I threw my arms around Sonya. "You're the absolute best bestie in the whole world."
"I know, I know, and I'm beautiful, intelligent, sweet—"
"You can continue that on the way." I didn't mind her long list—she deserved it—but I wasn't going to waste time standing there when I could be with Dev.
When we got off the elevator on the fourth floor, my eyes immediately found Brian. He looked exhausted, and I felt awful for him. He'd been through enough with losing Darren and having Dev taken from them.
He put his arms out to me like I was family. "It's so good to see you."
"How is she?" I asked as I wrapped my arms around him.
"She's better, but still not stable." He pulled me closer and whispered quickly. "The two guys on the couch over there follow Dev everywhere. They say they're friends from the military, but he doesn't act very friendly toward them. They watch his every move." He pulled back and spoke louder. "Dev's just there." He pointed to Dev, who was walking down the hallway toward us.
My heart skipped a beat. He looked incredible. The white polo he was wearing made his tan skin glow. His arms seemed to stretch the short sleeves of his shirt, and he looked broader and more muscular than when I'd seen him last. But it was seeing his sharp nose and strong jaw that made me a little weak in the knees. I missed him so much.
"Son," he said loudly, "Evie just stopped by to check on me and your mom. Come and be polite while I go check with the nurses."
I watched Dev look at the two guys who were now walking in his direction. He seemed very tentative as he walked forward with his back to them. Brian patted me on the arm and walked down the hallway. When Dev finally looked up at me, my heart stopped entirely. The warmth in his big blue eyes and smile on his face forced me to bite my lip to hold back the ridiculous happiness I felt. When he was only a few steps from me, I launched myself into his arms and clung to him tightly.
His hold on me was so intense that I was barely able to breathe. But breathing is so highly overrated when compared to the feeling of being in Dev's arms. I buried my face in his neck, showering him with little kisses.
"Oh Evie," he breathed. My name on his lips was so overwhelming that a tear escaped my eye and started falling down my cheek. His voice was so soft and in such pain. "Please forgive me, baby."
I only had a second to be confused before he grabbed my upper arms and roughly shoved me away from him. His eyes were totally different—hard and dark. I barely recognized them.
"Stop. Just stop embarrassing yourself. It's over, Evie. It's been over." He wasn't yelling, but he wasn't whispering either.
I felt like I'd been hit with a cannon or maybe a house. I must have heard him wrong. Shaking my head, I tried to speak, "I—"
"Don't, okay." His voice was so mean and angry. His sexy thin upper lip was pulled up in a look of disgust. "Look, I thought I was in love with you, but being away has shown me that it was all about the sex. I'd be more than happy to keep using you for that, but your damn brother would kill me, so it's over. Just walk away." He shoved me from him, and I stumbled back a few steps. His eyes narrowed apologetically for just a split second before the hardness came back. "Stay away from me."
Sonya put her arm around me and helped me walk back toward the elevator. My mind was completely numb. I couldn't pay attention to anything. His words kept repeating in my head over and over again, but I just couldn't process it all. Why had he said those things? He was using me for sex? But we never had sex. The night in the sleeping bag when I'd begged him to kiss me and make me forget everything floated through my mind. He tried to stop me from taking my shirt off, from taking our make-out session beyond kissing. It just made no sense. I turned it all over in my mind again and again.
"Evie, please say something, or I'll have Anise here admit you into the psych ward."
I stared at Sonya, realizing she was talking to me. Then I turned to notice a thin red-head on the other side of me. Looking around, I took in the lockers, the bench I was sitting on, and the green scrubs lying around. I turned back to Sonya. "We've never had sex."
She started laughing and shaking her head as Anise smiled and stood up. I pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He lied. The whole thing had to be a lie. I should have known it from the word "stop," but I'd been so wrapped up in the intense happiness of being in his arms that I wasn't thinking straight.
"I gotta get back," Anise said, still smiling. "Are you gonna be okay?"
I nodded. "He was lying."
Sonya rolled her eyes at me. "No shit, Sherlock. I can't believe it took you so long to figure that one out."
"I just—I wasn't expecting that. I should have been, I know. But I wasn't."
"Fair enough." Sonya put her arm around my shoulders again. "Let's head home and formulate a plan of attack. Mom and Dad should be there by the time we get home." At my horrified eyes, she reasoned, "Hey, I was really worried about you."
I let my shoulders fall. All I needed was more hovering. Sure I'd gone into my own little world for a few minutes, but was it really asking so much to be given some time to process things?
Sonya kept her arm looped through mine as we walked to the elevator. She whispered to me, "You okay?"
I nodded, but a severe chill went down my spine as we stepped onto the elevator. The doors closed, and I leaned back a bit to peek at the four other people surrounding us. There was an older man with gray hair I'd never seen before, a young woman who was maybe in her twenties holding a sleepy toddler, and someone in the back corner farthest from me. I couldn't make out who the person was, but something about them made me uneasy. I told myself it was leftover nerves from my awful reunion with Dev.
As the elevator stopped on another floor, the woman with her child got out. I tightened my hold on Sonya's arm, and she patted my hand in a comforting way. It was so hard not to push the button for the fourth floor again. Leaving the hospital when I knew Dev was in the building took a lot of willpower. But I needed to think it all through and come up with a plan. He pushed me away for a reason, and I needed to figure that out.
When the old man shifted to lean against the back wall of the elevator, I finally got a good look at the person in the corner. My heart started beating rapidly as I saw a familiar profile, but I couldn't place who it was. When he looked over at me and lowered his slightly tinted black-rimmed glasses, my eyes very strongly connected with green eyes—unnaturally green eyes. Not only were they the green of the Infecteds, but they made me realize who they belonged to. It took me a moment to catch my breath and look away, pretending I hadn't noticed him. Just when I thought I might hyperventilate at the way his eyes were narrowed with his hands clenched in fists, and the look of pure hatred on his face, the door to the elevator opened. I grabbed Sonya's arm, yanking her out.
"Evie? What the—"
"Al. It's Al—in the elevator—just now" I whispered as I pulled her to the stairs. "He—he's infected. I could see it. His eyes—"
"Whoa! Slow down." She looked down at the death grip I had on her arm. "Evie?"
"We have to—to—he's—"
She pulled me to a stop. "Look at me… Now take a deep breath. We're in the middle of a hospital. There are security guards all over the place and police downstairs in the emergency room. We're okay, Evie."
I looked around us. There was a small waiting room near where we'd stopped with a family in it. The young children were playing with some cars on a wooden track built into the table. She was right. We were okay here. I let go of her hand and took deep breaths to calm myself down.
"Okay, that's better. Now, tell me what happened, I didn't even see him in the elevator."
"You didn't see him?" Was I going crazy? "He was standing in the back corner. The old man was in front of him, and he was in the corner." Was I hallucinating? Did I imagine the whole thing?
She shook her head. "Evie, no—I don't mean there was no one there. I meant that I didn't see Al. I know who Al is. He was in my PE class. I
know there was someone there; I just didn't notice it was Al."
"Oh." Feeling a little better, I went on. "Well, I felt this—I don't know." I shrugged my shoulders. "A creepy feeling, I guess. I looked around and finally saw Al standing there staring at me like I'd just slaughtered his entire family. He was wearing these tinted glasses and lowered them to look at me. He looked like he wanted to beat the crap out of me, and that's when I saw the green of his eyes. They were like infected green."
"Are you sure? I mean, why was he here in a hospital, behaving like an ordinary guy instead of out attacking people? If he was infected and mad at you, why wouldn't he just kill you?"
"I don't know," I said defensively. It didn't make much sense, but I knew what I saw.
"Maybe the light was playing tricks on you. Maybe his eyes just looked green?"
"No, they were infected. I have green eyes, Sonya. I see green eyes every single day—this was infected." But as I stood there, I realized Sonya was right—he would have attacked if he was infected. I started to doubt myself. "I'm pretty sure. I don't know—I'm tired."
"Hey, you've had a hell of a day. Give yourself a break, Evie. Let's get home where we can figure out what to do about Dev." She patted my hand and turned back to the stairs. "It's just two flights, let's take the stairs."
I nodded appreciatively. I felt better not taking the chance that he was still in the elevator. We made it down to the lobby and out to the car and nothing bad happened making me feel like maybe I really had imagined Al's infected eyes. As we drove home, Sonya kept glancing over at me.
"Evie? Why would Al hate you?"
I slid down farther in the seat and laid my head against it, closing my eyes. It wasn't a long story, but I felt uncomfortable talking about it. "At the beginning of the year, Al would come over to Jay's a lot and play basketball in his driveway with him. Jay said he and Al were the only two in their gang who liked basketball. It started out fine. I'd sprawl out on a blanket on the grass and watch them play, but then it got weird. They'd take breaks and come to sit with me. Jay would tease me or we'd talk about whatever, but when Al joined—it was weird." I thought back to those days when things were simple between Jay and me. It was so long ago.
"What do you mean 'weird?'" Sonya asked.
"Well, at first I just thought he didn't know how to joke around with a girl—like he thought he was being funny, but it was really kind of mean. But then, at school, he had several girl friends that he was just fine around. It got worse, so I just stopped going out there when he was there. But then he'd come inside to get water or go to the bathroom. It was like he enjoyed being a jerk to me. I finally told Jay about it, and he stopped hanging out with Al. He's hated me ever since."
"I didn't know—why didn't I know?" She sounded a little hurt.
I changed the radio station, but all the good stations were conspiring to play commercials simultaneously. "It wasn't a big deal at the time. Jay handled it. He didn't even argue with me, just said he'd handle it and didn't talk to Al again."
"And you think he hates you for that? I don't even remember Al being that good of friends with Jay. In fact, I don't remember Al being around Jay much at all before this year."
I shrugged as we pulled into the driveway. "Doesn't really matter much now, anyway. Hopefully, I won't ever see him again."
"True, I heard he moved to Laws so that's pretty likely."
Butcher came running to me the second we walked through the door, shoving his head underneath my hand and leaning into my side. Tears of disappointment filled my eyes as I took Butchie's comfort. He always knew when I was upset.
Gabriel got up from the couch and walked over to wrap his arms around me. "I thought something like this would happen." Being comforted by Gabriel was like being in my dad's arms. Even the way he smelled—like cologne and detergent—was soothing, but his words confused me.
I pulled back to look at him, my tears slipping silently down my cheeks.
He looked down at me, his lips pulled into a weak smile. "You know me and my theories. I think there's more going on here. I've thought that for months, but I didn't want to worry you."
"His dad—he whispered to me that these two guys with him are military and follow him everywhere. He said they claim they're friends, but he doesn't act very friendly toward them. Dev—he said some things." I looked down at Butcher who had parked himself on my feet. I was embarrassed to repeat his words. "He said it's over and he was using me for—for—"
"Sex." Sonya supplied the word I couldn't seem to say in front of everyone.
I nodded. "But we never—but he—and his eyes were so hard. He just kept saying it was over."
Sonya patted me on my back as Gabriel lifted my chin with his forefinger. "But there were two guys with him when he said all of this, right?"
"Yes. I know he was lying. He's trying to protect me. But they obviously know what we are to each other, so why does he want them to think we broke up. What difference does our relationship make?"
"All right, let's all sit down and run through this." He moved to the couch. "He has two guys following him. He made a very public point of pushing you away from him, and you haven't received any letters or response from him."
I nodded. "They're obviously afraid he'll do or say something to me."
Gabriel scratched his chin in that thoughtful way that made me jokingly call him an old man. "Maybe that's why he's protecting you," he suggested. "If they think there's no reason to worry about you getting or leaking information, they might continue to leave you alone."
"Damn it!" I yelled. "Why can't things just be normal? Hasn't he been through enough?"
"If he talks to someone, they could go public with what they're doing. It might come out that they're holding teenagers against their will. But the real question is why they're holding him. What are they looking to gain?"
"It has to be about the infection," I suggested. "They must be experimenting on him or something."
"There's really no way of knowing until you talk to him," he encouraged.
I threw my hands up. "But I can't. Obviously tweedle dumb and tweedle douchebag are gonna be his shadows everywhere he goes."
"A note!" Sonya jumped up from the couch. "Pass him a note like in class."
"What good would that do?" Evelyn asked. I hadn't noticed her come in, but she was beside Sonya on the couch. "He can't respond to it."
But it started making more sense to me. "No, I could ask him to meet me somewhere so we could talk, but how would he get away from the idiots?"
"He could punch them," Sonya volunteered. "With his strength, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard at all."
Evelyn eyebrows drew closer, and her face tightened as she shook her head. "But when they wake up, they'll know what happened, and he'll be in even more trouble."
"What about an injection or something?" I asked. "Like a drug?"
"Sleeping pills," Gabriel volunteered, leaning forward. "Don't you still have some, babe?"
"I think so." Evelyn got up and walked down the hallway.
I continued working the idea. "But I need to get them to him. I don't even know that I'll be able to get close enough with those guys guarding him."
Sonya pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. "Gary's his best friend. He could go visit Dev at the hospital today and take it to him."
I allowed myself a small smile. This could work. "Call him, Sonya."
She flashed me that cheesy, all-teeth smile of hers. "I called him at the hospital." She looked down at her phone. "In fact, he says he's pulling in the driveway right now." She jumped up from the couch and opened the door, staring out for a few minutes.
I didn't want to get my hopes up, but I couldn't help feeling a little encouraged at the formulation of a plan.
"Hey, handsome," Sonya said in greeting as she hugged Gary. "We need you to go to the hospital to visit Dev and take him a message from Evie. In it, we're putting some sleeping pills, so he can drug those idiots and get away fo
r a few hours."
"Yeah, no problem." Gary looked over at me. "So you figured out he said all those things to protect you, right?"
I glared at Sonya. Did she have to tell everyone everything? Gary was my best friend and all, but my little mental breakdown didn't need to be spread around to everyone. "It just caught me off guard is all," I justified.
Evelyn returned with a bottle of pills in her hand. "I take just one, and it knocks me out for eight hours. How big were these guys Devlin was with?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. I wasn't paying much attention to them, but they were just a little smaller than Dev."
"Hmm. I'm not sure the effects will last as long for them, but you should have at least four hours." Evelyn walked toward the kitchen. "Let me grab the prescription sheet and see what it says."
Gabriel turned toward the hallway. "I'll grab some paper, so we can plan this all out."
As soon as Gabriel was down the hallway, Gary nudged me in the arm, smirking at me. "Four hours is plenty of time, huh Evie? I'd kill for four hours with Sonya."
Sonya blushed as she smacked Gary in the chest. "Shut up, Gary."
Gabriel came back with several sheets of paper and turned his narrowed eyes on Gary.
Gary looked a little nervous, but more confused than anything else. "What?"
"I may be old, son, but I'm not deaf." Gary's eyes became huge as Gabriel handed me the piece of paper. "Write him a note asking him to meet you somewhere. Hormone-boy over here lives next door to him, right?" He gestured to Gary, and I had to hide the laugh that was fighting to get out.
Gary stood up a little straighter. "Well, sir, I don't live next door exactly, but I'm the closest."
"Okay then," Gabriel continued, "why don't you tell him to meet you at Gary's house when he can. You'll have to spend the night there, but I think it's the best shot you've got."
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