Page 41 of Conviction

“Meebs,” I thought I was saying it in my head, but somehow my lips move, and the sound comes out of my mouth.

Her face crumbles, and she lets out a sob. Her hand goes to her mouth and covers it. She shakes her head while tears run down her cheeks. I don’t know if the room is actually silent or if I just can’t focus on anything but her.

“Don’t. Don’t call me that. I’m not your Amoeba,” she says.

“You’ll always be my Amoeba. Nina Amoeba.”

“I stopped being your anything when you left me in that hospital all on my own,” she almost hisses the words through her gritted teeth.

“What? What hospital room?”

Her shoulders slump, and I watch as she completely deflates in front of me. Her eyes meet mine, and she looks so sad, so fucking sad and broken.

“You didn’t come, after all the things you said, all the promises you made and when I needed you the most, you didn’t come for me. You left me, Conner. You left me.”

Sophie’s there, and without warning flies at me. “What did you say? What the fuck did you say to her?”

I look between the two of them. My mouth opens, then closes, but I can’t seem to make a sound. I start to feel the first bubbling of a panic attack in my toes and my belly. I close my eyes and concentrate on nothing but getting one breath in and then slowly let one breath out.

I can hear Lawson asking what’s going on. Then Tyler’s voice is in my ear.

Where the fuck did he come from?

“Breathe Conner, just breathe through it. Do it the way Dad showed you.”

I open my eyes and look into my brother’s worried face.

“You got this?”

I nod. Feeling calmer.

“I got this. You called me, Conner. You never call me, Conner.”

He smiles. My dad’s Conner or Con, and somehow I’d ended up being known as Reed to save confusion. My brothers called me Reed, so when I went to school, everyone else called me Reed. It just stuck.

Everything slowly comes back into focus, sound and smell. The room stops spinning and starts coming back into view.

“Fuck,” is the only other thing I can think of saying.

Tyler passes me a bottle of water, and I unscrew the cap and take a few big gulps.

“Where’d she go?” I look from side to side around the room, but she’s nowhere to be seen.

“Where’d she go, Ty? Where the fuck did she go?”

Fuck, I need to get a grip.

“She’s here. Someone took her to the office so she could sit down. Sophie and Jenna went with her.” He looks over my face with his eyebrows drawn together.

“What happened? Why’s she here?” he asks.

“I don’t know… She’s with Sophie. Josh probably got them tickets,” I tell him.

“Well, a heads up from Josh would’ve been handy.”

“Tell me about it,” I reply.

Lawson reappears, walking down a corridor from beside the bar. A lot of the top bands are making their appearances now, and the crowd has thinned out. The majority of people choosing to watch from the balcony that runs all around the upper level, rather than on the big screens in the VIP bar.