Chapter 83. Hospital

I hate hospitals.

It smells like endings in hospitals. Or even death itself. They have a disinfectant odor that reminds you

of illness and hopelessness. I never liked them at all.

They remind me of things I’d prefer to forget, of last goodbyes said in whispers over the steady harsh beep of a machine.

I had been avoiding Lila telling myself it was what was best for both of us but I knew it wasn’t.

Then as he put on his jersey in the locker room Caleb casually brought it up.

I heard her name over the sounds of locker slamming and dumb jokes but he wasn’t even speaking to me—just to someone else. One of the girls in the drama club.

“She fainted when she was home alone. Fortunately her Mom arrived just in time.”

That was the end of it. In an instant every barrier I had been erecting and every lie I had been telling myself vanished into thin air.

I didn’t know what happened but I knew I didn’t want to for the last period and for pract