“No, it’s not. None of this is all right.” She removes her arm and I suddenly feel empty.
There’s a tear on her face. Just one. And she quickly wipes it away. The action causes an ache beyond the pulsating of my skin and head. Something’s wrong. My eyes dart around and I quickly catch up on events. I’m not in bed. I almost hit her with my car, we fought, I discovered she had trouble, I followed her here and then I got my ass kicked. I lift my head and immediately regret the movement with a groan. “Are you okay?”
“You should have listened!”
Not an answer, and I left my patience back at the shopping plaza. “Are. You. Okay?”
“I’m fine,” she snaps. “Just fine. Freaking fantastic fine. Meeting you is the pinnacle of my existence.”
“Some people say thank you when a complete stranger jumps two guys for them.”
Haley slumps against the bumper of my car and a rush of air leaves her body. “Sorry and thank you. It’s—” she waves her hand in the air “—messed up, but that’s not your fault. It’s mine.”
A car slowly drives around us. I expect it to stop, but it keeps going. Great neighborhood. “They left my car.”
“Yeah.” She glances away. “They’re gone.”
My eyes narrow on her face, but she flips her hair so it’s hiding her cheek and jaw. I blink as my sight blurs. Something’s off. They would have stolen the car... “I need to get up.” But not a single cell in my body responds. “They could come back.”
“They won’t.” Haley nurses her right hand. “Trust me—they won’t. At least not tonight. Tomorrow maybe, but not tonight.”
Tomorrow? What? I rise onto my elbows and the nauseating spinning convinces me to ease my head back to the ground. Driving is going to be a bitch.
“Stop it. You need to stay still. In fact, you need an ambulance.”
“No hospitals.” Showing at an E.R. like this will cause Dad to go Chernobyl.
“Your friend told me the same thing. It’s why I haven’t called 911. Possibly a stupid decision on my part.”
The pounding stills. “What friend?”
“Haley called Isaiah,” says a female voice to the left. Haley and I jerk our heads toward the darkness. Haley bolts up and jumps over me, acting as if she’s my protector.
I’m dreaming. This is all a bad dream. I’m going to wake tomorrow and think how crazy real this whole thing felt because there is no way my little sister’s best friend would be here.
“I’m Abby,” the voice says to Haley, closer now. “You and I go to Eastwick together.”
Like a stunning yet sadistic version of the grim reaper with long dark hair, Abby walks into the light wearing a black hoodie and skintight blue jeans.
“No, you don’t,” I mumble. “Eastwick is a public school. Abby goes to private school. Not mine—one of those religious ones.” Saint Mary’s. Saint Martha’s. Saint who-the-fuck-knows. It’s what Rachel told my mother. This is a dream. Just a dream.
Haley’s eyes flicker from me to Abby, then back again. She never relaxes her position and my mind stops and starts like it’s stuttering. Fuck me—Haley’s in the same stance as fighter guy.
“I’ve seen you around,” Haley says to Abby. “Do you know him?”
“Yeah. Do you?”
“We sort of ran into each other.”
I laugh and they both stare at me like I’m insane.
“That’s West.” Abby slurs my name. “He’s been causing problems for a friend of mine.”
Haley edges herself between me and Abby like she’s willing to box this girl for me.
Abby chuckles. “Relax. You called Isaiah and Isaiah called me. For the moment, I’m playing guardian angel.”
Isaiah? “Hell no.” I shove off the ground like I’m doing a sit-up and only get far enough to prop my arms on my knees. I’ve never liked rides that went in circles and I haven’t recently changed my mind. My eyes shut tight. “I don’t want that bastard’s help.”
“Well, you’re getting it,” says Abby. When I reopen my eyes, Abby smirks. “And it looks like you need it.”
“Screw that,” I mutter and spit out new blood that’s trickled from the cut on my lip.
Isaiah is Rachel’s boyfriend and he’s the reason why she’s in the hospital. Dad found Rachel with him at a dragway and that’s where Dad and Rachel had their accident. I’ll roast in hell and haul Isaiah there with me before I accept his help. “How does he know about this?”
Haley drops beside me. “You were out. Cold. I found your cell and I was desperate to find someone who knew you to see what hospital you should go to, so I dialed the first number I found—”
“And he answered,” I cut her off. Haley must have called Rachel. My brother told me that except for a few hours here and there Isaiah’s been chained to Rachel’s bedside at the hospital. Night and day. And that he carries her phone because he discovered it in the wreckage the day after the Jaws of Life pulled her out of the car. We assumed it was broken. Who would have guessed a phone would make it when Rachel barely survived?
“West.” Haley surveys the damage to my face, my hands, my body. “I really am sorry.”
God, I’m jacked up because everything pounds like a bitch and I can only think about her beautiful dark eyes. “It’s all right.”
She grabs a bag off the ground and stands. “I’ve got to go. I’m late.”
Abby tilts her head as she assesses Haley. “You know who I am?”
Haley straightens like she’s greeting an ax murderer. “Yes.”
I’m missing entire puzzle pieces here, as in everything except for the one corner piece I hold. Nothing here is as it seems, and I hate being the odd man out.
Abby thrusts her chin in my direction. “His younger sister is my best friend. I can help you...with whatever situation this is.”
“No,” says Haley quickly. “I’m fine. Look, I’ve really got to go.” She takes a step into the darkness.
“What the hell are you two talking about?” They ignore me, and why shouldn’t they? It’s not like I could get up and force them to listen.
Abby shrugs. “If you change your mind...”
“I won’t.” Haley finally turns her attention to me. “Thanks, West. But the next time a girl tells you to do something, do it, okay?”
I’d call her nothing but attitude if it weren’t for the defeat in her tone. “Haley...”
She doesn’t wait for me to talk; instead she races down the street. Fucked. Up. Dream. I rub my eyes and consider standing.
Abby’s tennis shoes crunch against the crumbling blacktop and halt at my feet. “Your choice—home, hospital or a place to lay low until you’re ready for one of the first two options. The prize behind curtain C comes with a shower and a change of clothes.”
I dismiss my original answer of no when I notice the blood on my shirt. I can’t go home or to the hospital like this. I can’t do that to my mother.
Using the bumper of my car, I struggle up and hobble to the passenger side as I eye Abby sliding into the driver’s seat. I’m slow getting in, but I’ll be damned if I ask for help.
The interior light dims when I shut the door. Abby fastens her seat belt and wraps her fingers around the steering wheel. “I don’t have my driver’s license.”
“Can you drive?”
“Sure.”
That didn’t sound reassuring. “Just go.”
She doesn’t. “You should buy goldfish.”
“What?”
“For your car. Like build a tank in between your front and back seats. It’d be different and I like different.”
If it will get me to a shower faster... “Okay.”
She smiles. “Really?”
“Sure.”
Abby shifts the car into gear. “And, West?”
I roll my head to look at her.
“I know your mother’s secret.”