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She raised her hands in defense and flattened her lips into a line.
This wasn’t like the fair when Oscar and I met. This was more like the hospital, where I had to wait and wait and no one would tell me anything.
Just like then, I wouldn’t leave until they let me see him.
Minutes of waiting turned into hours, but my resolve didn’t waver, not even for a moment.
THIRTY-SIX
MORGAN
Poke poke.
I startled awake to Layana jabbing my shoulder. My neck was stiff, likely from craning it like a weird, broken-necked zombie while I was asleep. Sticky slobber coated my cheek.
I wiped off my cheek and rubbed my blurry, tired eyes. “How long was I out?”
“Maybe an hour since I woke up,” she said. “No idea before that.”
So we’d both crashed. I rolled my shoulders and stretched my arms.
“However long it was, it wasn’t long enough.” My head was swimming so strangely I felt like I actually was a zombie. I rubbed my eyes again, but that didn’t help. “I need a caffeine IV stat.”
Layana popped up to her feet. “We need to go.”
“I can’t go anywhere, not until I see Oscar.”
“We have to be at the show in a half hour.”
“Oh no.” The show. If it was morning, that meant it was recording time, and I’d already been warned that if I missed filming, I was going to get kicked off.
“Oh yes,” Layana said. “You’re committed.”
My everything hurt, including my heart. “You should go without me.”
She scoffed. “Uh, no. We’ll go together.”
“This show is your dream, you can’t miss your chance,” I said.
“Webothneed this so we have a place to stay. If there are two of us in the competition, that doubles our chances of winning. Come on.”
I didn’t care about winning. Did the prize money sound good? Sure, of course, but I wasn’t going to make it that far. Layana deserved it.
I let her pull me to my feet, but then I swung by the front desk.
A man sat there this time, not the lady from before.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m looking for Oscar Carrington. Can I see him yet?”
He gave me a look of confusion. “Mr. Carrington isn’t here anymore. He left hours ago.”
All of a sudden, I was wide awake. “What? Why didn’t anyone tell me? Where did he go?”
“Not here.”
My shoulders fell. My whole body deflated. Oscar wasn’t here, and I had no idea where he’d gone.
“Come on.” Layana put her arm around my shoulders and led me out to my car.
