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Liliana immediately pulls the straw back as I drop my head on the pillow.

“I think what I’m most irritated about is the fact that a girl shoved a live frog in my mouth,” I say, knowing I’m not making sense.

“Alive?” Emil asks, going with it as he comes around to sit next to me. Liliana drops down on her chair with wide eyes and I nod.

“It fought back as hard as I did,” I add. “Where the hell Alastair’s stepsister got a frog, I don’t know. Fuck, I think I’m high. These are really good drugs. I’m not supposed to tell you any of this.”

Emil snorts, taking my hand carefully. “Then please keep talking. I’ve found prep school antics have a way of getting people killed. You can call me overprotective, but I don’t care. I already suggested pulling you from the school.”

I would make a face at him if I could feel it.

“It’s up to you,” Liliana grumbles. “Rachelle is in the waiting room blowing up the school with calls. Her mom is with the girls, and only one person is allowed in here. I took point. I scare the nurses.”

“I snuck in,” Emil says sheepishly. “If Liliana is scary, I’m sure I could make a nurse shit herself.”

A giggle pierces the air, and I realize I’m the one laughing. “Please don’t,” I snicker. “Did they break anything?”

“No,” Emil growls, his fingers still gentle as he holds my hand, despite his anger. “Most of your face is free of bruises, but there are shoe shaped bruises developing on your body, according to the nurses.”

“There are also finger shaped bruises on your jaw and throat,” Liliana says. “These were girls at school?!”

“Yeah. Apparently, I pissed in someone’s juice box,” I say, my eyes feeling heavy. “Bruises fade, it’s fine.”

“It’s certainly not,” Emil grunts.

“I just texted Rachelle you’re awake, Noor,” Liliana says. “I want us to hear what happened once. The nurses can bite me.”

My lips twitch in amusement, but that’s the most I can really feel. I’m sure once the pain meds fade it’ll suck.

A knock on the door brings in the entire gang, and their expressions range from angry, sad, to nothing. Theo’s gaze keeps moving over me as if he’s cataloguing my injuries.

“You must want to kill people, Lili, because I definitely do,” Rachelle says, walking over to share the chair Liliana is sitting in. “What can you tell me about what happened, Noor? I can’t let these people get away with this.”

“I thought we were bad in school,” Elijah breathes, not thinking I can hear him. The heart monitor begins to beep a little faster, but I ignore it.

I’ll be lucky not to set the stupid thing off. Not everyone calibrates their monitors correctly for people with tachycardia. That reminds me of my own heart monitor, and I touch my chest, wincing.

“They ripped my heart monitor off,” I mention. “Those things are expensive.”

“I don’t care about the money, Noor. I can see the red spots on your chest. I’m more angry they hurt you,” Rachelle says.

“There was a live frog shoved in her mouth,” Emil says helpfully. “I can’t fucking believe this happened.”

“It’s my fault for going into the courtyard,” I explain. “I had a feeling the cafeteria was going to be a problem. I went outside to wait out the lunch hour.”

“I have a feeling they would have jumped you no matter where you were,” Theo says, his voice sounding like gravel. “Start from the beginning, okay? Your texts made it sound like you had issues all day.”

It’s dark outside, which means a significant amount of time has passed. Taking as large of a breath as I can, I stare at my feet underneath the blankets as I explain how my day went. The beeping gets louder here and there as I relive the day, but talking about the fucking frog makes the monitor attached to my finger lose its shit.

“Ugh, stupid thing,” I exclaim with a groan. The door flies open as several nurses hustle in and I shake my head. “Can you fix this so it doesn’t yell every time my heart throws a fit, please? I’m not having an attack, I can speak fine, I just have a stupid thing where my heart beat goes up and down.”

Jared’s lips twist in amusement as he turns to the nurses, explaining that my POTS is setting off the sensors.

“I can fix that,” a tall nurse says, walking over to change the settings.

“Thank you,” I sigh. “They’re really loud.”

“They’re supposed to be,” she says, hiding a smile. “You know we have a visitor limit, young lady?”