Chapter 3
I carried my plate into the kitchen and tipped the food into the trash. The wooden figurine went in after it.
As I turned, Chloe shoved a thick slice of cake into my face.
“Wren! Why'd you turn around?” she exclaimed, pretending to be concerned. She reached for my face with a dirty dishcloth.
“Get the fuck away from me.” I knocked her hand aside and felt along the counter for the faucet.
The noise brought Jasper running.
Chloe got her story out first. “I was giving her some cake. She walked into it and then started blaming me.”
Jasper seized my arm. “Apologize. Right now.”
“For what? I didn't do anything!” I looked from him to Chloe.
My oldest friend and the man I'd once loved more than anyone. Neither of them had remembered my dairy allergy.
I pulled away and headed for the front door. I was done being there.
Two minutes later, I was back inside, holding my phone in a shaking hand.
“Jasper, please take me to the hospital. Mom collapsed. They've taken her in, and I didn't bring my car.”
I could barely catch my breath. I didn't know how much of that was panic and how much was the allergic reaction.
His parents' place was out in the suburbs, and at that hour the rideshare app couldn't find a driver nearby.
Jasper didn't hurry.
“Of course I'll take you. Once you've apologized to Chloe.”
She was busy telling the other guests how badly I'd treated her. They were listening sympathetically to the wrong person.
My mother mattered more than this stupid argument. I walked over to her.
“I'm sorry.”
“Come on, Wren. I could never stay mad at you. We've been friends forever. It just hurt when you swore at me. That's all I was trying to—”
I didn't wait for the rest. I took Jasper's hand and pulled him toward the car.
Neither of us spoke for a while after he started driving. Then he broke the silence.
“I made you apologize because I know how much you two mean to each other. You've been friends for over twenty years. I don't want to watch you throw that aw—”
“Watch the road.”
Chloe called a few minutes later.
“Jasper? Jasper, I…” She paused. “I hate asking, but I don't have anyone else. Remember when you slipped on the stairs and I caught you? I hurt my ankle, and now it's really bad. I can't drive.”
He slammed on the brakes.
The sudden stop threw me forward, and my head struck the windshield.
Jasper got out, came around to my door, opened it, and hauled me onto the roadside.
“Sorry. You'll have to find another way. Chloe has been drinking, and now her ankle's hurting again. I have to at least get her home safely.”
“But my mom—”
He was already behind the wheel. The car pulled away before I could finish.
I stood there watching the taillights vanish.
I didn't recognize the road. My phone had no signal. Its dim screen was the only light I had, and beyond it there was almost nothing but darkness.
I was terrified.
When I was little, my parents had locked me in the basement as punishment. I'd never gotten over it. Being left out there brought the same fear back so sharply that my skin prickled.
He'd forgotten that about me, too.
When he'd still cared, Jasper had put automatic night-lights all over our house. He'd kept candles and matches ready for an outage. He'd been determined that I'd never have to sit alone in the dark.
Now the person he was looking after was Chloe.
I ran along the road, trying to reach the highway.
Half an hour passed before a driver finally stopped and agreed to take me to the hospital.
…
When I got there, a doctor told me, “Your mother has had a sudden bleed in her brain. She's critically ill. We're doing everything we can.”
I heard that much. Then I lost consciousness.
…
It was just after dawn when I woke.
The doctor explained that my allergic reaction had caused me to collapse. A little longer without treatment, and I might not have survived.
But I wasn't the only one who'd made it through the night.
Mom's operation had worked. She was alive.
I couldn't find words for how relieved I was. If she'd needed me and I'd never made it to her, I didn't know how I could have lived with that.
