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“18.”

“Same!” she smiled. “Do you still study?”

“No, dying gets you out of that.”

Her mouth shut quickly and she suddenly looked very uneasy. Dan’s shot me an annoyed glance. For the first time he looked at me. I swallowed the nerves in my stomach and shifted under his intense stare. I felt like I was being examined.

“How about you? Do you guys go to school?” I looked back at Chloe. For some reason, I was going to make an effort. I saw Dan nod his head just slightly at me, as if pleased I was, for Chloe’s sake.

“Yeah, we do. We’re in our last year.” She grinned at Dan before grinning at me. What the hell was wrong with this girl? Did she not know it wasn’t normal to grin all the time?

“Cool.” And just like that my conversation well dried up. I began to tap my foot uneasily in the bed. I hated this. I hated strained conversation.

The only sound in the room was the clicking of the clock and, man, I wished it clicked quicker. Suddenly even dying seemed more interesting than this. I noticed Chloe hit Dan’s leg and then I saw out the corner of my eye them share some quiet conversation. Her face looked threatening.

“So, your brother isn’t here?” Dan said, forced, and looked across me briefly.

“He has lectures in the morning.” I made sure my voice sounded just as bored as his. “Why?”

Dan’s head snapped up, now alert. “Why what?”

“Why did you ask?”

“I was making conversation?”

“Why?”

“Cause Chloe wanted me too,” he snapped. “Next time I won’t bother.”

“Sounds good to me.” I whipped back at him, narrowing my eyes. He groaned and crossed his arms clearly annoyed.

Chloe’s small giggle had me looking at her like she was mad. Hell, she was mad. Both Dan and I stared at her. Had she lost her mind?

“Nothing. Sorry. It’s just your first fight.” She grinned, really pleased. She lowered her voice. “It’s cute.”

Dan made some grunting noise and then glared down at his feet once more. There was a soft knock at my door and I groaned. Great. Another unwanted visitor.

Bored and really annoyed, I looked at the door and nearly choked on my salvia. What the heck! Terror was clearly painted on my face. He had no right to be here.

“Hey, Maddie.” Justin moved farther into the room and held the flowers slightly more in front of him.

“I hate flowers,” I hissed at him and crossed my arms. “Get out.”

He was taken back for a moment. “Maddie, look I’m...”

“I have a visitor restriction. So get out.”

“Maddie, don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying. You know you get visitor restrictions when you’re dying. Apparently it wears you out. Get out, Justin.”

“Maddie, come on. It was a shock. What did you expect me to do?”

“I expect you to get out right now.”

“Maddie, it was a shock. I’m here now.”

“You’re right, Justin. I have no right to be mad. Hey, you came to visit. It only took you four months!” I felt myself getting weaker by the moment. I shouldn’t be yelling like this. It was only going to bring on my afternoon nap sooner.