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seventeen
Eric
It turned out someone saw a suspicious black car parked in front of the school and called the cops. That didn’t leave us time to burn the shirt with Mark Warner’s blood on it, so I just wore my clean shirt over it and hoped for the best. The gruesome scene the sheriff found kept him distracted enough that he didn’t look at me twice. Besides, Valerie and I were clearly the victims who had survived a horrifying ordeal.
We gave our statements at the scene, and now we’re back home.
No sooner do I step inside the house than Mom turns me around and hugs me fiercely. “Eric, my boy, I was so worried about you.”
I hug her back, but my gaze follows Valerie as she walks past us. “I’m okay, Mom.”
Keith is not as affectionate as my mother is, so Valerie doesn’t have to suffer from a bone-shattering hug like I do. Or so I thought. Mom steps back and pulls Valerie into the fold, hugging us both now. Valerie looks at me with a what-the-fuck glint in her eyes, and I have to fight the urge to laugh. But I can’t control the little upward twitch on my lips.
“Let’s go to my office. I need to check your injuries,” Keith pipes up.
We refused to be checked at the scene by the paramedics, mainly because we didn’t want anyone to see Valerie’s new tattoo. Keith backed our request and said he’d examine us himself. Now, we need to avoid him too.
“I’m fine, Dad. It’s Eric who got slashed on the leg. I just want to take a shower.”
I narrow my eyes.Way to throw me under the bus, Val.But my injury doesn’t have the implications that hers does.
“Are you sure?” Keith asks her.
“Yeah.” She moves toward the stairs, and when her father isn’t looking, she mouths at me,Sorry.
“All right, Eric. Let’s check that leg.”
I follow Keith to his office, which is a smaller version of the one at his practice downtown. There’s an examining table, a white desk with a computer, and behind it, a cabinet with glass-paneled doors showcasing an array of drug samples and small glass bottles. With all these ingredients at her disposal, it’s no wonder Valerie got so good at making poisons.
“Take your pants off and hop on the exam table for me, son.”
I hate doctors. Have since I was a child. I always felt they knew there was something wrong with me, that they could tell I wasn’t wired like most people. That was obviously all in my head. Those damn doctors were oblivious and cared only about prescribing medication I probably didn’t need.
Being examined by my stepfather is a million times worse. I’m getting antsy. I glance at the penholder on his desk and get the urge to plunge one of his pens into his neck. But I stomp on that compulsion until it dies. It won’t do to kill my mother’s husband and Valerie’s dad.
Keith has done nothing wrong. He’s not on your list, Eric.
I repeat that mantra in my head until my accelerated pulse returns to normal and my brain is off the kill-now frequency. I sit, tense as hell, on the exam table and wait for Keith.
He puts on his wire-framed glasses and walks over. “Let’s see what we have here. Lie down on the table for me.”
Grinding my teeth, I do as he says and stare at the ceiling. When his cold fingers touch the area near my wound, I jerk a little and curl my hands into fists.
“Does it hurt?” he asks.
“No. Your hands are like ice.”
“Ah, sorry about that. It is only a superficial laceration. We’ll have to keep an eye on it for signs of infection, but it’s looking good.”
“Great,” I try to sound chipper, but my tone comes out wrong.
“How did it happen?”
“To be fair, I don’t know. It’s all a blur.”
I can’t tell him Valerie shot me with an arrow. Even if someone finds the pieces we scattered all over the school building, no one will know what they are. The tip I kept it safe in my pocket. Val shooting me with an arrow doesn’t fit the story we told the cops. Besides, that arrow tip has sentimental value now. It’s a trophy of our triumphant night together.
“Maybe it’s better if you don’t remember. This is going to sting a little.” He cleans the wound, but I barely feel the pain. “You don’t need stitches, so I’ll just put on a bandage to protect it.”
