard him use the word please. Still, it didn’t mean I was going to break down and tell him all my secrets. Not with the risk of looking like a total lunatic. “There is nothing bothering me 235/695
so, if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to get back to the class.”
I marched forward, but his hands came down on the back of the seats, keeping me from going any farther. I backed up, trying to widen the distance between us, but he matched my steps, narrowing it right back.
I tried not to freak out about the fact that I was being cornered like a cat. “Look, I don’t think—” My back hit the back door.
He stopped just inches short of me and reached for my face. I flinched as he wiped away stray tear rolling down my cheek. His fingers tingled against my skin, making me feel lightheaded and dizzy, and I had to grab hold of a nearby seat just to keep from falling over.
He raised his finger up into the moonlight speckling through the window and in-spected the tear. “If nothing’s wrong,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper, “then what is this?”
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I
felt
tired.
Everything
was
just
too...heavy. I couldn’t take it anymore. I sighed, a heavy hearted sigh. “It’s a tear.”
“Yeah, but why are tears falling from those purple eyes of yours.” Normally, the purple eye comment would have pissed me off. But, like I said, I was tired. “Because I’m sad,” I told him, which was the truth. I was sad. “And my eyes are not purple. They’re violet.” He cracked a smile, but it swiftly faded.
“Sad about what?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged.
It got quiet. My body sparkled electrically as he kept his eyes on my, watching me with the most intense expression. I forgot to breathe again and had to suck in a big breath of air.
“I knew you could feel it,” he said softly.
“Feel what?” I replied breathlessly.
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“The electricity,” he whispered in a voice so soft it sent another good shiver down my spine.
I had to catch my breath before I spoke.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do.” He inched forward, the tips of his sneakers clipping the tips of mine.
Was it just me or was it getting hot in here? My thought process was melting like butter. The world shadowed around me. I could hear my heart thrumming in my chest, and I wondered if he could hear it to.
I felt like I was slipping away.
But I couldn’t slip away. I needed to remember all the lies he’d told. I needed to not lose myself. But his eyes were locked on mine, and I could feel my self-control disappearing.
He put his hand on my cheek. Every inch of my body firecrackered with sparks. It was like the freaking Fourth of July in here, all hot and sparkly. The ceiling lights flickered 238/695
on, then back off again. Alex shut his eyes and leaned in. Um…was he going to do what I think he was going to do? No. There was no way—His lips brushed against mine. I froze, unsure of what to do, but then my instincts took over. I let my eyelids close and fell into the kiss.
“Alex! What are you doing?!” Both our eyes shot open. Alex stepped back with a deer-in-the-headlights look. I stayed where I was with my back pressed against the cold metal of the door.
The lights were on and Aislin was standing at the front of the bus, her eyes wide.
“What the heck is going on?!” Alex stared at me with those beautiful green eyes of his as he traced his finger across his lips. The lips that had just been touching mine.
Holy crap.
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He broke his gaze away from me and turned to face her. “Why would you think something was going on?”
Aislin placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes on him. “Alex, you should know better than to be doing something like this.”
What was she talking about? Him kissing me? Okay, I seriously wanted to get off the bus now. “Um, yeah, I think I’m going to go back outside.”
Alex’s arm came down in front of me.
“No, you’re not.”
“Um, yes, I am.” I tried to push his arm out of the way, but he was too strong. “You can’t make me stay here.”
“Of course I can,” he said.
He wasn’t even looking at me, but I was pretty sure he could feel the burning death glare I was giving him by the way he shifted his weight.
“Alex, I really think—” Aislin began.
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Alex held up his hand. “Aislin, just be quiet.”
She glared furiously at him, but her mouth stayed shut.
He turned back to me. “Now what did you see outside?”
I folded my arms across my chest.
“Nothing.”
“That’s bull.” He was getting mad. I could tell by the way his skin was tingeing pink. However, when he spoke, his voice sounded absolutely calm. “Just tell me please.”
I thought I felt a chill slither down my spine. But figuring it was from the cold, I shrugged it off and shook my head. “No.” He took a deep breath and said softly,
“ Please. I swear you can trust me.” I could feel myself falling again—falling into his eyes. Maybe I could tell him about everything…about
the
monsters….about
me…the chill slithered down my back again, 241/695
this time feeling very slimy and very snake-like. I shuttered. “What is that?” He furrowed his eyebrows. “What’s what?”
“It feels like there’s something slimy and cold on my back,” I told him, running my fingers along the back of my coat.
His gaze moved to over my shoulder, and his eyes widened in horror.
“What?” I followed his gaze and my heart stopped. Frost, webbing its way across the back door. “What the—” I shot my attention to the side widows. Ice was covering them too. My foggy breath laced out in front of me. The air suddenly felt very heavy.
The air suddenly felt like death.
“Aislin,” Alex said, worry ringing in his tone.
I heard a loud shriek, and through the ice blanketed windows, I thought I saw a flicker of yellow. I could hear Alex and Aislin talking…something about getting out of here 242/695
and transporting—whatever the heck that was—but I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off of the frozen window to see what they were doing. I think I was in shock or something; frozen in terror—literally.
I needed to get off of the bus.
I tore my gaze away from the icy windows. Aislin was kneeling down on the ground doing something weird with a black candle and what looked like a chunk of amethyst. What was this? Black magic time?
I definitely needed to leave.
“I have to get out of here,” I said, trying to push past Alex so I could get the heck off of this freezer-of-a-bus.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” Alex growled, refusing to let me by.
“Yes, I am,” I shoved at him with all the force I could conjure up, but he stood as still as a statue. I was on the verge of tears again.
“You don’t understand I have to get off.
NOW!”
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“No,
you
don’t
understand,”
Alex
snapped. “If you walk off this bus, you’ll die.”
“If I stay of this bus, they’ll kill me!” That caught his attention. “Who will kill you?”
Oh crap. I hadn’t meant to say that aloud. But with what was happening around us, did it really even matter.
“Those things.” I pointed towards the windows where blinking eyes now flashed from the other side.
“You know what they are?” he asked, stunned.
“Of course I do.” I tried to shove past him again, but it was useless. “This is not the first time I’ve seen them.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Aislin, they know.” Aislin, who was dangling the amethyst thingy into the flame of the candle, froze.
Great. Here we were, about to be froze to death by monsters, and Aislin was…well, I 244/695
have no idea what she was doing, but it seemed really out of place, all things considering.
Alex had his back turned to me. Hoping to catch him off-guard, I tried to slip by him, but he caught me by the hood of my jacket, and yanked me back, pinning me against his chest.
“I already told you if you go out there, the Death Walkers will kill you,” he said. “So do yourself a favor and stay put.” I’d have kicked him in the shin, but something he said stopped me. “Death Walkers? What’s a Death Walker?”
“Those things out there with the glowing eyes,” he raised his chin at one of the nearby windows, “are called Death Walkers. And they’re called that for a good reason. They can freeze someone to death just by touching them.”
I already knew that way too well. Way, way too well.
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“I know they can,” I whispered, horror pulsating through me as I thought about the nightmares that had haunted me over and over again—nightmares I should have taken more seriously. But it was too late now. The forest was right outside and I was about to die.
My ice-cold hands were trembling. I assumed it was from my nerves until I saw that they had turned a ghastly shade of purplish-blue. “Oh my God!” I cried, shaking my purplish-blue hands. “What’s happening to me?”
Alex enclosed his hand around mine. His skin felt sooo warm. “Try to relax,” he told me. “Aislin will have us out of here in just a second.”
Try to relax. Was he kidding? How was I supposed to relax when my death was waiting for me just outside the frozen walls of the bus? And how on earth did he expect Aislin to get us out of here? With her magic-candle-246/695
voodoo-witch thing she was doing? Yeah, all that was doing was creating a cloud of violet-grey smoke that was starting to fill up the bus?
I shook my hand fiercely. Please change back. Please change back. Please change back!
“Just stay calm,” Alex lulled. “I promise everything will be okay in just a minute.” Yeah, I wasn’t convinced.
The bus gave a sudden jerk to the side and fog began to swarm beneath the cracks and crevasses of the doors and windows. The temperature
shot
down.
My
bodied
burned—it was that cold. Suddenly feeling exhausted, I let my eyelids drift shut.
“Stayyy awwwake.” Alex voice sounded so far away. I cracked open my eyes and he hugged me against his chest, his voice reverberating in slow motion as he said, “Aislinn hurrrry Uppp.”
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“Perrrr is calxxxx EGO lux lucisss viaaa,” someone whispered. At least I think someone whispered, but I couldn’t be absolutely sure. At this point, I could have been hallucinating.
The interior lights blinked off, and all I could see were the yellow eyes fireflying all around the outside of the bus. Then a purple glow swallowed up my surroundings, and I let my eyes close as the windows shattered. I felt Alex’s arm come up over my head protectively. A sharp pain ripped up my side, and I let out a scream.
The next thing I knew, I was flying through the air.
Chapter 13
I’m not sure how long I was in the air—or if I even was in the air. It was hard to tell with the thick blanket of blackness all around me. When I finally did see light again, my face was inches away from the floor, about to smack into it, hard.
And hard it sure did smack.
My forehead throbbed. With my limbs aching in protest, and my brain swirling dizzily, I got to my feet. I was no longer on the bus, but in a room with red walls and an ash-black hardwood floor. An ll-shaped leather sofa trimmed the far back corner, and there were bookshelves all over the place. Dark curtains blocked all the windows so I wasn’t sure what was outside.
“Where the heck am I?” I said.
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A hand came down on my shoulder, sending a surge of electricity spiraling down my arm. I spun around, knocking the hand away from my shoulder. Alex stood only inches away from me. And right behind him was Aislin. For a split second, I was overwhelmed with the impulse to run to him. But the feeling quickly dissipated as the memories of what had just taken place hurricaned though my mind. I stumbled away from him, my hands shielded out in front of me.
A razor-sharp pain radiated up my left rib, and I let out a moan as I hunched over and wrapped my arm around my waist. My ribs were throbbing
“What’s the matter?” Alex asked, concern lacing his voice.
I held up one hand, keeping the other on my aching ribs. "Stay away from me.”
“Gemma, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, sounding very convincing. But I wasn’t 250/695
buying it. Not after what had happened.
“You need to hold still. You’re hurt.” Something warm and sticky dripped down along the back of my hand. Blood. I lifted up the edge of my coat. A small piece of glass was lodged in my skin. I gasped.
“Just relax.” The tone of his voice was tolerant, not relaxing at all. He turned to Aislin. “You better go find Laylen and see if he has a first aid kit or something. Although I’m not even sure why you brought us here in the first place.”
Aislin blushed. “I wasn’t trying to. It was an accident. You should just be grateful I got us out of there before—” She glanced at me and stopped. “I’ll go find Laylen,” she said and whisked out the door.
“Who’s Laylen?” I asked.
Alex motioned at the ll-shaped couch.
“Go sit down so I can look at that.” I shook my head, my hand still grasping at my wounded side. “Not until you tell me 251/695
where we are? And how in the world we got here? And—”
Alex cut me off. “I really don’t think that’s the most important thing right now, considering you have a piece of glass sticking out of your rib.”
He had a point, I guess, but I deserved some answers. “Fine. I’ll go sit down. But I’m not going to drop this. You aregoing to tell me what’s going on.”
He studied me with a curious expression.
“You know, you’re nothing like what I thought you’d be.”
“I don’t even know what that means,” I said hotly. “You always say things that make no sense at all.”
He sighed. “Just go sit down and I’ll try and explain things the best that I can.” I was stunned. Had I actually won the argument? “Are you serious?” He nodded. “But hurry up. You’re bleeding all over the floor.”
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After settling on the couch, I let my questions pour out of me. “Okay, so how did we get here? And what were those things back there? Those...Death Walkers? And how do you know about them? And how do you know Sophia, because I could tell by the way you two were talking that…” The way Alex was staring at me made me trail off. He looked totally baffled.
“Are you going to give me a chance to talk?” he asked. “Or do you want to just keep going?”
I bit my bottom lip. “Sorry. Go ahead.” He pressed his lips together and stared off into empty space. “Take off your coat.” I blinked. “What?”
He met my eyes. “In order for me to get the glass out, you have to take off your coat.”
“Oh.” For some stupid reason, I suddenly thought about the kissed we’d shared right before all hell had broken loose. It 253/695
could barely be considered a kiss, really soft and brief like the touch of a butterfly’s wing.
Still, I could almost feel the lingering sparkle of electricity where his lips had brushed against mine.
I carefully eased my coat off, wincing as the glass shifted.
Alex took off his gloves and coat and pushed up the sleeves of his long-sleeved black thermal shirt. Then he reached for me.
“What are you doing?” My muscles tensed as I leaned away from him.
He pointed to my side. “Looking at that.”
“Oh.” I said stupidly. I took a deep breath and held as still as I could.
He lifted the edge of my shirt up just enough so he could see the piece of glass sticking out of my blood-covered skin. He examined it, gently tracing a circle around the cut with his finger.
I held my breath, trying to hold in the gasp that desperately wanted to escape my 254/695
lips. It would end up being the good kind of gasp—the kind of gasp that might get him thinking I was okay with everything. And I wasn’t. Not by a long shot.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he moved his hand away. His face looked dead serious. Worried even. It made me anxious.
“Is it bad?” I asked in a high-pitched voice.
His mouth curved into a grin. “No, it’s not that bad at all. The piece of glass is small, and you’re barely bleeding anymore. I should be able to get it out and stitched it up without any problems.” He rested back against the couch and glanced at the door.
“Just as soon as Aislin gets here.” I tugged down the corner of my shirt and frowned. “That wasn’t funny. You had me thinking I was seriously hurt or something.” He laughed. “Actually, it kind of was.” 255/695
I glowered at him. “Do you even know how to do stitches?”
“What, don’t you trust me?” I chose not to answer that. “How about you answer some of my questions?” He frowned. “I’d rather not.”
“But you said you would,” I protested. “I mean, is it really that bad that you can’t tell me”
“Yes,” he said.
A shiver crawled up my spine. “Well, I still want to know.”
He locked eyes with me. “Are you sure about that?”
I swallowed hard and nodded. Good or not, I wanted to know.
“Fine.” He waved his hand. “Go head.
Ask your questions.”
“Okay…” My mind suddenly seemed blanked. “Um…where are we?” 256/695
“Laylen’s. He’s a friend of Aislin’s and mine.” He drew back the curtain that was behind us. “He lives in the Nevada desert.” If it wouldn’t have been for the sunlight, lighting up the sky, and the golden-brown sand, dusted with cacti, that stretched as far as my eye could see, I wouldn’t have believed him. But there it was, right outside the window. There was no denying it. We were in the desert.
“How—” I stammered. “I mean—how?” He let go of the curtain. “That’s where allof this becomes confusing.”
“Becomes confusing? It’s already been confusing for quite awhile.”
“Has it?” he muttered.
I wasn’t sure if it was a rhetorical question or not, so I didn’t answer. “So…how exactly did we get to Nevada in just a split second’s time?”
He hesitated. “Aislin transported us here.”
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“Transported,” I said very slowly like the word was foreign. But the way he’d used it was foreign. “I remember hearing you guys say that word back on the bus, but what does it mean exactly?”
He hesitated again. “It’s a form of magic.”
I couldn’t help it. A burst of laughter escaped my lips. “Are you being serious? Because, just so you know, magic isn’t real.”
“It isn’t, huh?” He gestured around the room. “Then how do you explain this?” I shrugged. “A delusion brought on by the trauma of those things—those Death Walkers things trying to kill me.” He stared at me, astounded. “So, let me get this straight. What you’re trying to say is that you believe in something like the Death Walkers who, by the way, are demons, but you don’t believe in magic.”
“Umm….” Okay, so he had a point, but still, it felt like I was just going insane. It was 258/695
all just too strange—too straight-out-of-asci-fi-novel strange. “I don’t know what I believe in.”
“Well, if you can’t believe in something as simple as magic, then there’s no point in me even trying to explain the rest of it. Because, out of everything, magic is probably the sanest sounding thing of all.” I thought about what he was saying for a moment, but still…he was trying to convince me that magic was real. “So what you’re trying to say is that Aislin’s a witch?” He nodded. “But by your sarcastic tone, I’m guessing you’re still not buying it.”
“I’m trying.” I really was. “But it’s kind of hard to accept something that sounds so…crazy.”
He eyed me over, causing my skin to electrify. “So tell me this. How can you accept the feeling that I know you’re feeling right now, but you can’t accept that Aislin’s a 259/695
witch? Because on a crazy level, they’re both about the same.”
“What feeling?” I asked, knowing full well what he meant.
Before I could stop him, he rested his hand on my cheek. Electricity sung through my blood veins, and under no control of my own, I let out a gasp.
“That feeling,” he whispered, the palm of his hand still cupping my cheek.
Growing up with Marco and Sophia—the two most unaffectionate people ever—I’d never come close to even getting a pat on the back. So him touching me like that felt very strange. Yet somehow, at the same time, it felt very familiar.
He dropped his hand, and we both just sat there, staring at one another.
“Okay,” I finally said, breaking the silence. “I believe you so you can go on.” He forced a fake smile. “Can I?”
“Yeah, you can.”
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He shook his head, looking like he was trying hard not to smile, then he turned to face me. “Look, I’ve broken a lot of rules here.”
I tilted my head to the side, confused.
“What rules?”
“Nothing. Never mind,” he said quickly.
He ran his fingers roughly through his hair
“God, how the heck am I supposed to explain to youhow important youare?”
“How important Iam?” I gave him a doubtful look. “Trust me, there’s nothing important about me. At all.”
“You have no idea how wrong you are.” The intensity in his eyes made me shrink back.
I gulped. “I don’t understand what you mean—”
“Here it is,” Aislin announced, as she strutted into the room carrying a first aid kit.
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Alex practically leapt off of the couch and met Aislin in the middle of the room.
“Took you long enough.”
Grimacing, she shoved the first aid kit at him. “It took me a minute to find Laylen.”
“Sure it did,” Alex said, his tone insinu-ating something. Something I was almost certain I’d rather not know.
“Whatever Alex.” She flipped her golden blonde hair from her shoulder. “And just so you know, Laylen's going to stay away until…” She glanced at me, then leaned in and dipped her voice quieter.
After that, I could only make out half of what she was saying. Being able to lip read would have came in handy right now. All I was able to catch was something about “staying away” and “blood.” Maybe Aislin couldn’t stand the sight of blood…I don’t know. But really, did I ever know what was going on.
No.
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“I guess, but she’s not bleeding that bad,” Alex’s voice rose loud enough for me to hear him. He tucked the first aid kit underneath his arm. “Why don’t you go try and get a hold of Stephan. Let him know what’s happened and see what he wants us to do.” Stephen. Why did that name keep popping up?
“What about the other problem?” She nodded in my direction.
He shrugged. “I’m going to tell her.”
“Tell her!” Aislin exclaimed. “Are you crazy!?”
Uh…Hello, I was sitting right here. Jeez people.
“We really don’t have a choice,” Alex said. “After what she just saw.” With the way they were talking about me, I wondered if they’d forgotten I was in the room. Then again, being subtle had never been their thing.
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Aislin sighed. “Fine. Do whatever you want. I’ll go call Stephan.” She stomped toward the doorway, but turned around before walking out. “But just for the record, this is all on you.”
“Thanks for clarifying that,” he said in a sarcastic tone.
She shot him a glare before stepping out of the room.
Alex came over to the couch, knelt down on the floor, and opened up the first aid kit.
“Who’s Stephan?” I asked.
“My father,” he said, without looking up.
“Your father.” I don’t know what I’d expected him to say, but that sure as heck wasn’t it.
He grabbed a throw pillow from the foot of the couch and set it down beside me. “Lay down so I can get that piece of glass out of you and get you stitched up. And I’ll tryto explain everything while I do.” 264/695
I noticed his emphasis on the word try.
“So by try, do you mean tryto explain the whole truth? Or just the parts of the truth you want me to hear?”
He stared at me quizzically. “You’re kind of a difficult, you know that?”
“Gee, thanks,” I replied, my voice rich with sarcasm.
He shook his head, but I caught a glimpse of a faint smile. “I’ll tell you everything as in everything.” I lay down on the couch as carefully as I could and rested my head on the pillow.
“Alright.” He rubbed his hands together.
“Try to hold as still as possible while I pull out the glass.”
I cringed. I couldn’t help it. I took a deep breath and fixed my eyes on the ceiling, trying to think of something else besides the fact that he was about to yank the glass out.
But the deep red color of the ceiling reminded me a lot of blood, and I was very 265/695
aware of the tug as Alex removed the glass. I threw my arm over my face and shut my eyes, taking slow breaths.
“You doing alright?” he asked.
I nodded, but my ribs were on fire.
“This little thing right here is what was in you,” he said
I opened my eyes. In the palm of his hand was a piece of blood stained glass about the size of a quarter.
“That’s it.” Sticking out of my skin, it had looked so much bigger.
“Yep, that’s it.” He dropped the glass in-to the first aid kit, and it plinked as it hit the plastic. He took out a cotton ball and poured rubbing alcohol on it. “Gemma, I’m really sorry.”
His “sorry” momentarily perplexed me.
Before I could figure out what he meant by it, he’d already pressed the cotton ball onto my cut. It felt like someone had dumped gasol-ine on my skin and lit a match. I squeezed 266/695
my eyes shut and bit down on my lip, trying not to scream bloody murder.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, he moved it away. “Sorry about that. I just thought it would be better if I caught you off-guard. That way you wouldn’t anticipate it and try to move away.”
I was in too much pain to respond.
“Now I just have to stitch it up.” He tossed the now blood soaked cotton ball into the first aid kit. “The cuts not very big, so it shouldn’t take me that long.”
“’Kay,” I said through my shallow breathing.
He began winding a spool of clear string around his hand.
“So, are you going to explain to me why you think I’m so important?” I asked, watching him unwind the string like a cat.
“Give me a second.” He snipped the end of the string off with a pair of scissors.
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“Before I do, though, you have to promise me two things.”
“Depends on what those two things are.” He gave me a look as he withdrew a shiny needle from the kit.
“Sorry.” I tried again. “So what are the two things I need to promise?”
“First, you have to promise that you’ll try to keep an open mind.”
“Okay.” Keeping an open mind seemed easy enough. “And the second promise?”
“That you’ll let me finish talking before you start freaking out.”
That one wasn’t as easy. My gut churned. “How do you know I’ll freak out?” He looped the piece of clear string through the needle. “Because you will.” Jeez. Just how bad was it going to be? I guess, considering everything that had happened, it had to be bad, right? How could it not.
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I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Alright, I’ll try not to freak out until you’re done talking.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You’ll try?” I suddenly felt very aware that I was about to hear something bad. Very, very bad.
‘Fine. I won’t freak out until you’re finished.” But after that, all bets were off.
He held the needle just above my rib-cage. I flinched—I absolutely, one-hundred percent, hate needles. With all their sharpness and being pointy—their sole purpose was to stab you.
“I’m not even sure where to begin with all of this,” he muttered and let a hiccup of silence go by. “Do you remember that story I told you about. The one about the fallen star.”
“Yeah…I remember.”
“Hold still,” he said as he tipped the needle down and vigilantly guided it through my skin.
269/695
It stung. Bad. My eyes snapped shut, and I clutched on to the edge of the couch.
“Breathe,” Alex reminded me.
My eyes flew open, and I sucked in a breath of air.
“You good?” he asked after a second or two had ticked by.
“Yeah, I think so.” But my voice trembled.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah…but can you get this over with quickly. Please.” He nodded, and then weaved the needle into my skin again. “So where was I?”
“You were talking about the fallen sta—"
