Page 55 of Script Swap
They weren’t going to stop.
They hadn’t seen me.
They were going to hit me.
I stumbled back out of the road.
The car veered toward me.
A dark shape hit me and sent me flying.Headlights arced overhead.For a moment, I was floating.Then I crashed through a wall of ferns, hit the ground, and rolled.Rocks and dirt scraped bare skin as I slid and tumbled.I hit something, and it was surprisingly not hard.It was kind of soft, actually.And then I wasn’t moving anymore.
I groaned.
And a familiar voice, tight with pain, said, “Get off me, you donkey.”
Chapter 13
Millie swiped more iodine onto a cut, and I screamed.
“Oh, Dash, I’m so sorry,” she said.“Does it hurt?”
“Yes, it hurts,” I said.“That’s why I’m screaming.”
For some reason—probably because Millie is secretly a sadist—that made her beam.Keme, on the other hand, was giving me a look that suggested I’d better stop being such a baby.And Bobby was in one of his states of silent fury.If you didn’t know what to watch for, it just seemed like he was incredibly calm during a state of emergency.That was partly what made it so scary.
After Keme saved my life (in the rudest, boyest, awesomest way ever), we limped back to Hemlock House.Sure, we could have called and gotten a ride.But honestly, that would have ruined it.We were both riding this weird adrenaline high.And we were basically brothers (even if everyone assumed he was the older one).And let’s be real: tackling someone to save them from being hit by a car is some action-hero-level shiz.
Bobby and Millie, though, didn’t seem to appreciate the awesomeness.
Mille said, “That was dumb.”
And Bobby said, “Why didn’t you call me?You could have been killed!”about fourteen times while he cleaned me up with a washcloth—imaginevigorousscrubbing.
Now, they were both getting their revenge.
“I don’t think that one needs it—” I said as Millie swooped in to “treat” (notice my use of scare quotes) a long, ugly rash on the back of my arm.
“It does,” Bobby said in a flat tone.
“It’ll only sting a little,” Millie said brightly before slathering my arm with liquid fire.
Yes, I screamed.Again.
Also, I want it on record that Bobby wasaggressive with the bandages.
Do you want to know the part that’s totally unfair?Keme only had one scrape, and it was on his knee.Millie kissed it, and Bobby gave him a fist bump and then did this macho-guy-hug thing where he wrapped his arm around Keme’s neck and pulled him against him.It’s probably the happiest I’ve ever seen Keme.
Eventually, though, the abuse ended.Millie cleaned up from her “treatment” (yes, scare quotes again), and Bobby made everyone microwaved hot chocolate—if you needed a sign that this was a state of emergency and we were sorely missing Indira, that was it.
“This wasn’t an accident,” Bobby said.“Someone tried to hit you with a car.”
“I don’t know,” I said.“I mean, at the time, it seemed like—” I hesitated.“It all happened so fast.”
“Someone tried to hit him,” Keme said.“He was standing in the road like a donkey, waving his arms.They didn’t slow down.And when he tried to move out of the way, they followed him.”
“It might have been an accident—” I said.
“There were tire marks on the shoulder,” Keme said.“They barely managed not to go off the road.”
