Page 65 of Always Us

I force myself to breathe again. I don’t want my voice to be shaky. I need to sound strong. Let him know I’m not afraid of him.

I clear my throat. “How are you feeling?”

“My appetite isn’t quite back to normal and I’m still a little tired, but other than that, I feel fine.”

As he’s talking, I realize his speech isn’t slurred or impaired in any way. That doesn’t make sense. If he had a stroke, he wouldn’t sound like this.

“You didn’t have a stroke.” I blurt it out.

“No. Apparently I was drugged. The toxins in my system caused the coma.”

“But the news said…” My voice trails off.

He chuckles a little. “Garret, please don’t tell me you’re that naive. After everything you’ve seen and heard over the years, you can’t possibly tell me you still believe the stories you hear on the news.”

I ignore his insults. “Who drugged you?”

“I can’t say for sure. It could’ve been any number of people. I have no shortage of enemies. But when I find out who did this, it will be the end for them. I might even take care of them myself.”

He says it like it would be fun. Like he’s looking forward to it.

“Garret, have you made a decision yet?”

“There IS no decision. You’re not doing this. The plan is off.”

Shit. I shouldn’t have said that. He has to be in control and I just told him he’s not. He’ll take that as a challenge. Shit!

“You know, Garret, when you’re faced with death, as I was earlier in the week, you realize that time is precious. Hours. Minutes. Seconds. They pass by so quickly and then they’re gone. It’s a shame to see them wasted. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“What are getting at?”

“Your life, Garret. Your future. It needs to begin now. Today. Giving you this month to decide just seems wasteful. Think of all you could accomplish in that time.”

My heart’s beating again, going so fast I’m having trouble breathing. “You gave me a month. You’re not taking it back.”

“Things have changed. And after further consideration, I—”

“No! This is YOUR game! And those were YOUR fucking rules! You’re not changing them now.”

The only sound I hear is my heart thumping in my eardrums.

He’s silent. And then, “Fine. The rules remain. Goodbye, Garret.”

He hangs up and I toss the phone aside. I remain on the couch, my hands over my face, rubbing my forehead. My head is pounding, probably because I wasn’t breathing for most of that conversation.

I sit up and notice my laptop next to me. I wake it up and click on that icon again to make sure the timer is still running. It is. It’s still counting down to the end of the year.

How the hell did that get on my computer? He must’ve hacked into it. But how? He’s in a hospital bed. He just got out of a coma. How did he have time to get this done?

Someone’s helping him. There’s no other way he could do it. And if someone’s working with him, they could be anywhere right now. They could be in this town. They could be on campus. Watching Jade. Following her. Fuck!

I grab my keys and sprint to the door. When I open it, I almost run the mailman down. He’s standing at the door, the mail in his hand.

He holds it out to me. “I was just putting it in the box, but if you’d like to take it.”

I grab the mail. “Yeah, thanks.”

I toss it in the house and as I go to close the door, I spot a large white envelope with the Yale seal. I step inside and pick up the envelope and rip it open. It’s an official acceptance letter along with registration instructions.

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