Page 72 of Ward D
“Amy,” Jade says. She reaches out and attempts to touch my shoulder.
“Stop,” I croak.
“Amy, this is the only way. You see that, don’t you? You don’t want that asshole to ruin our lives, do you?”
I find myself shaking my head. No. I don’t want that.
“Well, then.” Jade walks over to the kitchen counter and picks up a carving knife, already stained with droplets of blood. “Do you want to do the honors or should I?”
I know at that moment, my life will never, ever be the same.
48
PRESENT DAY
Hours Until Morning: 2
Ididn’t do it.
I didn’t kill my trigonometry teacher. Obviously.
I didn’t let Jade do it either. When she tried to hand me that carving knife, I ran out of Mr. Riordan’s house and out to the main road. I hitched a ride back to my own house, found my mother, and burst into tears as I told her everything.
Well, not everything. I didn’t tell her about the little blond girl. But the little girl disappeared soon after that. And I never saw her again. I never saw anything that wasn’t really there ever again.
Until tonight.
No. That’s not true. The blood on the floor wasreal. Will saw it too.
After my mother called the police, thankfully in time to save Mr. Riordan, Jade had a psychiatric evaluation and received her bipolar diagnosis. It was what saved her from kidnapping and attempted murder charges. The next time I saw her, she was right here, on Ward D. She was pumped up with Lithium, lying in a messy hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling vacantly.
I tried to talk to her. I apologized for turning her in and explained that I did it for her own good. I was trying tohelpher. I babbled on for the better part of an hour while she didn’t say a word. It was so hard to see my best friend pumped full of drugs that made her like a zombie.
At least, I blamed the drugs at first. But then when I was getting ready to leave, Jade finally rolled her head in my direction. The seething look in her eyes was unmistakable.
I will never forgive you,she said to me.Never.
Even so, I stupidly believed she would get over it. Jade and I had fought before, but we always made up. I came back a few more times, but most of the time, she didn’t say a single word. On the final visit, she sat up in her bed, her purple-rimmed eyes filled with venom.
If you come back here again, Amy, I will kill you.
And that was my last visit to see Jade.
But I try not to think about any of that as I sit in Will’s room now, attempting to lose myself in a book—something I used to find easy to do.
I haven’t had much time for fun over the last two years. It’s been mostly studying the Krebs cycle, loads of pharmacology flashcards, and the intricate details of the celiac plexus. And of course, occasionally hooking up with Cameron. But I always made time to read. Whenever I pick up a book, it’s like an escape. For an hour or two, I get to be part of the book world instead of my own much more boring world.
It’s not easy to escape the world that is around me right now. There is a very real chance that a psychotic man is currently doing laps right outside the door. But Will is sitting on his bed reading, and I’m on the chair next to him, also reading, and every five or six minutes, we both look up to make sure everything is okay. And while I am in this room, reading this book, it feels like everything will be okay. After all, only a few hours remain until morning.
And then there’s a knock on the door.
Will’s eyes snap up. He looks at the door, then over at me. He puts his index finger to his lips, then he calls out, “I’m not decent! Come back later!”
Jade’s voice flits under the door. “Will, I know Amy is in there. I’m coming in.”
I inhale sharply as the door swings open. Jade peeks her head inside, and our eyes meet across the room.
“Amy,” she says, “can we talk?”
