PROLOGUE
Twenty-four hours passed in a blur. People wandered in and out of my room to check on me, but I didn’t know why they’d come.
I was hurt.
Pain radiated through my body, assuring me of that, but I couldn’t make sense of where I was.
Or why it felt so much like home.
The sweet scent of sugar cookies baking in the oven filled the air. The warmth of a golden sun touched my face. And my mouth watered at the taste of strawberries.
But then, I choked on blood.
It pooled in the back of my throat, and I rushed to sit up, needing to get it out.
I heaved violently as gentle hands rubbed my back. Someone held a bowl under my mouth, and a stronger grip pressed down on my shoulders, easing me onto a bed of pillows.
As blankets tucked in tightly around me, soft curls tickled my cheek. A shaky shushing noise filled my ears. Although it was too muffled to hear, something about it felt familiar.
It soothed me back to sleep.
Sometime later, I woke up again.
A stethoscope pressed against my chest, and a tight band squeezed my bicep. When warm liquid ran down my chin, a cool rag wiped it away. I squinted, my blurry gaze catching hints of red on white cloth before it disappeared beneath my shirt.
Wrinkled eyes in my favorite shade of blue-green watched over me. A caring voice promised to take care of me, reminding me I was a good…something.
Everything seemed so far away. I wasn’t sure if I dreamed the word whispered in my ear or the soft touches over my skin, but I held onto what was said, believing it.
I was good…
I was safe now.
The quiet reassurances filled my chest with emotion, and when the soft voice shook over a clearer word, my heart clenched.
“…love…”
I liked the way it felt to hear it. In my life, the word so rarely followed “I” and came before “you.” And I wouldn’t forget, beneath the pain, how much it meant tofeelit.
When it became too hard to stay awake, I fell back to sleep with a smile on my face.
That was all I remembered.
Before I sawher.
1
ADDIE
SOPHOMORE YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL, 2015, AGE 16
Iquickened my pace, jogging up the school steps and tugging my backpack tighter over my shoulder.
With my head down, my hair fell forward and shielded my face. Sunlight glinted off the golden-brown strands as I hastily tucked them behind my ears. “I said no, Owen.”
But the persistent upperclassman, who’d set his sights on me before the bell rang, wasn’t deterred by my refusal.
He followed me up the stone steps, clinging to his pursuit like a hungry squid on my back.
