I wasn’t worth losing his brothers. If Noah got caught he’d get arrested. My stomach dropped to my toes. What did I have to lose? I was a two-bit artist roaming the country with her canvases. So I’d have a record (every muscle cringed) and I’d have to stay at least one night in jail (vomit burned the back of my throat). Yeah, it would be great.
Noah’s arms tightened and I could have sworn he kissed my hair. I could do it—for him. I could give myself up and tell Noah to stay hidden. I was reaching out to shove open the door when Noah’s hand smacked it back down and held it to my stomach in a death grip. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he asked in a low voice.
“Taking a peek to see if we’re in the clear?” Crap, I sucked at lying.
“Hell, no, and you’re full of shit. You’re staying here with me.”
“Your brothers …”
“I gave them up.”
I shifted so I could see his face and the pain in his eyes sliced through me. “Not for me.”
His throat moved as he swallowed and he shook his head. “For them.”
My cell vibrated. Isaiah texted back: Bad. Get out thru window now. Car ready.
“Fuck,” whispered Noah. “I must have triggered an alarm. Come on.”
He quietly opened the door to the coat cabinet. In a methodical yet somehow fluid motion, he opened one of the windows. Without headlights, Isaiah’s car moved stealthily into the student parking lot.
Noah picked up one of my feet to help lift me out the window. “Keep running until you can get in Isaiah’s car.”
“What about you?” Pure panic shook my insides. I thought my eyes were going to wheel out of my head.
He gave me his relaxed, wicked grin. “I’ll be right behind you, baby. Did I ever mention you’re uptight?”
As he gave me a boost, I noticed that Mrs. Collins’s desk sat file-free. Oh, well. I rapidly climbed through the window and sprinted across the parking lot toward Isaiah, peeking behind my shoulder to see Noah crouched near the wall. Blood pounded in my veins and the cool night air burned my lungs as I raced to freedom.
The back passenger door flew open and I dove inside, landing on Beth’s feet. I slammed the door behind me. My gut twisted at the sight of Noah running full speed toward the car. Lights in the main office flashed on. Isaiah continued to drive closer to Noah. My eyes darted between Noah and Mrs. Collins’s dark office. Isaiah threw the front passenger door open and took off the second Noah landed in the front seat.
“We’ve got to get out of here.” Isaiah glanced in his rearview mirror.
“Take me to my car then go home.” Noah was watching the dark, closed window of Mrs. Collins’s office. He cackled and hooted when the light turned on the moment we crossed the invisible freedom line of the grocery store parking lot.
Isaiah pulled up next to Noah’s car and the two of us got out. Beth still lay sound asleep in the back. Isaiah called out to us, “Fight someplace else. Don’t stay here.”
Noah offered Isaiah his hand. “Thanks, bro.”
Accepting it, Isaiah answered, “Anytime, man.”
Isaiah drove off as Noah started his car and followed after him. Two blocks from the school, a police car with lights flashing and no siren drove past us going the opposite direction. That had been freaking close.
Noah covered my hand with his. “You okay, baby?”
“Yeah.” But I didn’t feel okay. I felt anything but okay. I waited for my pulse to stop beating my veins like a gang initiation, for the blood to leave my face and for my lungs to not burn as I gasped. We were safe now. We were free, but my body still reacted like the devil was chasing me.
Another cop car drove past and the blue and red flashing lights hurt my eyes. In my temples, a slow, steady throb mimicked the rhythm of the blue light—away and near, away and near.
The left side of my face felt numb and my head grew light. “Noah, I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Hold on.” Noah turned into an abandoned parking lot. He’d barely parked the car when I threw the door open and stumbled out, hacking up the remains of my long-ago lunch.
Noah held my hair away from my face. His body shook with silent laughter. “Seriously, you are way too uptight.”
Part of me wanted to laugh with him, but I couldn’t. I sat back on my knees and stared into the dark night. I couldn’t get the flashing lights out of my head. The red and the blue. Near and away. Near and away.
And then … darkness. No lights. No sounds. Darkness …
Vibrant, colorful images flashed forward in my mind in rapid succession, hitting me like bullets from a machine gun. My head dropped forward and I covered it with my arms to drown it all out. My mind pulled at the images, attempting to sort them, to categorize them, but it couldn’t—and the loss of control, the bombardment, caused sharp, excruciating pain to tear through my brain. Voices and sounds and high-pitched screams clawed at my mind.
I realized that I was screaming and heard Noah speaking rapidly to me. The sound of glass shattering and my own screams drowned him out.
“What happened?” A man with a small light in his hand hovered over me. Red lights flashed behind him and beyond that constellations glowed in the night sky. My mother’s voice whispered in my ear, crooning to me to return to her story.
“No!” I fought to keep myself from falling back into the pit, back to her floor … to keep away from my own blood. “Noah!”
His voice had a husky edge as he called out to me, “I’m right here, baby.”
The man withdrew the light. A stethoscope hung from his neck. “Have you taken any drugs tonight? Have you been drinking?”
The rage in Noah’s voice tasted bitter in my own mouth. “Listen, you fucking asshole, for the fifth time, she’s clean.”
He ignored Noah as he rubbed his hands under my neck. “Pot? Meth? Pills of any kind?”
You’re not allowed sleeping pills. My own voice echoed from the back of my mind. No. No. God, no. Gravitational forces pushed me into the ground and my mind got sucked into itself and yanked reality from my grasp.