I hoped like hell that wasn’t what was happening here. Though, honestly, I wasn’t sure what to think about any of this. Until this morning, Lily waking up even to say goodbye and then die had been far from the realm of possibility in my mind.
It was a relief, finally, to see the hospital in the distance, and then to turn into the entrance.
Of course, it seemed like everyone in the world must have been at the hospital on this particular Wednesday, because the parking garage was full, and the lots were jammed with cars.
After ten minutes of prowling for a space in the visitor section, I finally gave up and pulled into the vast empty expanse that was reserved for outpatient parking. Mine was the only car in the entire row. Far more visitors today than patients, I guess. Whatever. Let them tow me. It would be worth it just to get inside.
I got out of the car and jogged to the main entrance, keys jangling in my hand. I didn’t even want to take the time to stuff them in my pocket.
The overwhelming stench of antiseptic and hospital filled my nose as soon as I pushed through the revolving door into the lobby. I hauled ass past the visitor information center in the middle of the lobby. I’d been here more than enough times to know where I was going, and though I probably technically should have registered as a visitor, I didn’t have patience for that this morning.
In accordance with everything else, the elevator took forever to descend, and then once I was on it, another eternity to reach the fifth floor.
When the elevator doors started to open, I twisted sideways to fit through and hurried down the hall, my Chucks squeaking on the newly mopped floor.
I heard Lily before I saw her, her voice drifting out into the hall. “And
Being in a coma had certainly made Lily more strident. If there’d ever been anything that bothered me about her, besides her obsession with that asshat Rogers and his crowd, it was that she tended to roll with things as they happened, assuming everyone else knew better than she did. Not anymore, apparently.
When I reached her open door, the sight inside was still a bit of a shock. Lily was sitting up in the bed without any visible means of support, though she was listing slightly to one side, and glaring daggers at a doctor whose hair stood up in all directions, like every strand was trying to escape his head at the same time. Mrs. Turner sat at her bedside, just like usual, only it seemed like she might float away with happiness. She seemed physically lighter, less beaten, now unburdened by the worry for her only daughter.
Lily looked…good. Different somehow, though. Maybeit was just the color in her cheeks and the furious glint in her eyes, or simply that it had been so long since I’d seen her in anything but a dull and insensate state. But it seemed more than that, like someone had lit a fire within her.
I knocked on the door frame and watched as heads turned in my direction.
Relief, as clear as I’d ever seen it, washed over Lily’s face. “Thank God,” she said, which was a little weird. If anything, shouldn’t that be my line? I wondered what she was thinking for her to have that reaction. What did she remember about that last night? Did she think I’d avoided her call, still angry at her as Joonie had been?
“Hi,” I said, feeling a bit awkward for the first time. It occurred to me right then that I hadn’t so much as brushed my teeth before leaving the house. I’d showered last night after coming home from the theater, so at least I was relatively clean. But my arms were visibly scraped up after my fall through the stage, and if I had to guess, I’d bet that myhair wasn’t in any better shape than the doctor’s. All in all, a fairly disreputable picture.
Mrs. Turner, dark circles under her eyes and looking alittle frazzled, performed introductions. “Dr. Highland, this is Will Killian, the friend Lily has been so anxiously awaiting.”
I nodded at the doctor, who seemed less than pleased at the interruption.
“Can we have a minute alone, please?” Lily asked.
“Don’t be rude,” Mrs. Turner scolded mildly. Then she turned her attention to me with a knowing smile. “I’m sure you have lots of catching up to do.”
Lily rolled her eyes.
Mrs. Turner stood and made her way to the door, followed by Dr. Highland. “Don’t be surprised if she doesn’t remember some things,” he said to me quietly as he passed. “She’s having a little trouble with details.”
“Just because I didn’t remember a few names,” Lily muttered.
“Including your own middle name?” Mrs. Turner inquired from the doorway.
Lily huffed.
“She’s also experiencing some personality shifts,” Dr. Highland said carefully. “Again, not uncommon in these types of head injuries.”
I nodded.
“I’ll give you a personality shift,” Lily said under her breath.
Whoa. Okay…
“Just try not to upset her,” the doctor said with one last exasperated look at Lily.
Then he and Mrs. Turner left, closing the door partially behind them.
Lily waved me closer, and I obeyed, moving to the side of her bed. “Listen,” she said in an urgent whisper. “I know you’re not going to like this, but I don’t have time to break you into this gently. I need you to get me out of here.”
“The hospital?” Who was this girl? The Lily I knew would never have dreamed of going against her mother and probably an entire team of doctors. “I don’t know if—”
“No, not the hospital,” she hissed impatiently. “Out of here.” She gestured to herself, hands on her chest.
I shook my head, confused. “I don’t understand.”
She grimaced. “I was afraid of this.”
She took my hand in hers and tugged me down to her until we were eye to eye.
“I’m not Lily, as you should damn well know,” she said evenly. “Lily’s gone. You’re the one that told me that, remember?”
Cold washed over me, and the world spun. Pieces of two separate puzzles I’d thought unrelated snapped together, forming a complete picture. Alona missing. Lily unexpectedly and unbelievably awake and in possession of a personality that seemed nothing like what I’d known of her.
With my heart pounding too hard, I stared at Lily’s familiar heart-shaped face — the sprinkle of freckles acrossher nose, the crinkles near the corner of her eyes that suggested her eagerness to laugh, the jagged but healing scarfrom her accident — and the equally familiar but definitely un-Lily-like determined glint in her light brown eyes, whichwere even now narrowing in that haughty yet almost sexyway that was the trademark look of disdain for only one girlI knew.…
“Alona?” I asked through numb lips.
12
Alona
I knew it would be bad when Will figured it out. That’s why I’d kept my call for help so general. I couldn’t take the chance he’d be so angry he wouldn’t come to the hospital.
And yet somehow, seeing him make the realization, put all the pieces together, it was worse than I’d imagined. Maybe telling him on the phone would have been better.
He went pale, except for two spots of red high up on his cheekbones, and he looked like I’d punched him. No, he looked like I’d punched his mother and then stomped on him for good measure.
Will pulled back from me and dropped my hand like it was on fire.
I’d been expecting this, and yet it still hurt to see that expression of disgust on his face.
“You did this to get back at me?” He wouldn’t meet my gaze, and his fists were clenched at his sides.
His accusation shocked me. “No!” Okay, I’d set out to prove a point, but it wasn’t that one. I’d just wanted toshow him I didn’t need him. Yet I’d accomplished the exact opposite.
He shot me a look brimming with fury and skepticism.
