Page 20 of Beyond Friendship

Nick crosses his arms in front of him. “He’s refused to help Amanda with the launch.”

I flinch from the disappointment in his voice.

Cole shakes his head. “Jesus, Fox, why won’t you help her?”

They fix me with a hard stare, and although my mouth opens, I become tongue-tied, the words lodging in my throat. So I squat to tie my laces, stalling to find a way to answer them. But as I do, the ground shakes beneath me as if a sudden earthquake struck without warning.

“Come on, Fox. Answer the question,” Cole presses.

I want to answer, but these overwhelming foreign sensations override my ability to form any sentence.What the fuck is happening?

Cole pushes against my shoulder, repeating his question, and I lose balance. My ass hits the floor, my eyes squint, and the flutter in my chest intensifies. I try to push myself back on my feet, only to smack back onto the vinyl floor.

“Brian, what’s wrong?” Nick asks, touching my arm.

“Dizzy,” I breathe. My heart races, pulsing faster and harder until it feels like it’s about to rip through my ribcage.

“He’s getting paler by the second. Brian, lie down,” Nick urges.

The cold floor welcomes me as it cools my now burning skin. Clutching Nick’s shirt, I struggle to breathe as my heart constricts inside my chest.

“Ambulance,” I mumble.

Nick’s eyes widen while Cole shouts for help, his voice booming through the gym room.

“Call nine-one-one. We need an ambulance. Someone call a fucking ambulance. I think he’s having a heart attack.”

The flickering fluorescent lights above me make me want to vomit. With fear evident in my friends’ voices, and my heart behaving like a metronome gone haywire, I wonder if this is what my father felt before he died.

My mind shifts to my mom. She doesn’t deserve this—she already lost one person she loves. Fear swirls through my veins as images of my father’s dead body flash through my head. My ears buzz, and the pressure in my head amplifies.

“Tell her I’m sorry,” I whisper as my vision blurs.

“Tell who, Brian?” Cole asks.

“Tell my mom I love her, and tell Amanda that I’m sorry.”

Nick answers me, but the whooshing sound in my ears deafens me. My lungs burn, and the world fades as I spiral down into a darkness that is both suffocating and nauseating.

A soft handgrazes the top of my knuckles, causing my eyelids to flutter open. As focus returns, I recognize the familiar face—my mom.

“Brian? Honey,” she gasps, her voice quavering as she stands from her chair at my bedside.

“Where am I?” My eyes dart around the strange room.

“You’re in the hospital. You collapsed in the gym.”

As I meet my mother’s watery gaze, the memory of what happened seeps back.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, knowing her nightmare came true, and I’m to blame for the pain in her eyes.

She shakes her head, caressing my cheek. “No need, sweetheart.”

Before I can say anything, my heavy eyelids flutter closed and I drift back into dreamland.

The next time I wake up, my mom is still by my side.

We both look at the opening door.

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