Page 4 of Wild Thing

What a joke. I want to punch myself.

“I’m gonna go to him,” I say, rising to my feet, barefoot—I just remembered I tossed my shoes into some bush.

Maddy blocks my way. “Don’t, Kat. Let it go tonight. Kai is there. Archer will probably feel uncomfortable with someone else around. After, you know…”

“How are you letting him be by himself?” My voice breaks. “Everyone left him when—”

“Kat, calm down.”

Right. I wipe my face with my shaking hands. “Do you think it was an accident?”

I need to know it was. That it wasn’t my horrible words that could’ve killed him. I’ll never forgive myself for what I said.HowI said it.When.

The door opens. Dr. Hodges and Marlow come out.

I stare at the doctor with hope. “How is he?”

He nods. “He’ll be fine.”

Everyone is just fucking fine.

“And you are letting him stay home tonight?”

“He won’t have it any other way. I have his vitals connected through his bracelet to the app on my phone. He’ll be monitored.”

“How?”

“Every bracelet does that.”

Right.I’m not allowed to monitor him, but the freaking bracelet is.

“Give him space,” he says softly, looking away. “He needs it. Tonight is a dark night.”

2

ARCHER

My heart isheavy and empty but pumping like I just raced for miles.

I need air or more drugs to bring me back to where I was supposed to be—nowhere. The hollowness that wraps around me is too much to bear, a thousand-pound weight on my chest.

I have no idea how much time has passed since Doc and everyone left. Marlow was here. Maddy. Kat.

I was on the floor, then on the couch.

My head spins as I finally rise from the couch and right away trip on the IV bag.

“Hey, man.”

And there’s Droga. Out of all people, he’s here, rising from the couch too and holding his hands out for me like I’m a fucking princess who needs to be catered to.

His phone beeps. They’re probably giving him instructions on how to babysit me.

Was that cardiac arrest? That happened before. Exactly the same fucking way. And someone brought me back.

I know what happened, but my brain works faster than the hormones adjust to the drugs and medication in my system. Right now, I feel nothing but suffocation.

“I need to be outside,” I murmur, grab my cigarettes, and drag my feet out onto the deck.

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