Page 89 of All My Firsts

“Freeze! FBI!”

The parking lot was surrounded by a thicket of trees and bushes. I wasn’t sure what I saw as the lights moved through the bare branches. But then bodies emerged from the edges, surrounding the lot, huge spotlights illuminating the space and forcing me to close my eyes.

But then I saw the spark from the gun in Max’s hand before I heard it. The one shot Max got off before Xander got him to the ground, before any FBI agents made their advance. Xander’s hands immediately pummeled him once they were down.

The screams of my name, screams telling me to stay down, didn’t register.

All the men in black jackets running around in the parking lot around me didn’t register.

My vision was blurry as I attempted to make sense of the spectacle unfolding around me.

Then I looked down and realized Karl’s body was slumpedin my arms.

“Karl!” My screams were masked by the chaos, but my hands held his head as the puddle started to trickle under the car. The dark red liquid looked black, the streetlamp from above reflected in the quickly transforming shape on the pavement. I seemed to be lost in thought, the blood a welcome distraction from the pandemonium around me.

“Lanie! Lanie!” The panicked voice was close but sounded like whispers. It felt as if my ears were stuffed full of cotton. Then I looked up and saw a friendly face.

“Bryce?” I wasn’t sure my words even came out. My breaths were hard to come by suddenly, and I felt myself gasping.

“Lanie, come on. Let’s get you out of here.” He tried to lift me up, but I refused to let go of Karl. Bryce looked confused.

“I can’t leave him. I don’t know if he’s still alive or not. He needs help, Bryce.” I was crying, my words garbled. I knew it didn’t make sense to him.

“I’ll get him help, Lanie, but I have to get you out of here. We need to get you somewhere safe.” He scooped me up, completely disregarding Karl, whose body slumped tothe ground.

Once I was in his arms, my eyes stayed focused on Karl’s body, which lay on the cold ground, alone. Bryce hauled me away so quickly from the lot I didn’t have time to realize we were leaving the scene. I turned my head away from Karl to see where we were going, noticing the dorm was behind us; we were heading around to the front of the building.

“Bryce!” I struggled to get out of his arms. “Xander is still there! Max had a gun!” It was all a jumbled mess in my brain, but it was coming back to me. I knew Xander had Max on the ground, and I had no idea what had happened to either of them.

“Lanie, they’re getting it under control. That’s no place for me to even be right now. Xander’ll be fine. I need to get you looked at. You’re covered in blood.” I looked down at my coat, which was soaked through with a black stickiness. But I didn’t hurt anywhere, so I knewI was fine.

“It’s Karl’s blood, Bryce. I’m fine.” He was continuing around the building as I was struggling to get outof his hold.

“Lanie, you have blood dripping down your face. You’re not fine.”

The stickiness on my fingers after touching my forehead surprised me. I’d forgotten I hit my head on the mirror. But I didn’t care; all I wanted to do was go back and find Xander. I needed to make surehe was safe.

I continued to struggle in Bryce’s hold as we approached a waiting ambulance. But it was to no avail – a medic got a hold of me as soon as Bryce put me down, and they dragged me inside theopen doors.

“Lanie,” Bryce called out to me as the medics guided me into the ambulance. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of things. Once I know what’s going on, I’ll be in touch.” And then he closed the doors.

Two medics met my stunned gaze once I looked up. Everything was happening so quickly, I had no words. The girl, who appeared to be in her mid-twenties, speedily buckled me onto the gurney. The guy, older by about ten years, slapped his hand on the window separating us from the cabin with the driver. We lurched forward seconds later, I can only assume on our way to the hospital.

Neither of them spoke to me directly right away. Instead, they began speaking in medical jargon to one another. Soon enough, they started giving me brief directions on what they needed me to do. They were gentle, the girl being the one to remove my coat and lift my shirt to check for any damage under the carnage of the bloodied clothes. Once they realized I wasn’t shot, they covered me with a blanket, encouraging me to lie back on the gurney. The other technician worked on inserting an IV into my arm once I was flat, the needle barely registering as my mind still strayed to the events that had just happened. I may not have been badly injured, but I heard the word “shock” being whispered between thema few times.

“You’re definitely going to need to some stitches when you get to the hospital,” the guy said as he came to my side. “You’ll only need a few. The gash isn’t that big.” He applied gauze to my forehead with some pressure, securing it tightly with tape. “This will slow the bleeding until we get you there.” He moved aside, his attention now onhis tablet.

The young girl sat on the gurney with me. “Can you look at me, Lanie?” She had a tiny light shining in my eyes, which she flicked back and forth. She then started rattling off a list of questions.

“Are you dizzy?” I nodded because I was, slightly.

“Do you have a headache?” she asked. She pulled out a laptop to recordmy answers.

“A little,” I replied. “Mostly where the bump is.” But I guess it wasn’t a bump if I needed stitches.

“Are you nauseous, or do you feel like you need to vomit?”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to answer any more questions. But they kept coming. Questions or not, I think it was pretty obvious I had aconcussion.

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