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When I reach the clearing toward the end of the hallway, I find Coach Roberts crouched on the floor beside Sebastian’s prone body.
A scream catches in my throat.
Sebastian is passed out. Coach Roberts is trying to wake him up. Beside him, Mrs. Coleman is talking frantically into her cellphone.
“You’re a dead man, Tanner!” Xavier yells a few feet away, as Mr. Cunningham wraps a burly arm around his middle and pulls him away from Justin. He struggles to break free for another few seconds and then relents, jaw clenched; chest still heaving.
Mr. Golding leads Justin down the hallway, away from the crowd, while Mr. Cunningham pulls Xavier off to the side, placing a hand against his chest to keep him up against the wall and out of the way.
On the floor, Sebastian is still out cold, his face alabaster white.
I’m kneeling beside him now. And Coach Roberts doesn’t say anything about me being here. He looks white, too. He’s talking right into Sebastian’s ear, but he leans aside when I duck down and stroke Sebastian’s hair out of his eyes.
“Sebastian? Can you hear me?” I trail a knuckle along his swollen jaw; place my lips close to his exposed ear. “Wake up… Seb. Please… can you open your eyes?Please?”
But his eyes don’t even flutter. His body doesn’t flinch.
Not even at the sound of sirens wailing a few seconds later. Or when four paramedics burst through the doors and lift his limp body onto a stretcher, then carry him out to an ambulance waiting outside in the rain.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Seb
Iwakeupina strange room… in a strange bed. With a needle taped to my arm, and weird beeping noises and—
Oh, wait. I’m in a hospital.
Why the hell am I in a hospital?
Suddenly, Dale and Graham are standing over me. Then hugging me. They both look like hell. Relieved. But also like total crap.
I got into a fight at school. Justin Tanner knocked me out. I don’t remember any of it. My brain is hazy as fuck. Nurses and doctors come in and out of the room for the next few hours, only one moment it feels like it’s just been minutes and then it feels like I’ve been here for days. Everything sort of melds together because I feel so disconnected from my body. A few things come back to me. Nothing from right before the fight, though. Or the fight itself.
Then Caroline walks in and I remember the conversation with Tromely and finding out my girlfriend is leaving Sandy Haven. And suddenly I wish I’d stayed knocked out for longer.
Her eyes are red and puffy and wet with tears, and now I’m even more confused.
Why issheupset?
She comes right over and squeezes me so hard it feels like my head might pop right off the rest of my body.
“Oh my God, you scared me Seb!” she’s crying, and it’s like I’m pushing through a thick fog just trying to make sense of everything.
And the way she’s looking at me does not look like the expression of someone who’s been planning to walk away from me without saying goodbye. Basically, dumping me with no reason why. Honestly, she looks devastated right now.
“Why would you go and do that?” she asks through her tears, pulling back and releasing me so I can actually breathe again. “Why would you get in a stupid fight with stupid Justin Tanner?”
But the only thing that comes out of my mouth is a question of my own. “Why didn’t you tell me you’re leaving?”
She looks surprised for a second. And then she cups my face in her hands, so gently it’s hard to believe it’s the same girl who was just squeezing the living crap out of me a few seconds ago. “I was going to but—”
I cut her off. “So leave, then. I don’t want you staying out of fucking pity. Because I got my lights knocked out in a fight.”
“But I—”
“Just… leave, Caro.” I try pushing myself up, then fall back against the pillows when I feel the needle piercing deeper into my flesh from the sudden pressure.
Caro takes a step back, rubbing her hands along her outer thighs. “Okay, remember when you were trying to explain everything to me? About you and Scarlett that night of the party? And you kept begging me to just hear you out?”
