“Doctor said you shouldn’t have any problems writing.”
“Yeah, well, I will once I’m through with all of this,” she grumbled, flicking the bundle of pages with her good hand. “It’s still raining outside. You could’ve ‘accidentally’ dropped them in the street or something.” She jutted her bottom lip out at me. “Don’t you care about me at all?”
I pulled out the Nintendo Switch next and held it up.
Placing a hand over her chest, she gave a fake sniffle. “You do care.”
“Don’t go spreading rumors. I have a reputation to uphold.” I handed her the controllers before going over to the TV hanging from the wall.
“What about you?” Esmer asked while I connected the Switch to the hospital’s TV.
“What about me?”
“Any crazy ex-girlfriends or boyfriends I should be worried about?”
I gave her a flat look, my arm wedged between the TV and the wall.
“What?” she asked with an innocent look. “I bet some goth or vamp kids would find the whole cursed-by-Death thing super sexy.”
Once I’d plugged in the HDMI cord, I lowered the Switch onto a nearby end table and walked back to the bed. “What do you want to play? I have racing games, sport games, puzzle games, first-person-shooter games—”
“Come on,” she practically groaned. “I shared. Give me something.”
I held her gaze. “This friend thing we have going on is the closest I’ve come to a relationship since freshman year of high school. She found out about the curse. It scared her, but she felt sorry for me so she pretended like everything was fine. Until, one day, she snapped. Broke down crying, saying she couldn’t do it anymore. I let her go. Are you happy now?”
I knew I was probably red in the face and it pissed me off. I bowed my head over my backpack before shoveling my hand in. After selecting the first game I came across, I got up to stuff the chip into the slot in the Switch. Then I leaned back in my chair and watched the screen light up. She didn’t say a word, but I knew she was watching me.
“Don’t feel sorry for me,” I finally snapped.
Esmer held her hands up. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Really?” I waved at the space between us. “Because it feels like you’re feeling sorry for me.”
“Well, I can’t help that.”
I rubbed the back of my neck in frustration. “Then say something.”
“I don’t wanna play this game,” she said as the opening credits of Mario Party came on.
“Fine.” I got out of my chair yet again to eject the card. “What do you want to play then?”
“Super Smash.”
I scoffed. “Your funeral.”
“What? Are you, like, the king of Super Smash or something?” Esmer made her voice a little deeper toward the end there, like she was trying to impersonate me. It was terrible.
But I didn’t feel like smiling just yet. “Kind of, yeah.”
A snort. “We’ll see about that.”
She didn’t bring up the subject of relationships again.
◆◆◆
Esmer dropped her pencil over her homework with a groan. “This sucks. How long have I been here?”
I lay on the linoleum on my back with my legs up against the wall. After sitting in that plastic chair for two hours, I had a twinge in my lower back I couldn’t get rid of. Lying on the floor helped. Especially because it was so cold. It was better than shoving an ice pack into the waistband of my jeans.
I was trying to read the stupid book I’d been assigned for my class on Victorian poets but I was starting to go bleary-eyed. I could’ve sworn I read the same sentence three times.
I lowered the book over my chest and rubbed my eyes. “How long have you been struggling with your algebra assignment or how long have you been in the hospital?”
“Both,” she huffed in my periphery.
I looked for my discarded phone, blindly slapping the floor beside me. I glanced at the screen once I’d found it. “You’ve been bitching about your homework for almost an hour. You’ve been in the hospital for three and a half weeks.”
She shoved the folder away and slouched back against her pillows. “This is stupid. I ain’t never gonna use algebra. I don’t know why I even signed up for it.”
“Because your mom wanted you to have a full schedule for your first semester of college?”
Blowing a raspberry, Esmer turned her back on me. “Well, I’m dropping it. It’s too damn hard.” Then she crossed her arms and burrowed further into her pillows.
I bent my knees and pushed my heels against the wall, putting more distance between it and me. With a grunt, I heaved myself into a sitting position. My back complained mildly. I stretched on my way to her bed, book in hand.
“Well,” I said, “that’s my cue to leave.”
She twisted around, giving me a pinched look. “What’re you talking about?”
“You’re whining. It means you’re tired.”
“No, I ain’t.”
“Yes, you are.” I’d get her to drop that obnoxious habit if it was the last thing I did. I stuffed the book into my backpack and zipped it up. “You should get some rest. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Come on. Don’t be like that.” She snagged my hand as I turned to leave. “Stay, Charlie boy. Please? I’ll stop complaining. I promise.”
It wasn’t the “please” and it definitely wasn’t her promise that had me freezing in my tracks. A tingling sensation started at the tips of my fingers and snaked its way up my arm the moment my hand was trapped between hers. This room was freezing but somehow her hands were warm. I slowly looked down. She was white, but she might as well have had a tan when compared to how pale I was. Seeing her fingers clasped around mine…it brought about something I hadn’t felt in years, something I didn’t realize I’d been missing.
I glanced up at her, knowing my face was blank because that’s how I felt. Like a new canvas, open and vulnerable.
Esmer dropped my hand
