Wry smile. Clap, breathe.
Red kept talking. “Dr. Hayston gave me tips on what to do when I had a panic attack. And I take medication.”
“So painkillers for the endo and, um, Prozac? Or something?” I was looking at the sky, like that’d help distract me from what I was doing. (Clap, breathe.)
“Not Prozac, but yeah, antianxiety medication. And painkillers for about two weeks out of every month, and birth control pills, which also help with the endo. I have a permanent pharmacy in my bag. Heh. It feels ridiculous sometimes. Like I’m fake or weak. Dr. Hayston says I shouldn’t think that way. Maybe she’s right. She usually is. I don’t know whether it’s her therapy or the medication, but it’s helping, it really is. I was a mess before. It’s not like I’m suddenly OK, but at least when I freak out now, I know what’s happening and what to do. I feel like I have more control.”
“I’d like control,” I rasped.
“How do you feel?” Red asked.
“Silly.” My cheeks felt hot. Tears pricked my eyes. But the rest of me, my heart, my breathing, my skin . . . “Better. I think.”
“You want to keep clapping?”
“For a little bit.” Silly. But Red didn’t seem to mind, and I didn’t want the world to come crashing down again.
“Me too. Do you know what you just did?” Clap. “I think you helped distract me from a panic attack of my own.”
“Go me.” I tried to work up a smile.
“Hazel . . .,” Red said after a moment. “I don’t know how, but we’re getting through this. OK? We are.”
Clap. Breathe. Clap.
“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
My coat felt heavy when I picked it up from the grass after coming down from the hill. I tried not to look up. The other Hazels were probably staring after my display just now.
“Are you OK?” Rainbow asked.
I couldn’t answer. I avoided meeting their eyes, Four’s especially. She looked pale, red-eyed, and utterly wiped out. A small, embarrassed heap. Precisely like how I felt.
With the sweat drying on my skin, I finally noticed the December cold. I wrapped the coat around me. Something thunked into my side. I dug around in the pocket. My fingers brushed past a phone that I realized wasn’t mine even before I plucked it out. I blinked at the device. “It’s that girl’s phone. Well, she borrowed it. She gave it to me to text her dad for help. I must’ve slipped it in my pocket.”
“Is Tara OK?” Rainbow stepped closer to me.
“Tara,” Red repeated. “Is that the girl’s name?”
Rainbow didn’t answer, her eyes fixed on me, waiting for a reply.
“She’s fine. Her dad got her out.” I peered at Rainbow. “You know her in your world, don’t you? You knew how to get to the house. And about the spare key in the fake rock.”
Rainbow blew out a sigh. “Tara’s my girlfriend.”
I have a girlfriend?
No: Not me. Rainbow. There was a big difference.
I shook the thought out of my head.
I needed to put these puzzle pieces together. How did the trolls, Hazel Five, and Rainbow’s girlfriend-in-another-dimension all end up in this tiny town?
“When Red first mentioned Damford, I was worried,” Rainbow explained. “Tara lives here in my world, too. I looked up local reports and social media in case I could find anything about her. I saw her house in a photo, took a closer look, and, well, saw that Hazel in the window.”
Five ending up in Tara’s house had to mean—
“Five must know a Tara in her world, as well,” Red said. I could practically see the lightbulb over her head. “Our worlds are similar. Two of us could have the same girlfriend. So last night, after Five arrived, she managed to run without us noticing or the MGA finding her.”
“She fled to the next safest place she knew,” Rainbow said.
“But Tara was already gone by then. She didn’t know anyone was even inside the house.” I pursed my lips. Five had come all the way to Damford, found Tara’s house, then entered without anyone noticing and without even talking to Tara? And how had Five made it safely inside, if there were already enough trolls that Tara had needed to flee so abruptly she couldn’t even take her phone—?
“Idea!” I held up the phone. “Like I said, this isn’t actually Tara’s phone. She borrowed it from a neighbor after she left her phone charging in her room. So if Five is still inside the house . . .” I offered the phone to Rainbow. “Do you know Tara’s cell number?”
Before we could discuss strategy, Rainbow had dialed and was holding the phone to her ear. For a few moments, we waited, standing in a circle in the grass. It was quiet enough that I could hear the phone ring.
It went to voicemail.
Rainbow hung up. “That went too fast. Five must’ve declined the call. Which means she’s there.”
“Or someone else is,” Red said. “Or this world’s Tara has a different phone number.”
Everyone seemed on board with contacting Hazel Five. Neven had left the decision to fight the trolls up to us, but we hadn’t even discussed it.
We hadn’t needed to.
“Let’s text her. Dear Hazel,” Rainbow said aloud as she typed up the text, “holy shit the world is ending, wtf, apparently we’re supposed to do something about it??? Please message back. Love, Hazel, Hazel, Hazel, and Hazel.”
Red laughed, and so did I, though it felt forced. (They could probably tell.) “Close,” I said. “But we haven’t even met. ‘Love’ seems a bit much. Maybe end with ‘Best.’”
“Good point,” Rainbow said. “Well, let’s take another approach. Like: Hazel—are you OK in there? Can you leave safely? We could evacuate you from a window. Let us know what you need. -x-Friends.”
“Perfect,” Red
