AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I think I’m going to throw up.”
“Open the window.”
I lowered it. Wind rushed in. “You want me to take your sweater off?”
He smiled reluctantly. “Just be careful.”
Nausea rolled over me. “Patrick—”
He slowed and pulled over to the side. I leaned out the window, hanging on to the rim, and threw up, as carefully as I fucking could. Somehow, I managed to miss his car. And his precious sweater.
“God.” I sank back onto my seat, my throat sore from retching. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.” He took a bottle of water out of his glove compartment and twisted the cap off.
When the seal snapped, his eye twitched. I would have called it a tic, but I’d never seen it before. He handed me the bottle.
I spit the first mouthful out the window and drank a few sips, the plastic sides of the water bottle crumpling inward.
Patrick pulled onto the road. “We’re close. Hang in there.”
“I’ll try.” I rested my head against his solid shoulder. He glanced down at me.
“Don’t close your eyes,” he warned.
“I won’t. Promise.”
We drove past the student union and the library. Yellow squares of windows glowed in the dark.
“Probably everyone on the squad hates me now,” I muttered. “I should send out an email to apologize. I’m sure I’ve been kicked off already.”
“Babe.” A huge hand covered mine as I reached for my purse. “You really think the world’s going to collapse if you fuck up?”
“Kind of, yeah.”
“Then you have a damn high opinion of yourself.” He steered the car into a space in front of Health Services.
“No, that’s you. You’ve got an opinion about everything. What do you think? Will the world collapse?”
Patrick parked. His fingers beat a slow tattoo on the wheel. “You said you were a quitter last semester — letting your grades drop, partying. I think you were trying to prove that if you screwed up, everyone else would be okay. In the end, the only person who suffered was you, and you called it having fun.”
“Remind me not to ask what you think again.”
He tweaked the bow that held my hair in the half-up, half-down style we always wore for games. I didn’t argue when Patrick helped me out, wrapping his arm around my waist as we walked to the glass door of Health Services.
16
Smile
Christina
Heads turned as we walked into the brightly lit waiting room. Health Services wasn’t busy tonight. A few people occupied scattered chairs, sniffling.
“Oh, hey.” One guy pointed at me. “You’re the cheerleader who made everyone fall down.”
I glanced at Patrick’s wool sweater. It covered my uniform, dark as the face of a rock. But between my cheer shoes, bare legs, big red bow in my hair, and school logo on my cheek, you could tell what I’d been doing tonight.
“You were at the game?” I asked.
