“Jeff,” I said. “Not a good idea.”
“No, I can’t.” Jeff picked up a pen from the table by his bed. “Autumn, stab my leg with this. Not hard, but enough to break the surface.”
I rolled my eyes. He just went one step too far with this prank. Dallin would never believe that.
“Funny,” I said, ready to clue Dallin in. “I’m not going to stab your leg with a pen.”
Dallin stepped forward and swiped the pen out of Jeff’s hand. “I’ll do it.” And before I could blink, he swung his arm, pen and all, down onto Jeff’s leg.
I screamed, throwing my hands over my mouth in shock. My eyes shot up to Jeff’s face expecting to see pain, but there was only a big smile. Then he laughed. Then he coughed.
“We totally got you,” he said. Dallin laughed as well.
“You guys are punks,” I said, my heart still racing. I leaned against the table, trying to catch my breath.
“Why are you freaking out? It was a joke,” Dallin said.
“I’m not. I . . .”
Jeff cringed through more coughing, his hand going to his side. He was clearly not well enough to do stupid stuff like that.
“Jeff, don’t get too worked up,” I said.
“I know, I know.”
I sighed. I needed to leave. “I better get going.”
“Autumn, it was all in good fun,” Jeff said.
“I know. I’m not mad.” Well, I sort of was. “But you need your rest.” And I did too.
“You’ll come back, right?”
“Yes. It’s obvious you’re getting bored in here.”
“Mind-numbingly.”
“Have a fun visit, Dallin,” I said, but he just took over my seat without responding. Guess the prank hadn’t improved anything between us. He was being such a baby, and I wanted to call him out on it, but not in front of Jeff. I had hoped that once Jeff started improving, Dallin would too, but that had obviously been too much to hope for.
CHAPTER 37
The tile floor was very white in the hospital and I wondered how they kept it clean with all the traffic. After leaving Jeff’s room, I walked down two hallways, counting a hundred of those tiles until my nerves settled. I was thinking about different cleaning products they might have to use when a pair of feet stepped into my line of vision. I looked up and gasped.
“Dax? What are you doing here?” I glanced over my shoulder to see if we had an audience. When I saw we didn’t, I hugged him, which did more to relax me than counting all hundred floor tiles had.
“Thought you might need your distraction,” he said, hugging me back.
I laughed but then realized even with the smirk on his face that he was serious. “Wait, you’re not visiting someone? You’re really here for me?”
“You talked about promises and best friends fighting and you visiting on your off day—I don’t know. I was hardly listening, but I sensed stress in your future.”
He really came here for me. I was beyond shocked. “Hardly listening? Really? It sounds like you were listening perfectly.”
“Don’t get used to it.” He stared down at me.
I hugged him again but quickly pulled away when I heard footsteps. Dallin walked by us, meeting my eyes and raising his eyebrows. He muttered nice under his breath and kept walking.
“Dallin,” I called after him, “do you know Dax? He goes to our school. He volunteers at the hospital.”
He half turned, gave a salute, and kept walking.
“Is this the boyfriend’s best friend that hates your guts?”
“Yep.”
He was silent for three beats, then said, “Did this help?”
I laughed without humor.
Still staring after Dallin, Dax said, “Volunteers at the hospital? You probably should’ve gone with mandatory community service. It might’ve been more believable.”
“Not true.”
“Do you want me to go threaten him to stay quiet about my philanthropic side?”
“No.”
“Can we get out of here, then?”
I hesitated, wondered if I should go and tell Jeff about this before Dallin did. Downplay it. Or maybe a bigger downplay would be not to mention it at all and act like it was no big deal if Jeff brought it up.
Dax nodded once, his smile falling. “I’ll leave.”
“No,” I said, determined. “Let’s go.”
We walked toward the exit. “How do you think they keep these floors clean?” I asked.
“A really good janitor?”
I smiled that he actually answered my question instead of making fun of me for it. “Did you take the bus all the way here?”
He nodded.
“How do you make money for bus fare?”
“The old-fashioned way.”
“Holding up train conductors? Robbing banks?”
His smile was back, which was my goal. His hard-to-earn smiles made me feel like I did something not many others could.
“Mowing lawns. Washing windows.”
“I was close.” I clasped my hands together and offered him a bright smile. “The time has come.”
“For what?”