Page 146 of Forbidden Lessons

I drag us closer to the tree, letting its trunk shield us from the worse of the creek so I can catch my breath.

She’s holding on to me, and I’m holding onto her, and we’re both shaking and crying as water pounds against our shivering bodies. But my hand is slipping, and it’s going to take both our strength to get to the bank.

“Haven, you need to hold on to the tree!”

She shakes her head against my chest, and I grit my teeth as I struggle to hold on to the root.

“Haven! You gotta be brave!”

She’s got her arms and legs wrapped around me, and when she doesn’t react, I know it’s over for both of us. We’re still on kinda level ground. A few yards away, the land slopes down to the Agony River.

My hand slips.

We’re both dragged away from the tree.

But just as we shoot past the last crooked root, Haven shoots out a hand and seizes it.

She holds on so tight that when the river pushes us, we swing through the water like a pendulum, and when Haven’s hand is ripped from the root, I’m close enough to the tree to grab the trunk with one arm, and Haven with the other.

We kick and claw and scramble our way out of the water, the tree shielding our bodies against the worst of it.

Haven coughs and splutters as much as I do as we fight to breathe and puke out water at the same time.

Then we’re both quiet.

“I don’t think I want to be brave anymore,” Haven murmurs, her arms thrown dramatically over her head.

“Good.” I’m on my stomach, my skinny chest pushing me up and down as I try to catch my breath. “’Cos I’m tired of saving you all the time.”

“I don’t want to die, Kai,” she whispers.

I roll my head to look at her. “Then don’t.”

She props herself up on one elbow, blinking at me through her tears. There’s a nasty scrape on her chest, and it’s only now starting to ooze blood. That stroke of red seems to make her blue eyes pop.

“Sometimes I don’t want to live either.” A tear races down her face, merging with the water droplets covering her skin.

“Just keep at it. One day at a time. That’s what Mom always says. One day at a time.” My arm shakes as I reach out to wipe at the blood beneath her collarbone. “Keep jumping into rivers like that, and you won’t have long to live, anyway.”

She giggles, and it’s like my heart only just started beating for the first time.

“Haven?”

“Yeah?”

“Where’s your bra?”

She stares down at herself, her bottom lip popping out. “What d’you mean?”

A beam of sunlight hits my eyes when I sit up, so I squint at her. “Shouldn’t you be wearing a bra?”

“No!” She scrambles into a sit, then crosses her arms over her chest. “I don’t need one.”

“I’m pretty sure you?—“

She slaps me so hard I see stars. And then all I see is her stomping along the riverbank, her wet hair clinging to her neck and shoulders, one hand fisted at her side, the other wrapped over her chest.

I still have her blood on my finger, and I use it like paint to draw a matching scar on my chest.

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