Page 37

MARISELA

“ Y ou don’t look so hot, princess.” The blonde boy was staring at me again, rolling back and forth in his chair while keeping the front wheels suspended.

He dropped them to the floor with a thud and tossed me two more little red balls.

“Might want to start keeping some extra pieces between your fingers and toes.”

I watched the rubber balls bounce towards me without making a move to grab them.

I wasn’t as far gone as I was during those first few weeks, but I still wasn’t myself either.

More like a version of the girl I once was, suspended in a block of ice.

Each day, I would chip away at a few layers and then they’d strap me to that table again and I had to start all over.

“Why do you care?” I asked, though I wouldn’t say that I was curious. More confused. I didn’t believe in people being helpful out of the goodness of their heart. Especially in this place. Everyone wanted something. Everyone had an end game. Including me.

The boy shrugged, turning his wheely into a vertical spin. He completed three dizzying rotations before landing his glare on me. “I don’t. But he does. And I want to see how this plays out.”

“Oh…” It took me a moment to process his words, as another layer of ice melted away. “He who? Who’s he ?” I asked a little too excitedly.

“The new doc,” the boy responded, sounding disinterested when I was more interested than I’d been in anything in days.

“The one with the tattoos? A big guy with dark eyes?” Maybe he was real. Maybe I wasn’t as crazy as I thought I was. And maybe that had always been their plan. To convince me I was losing my mind and belonged here.

The boy grinned in a way that told me he knew exactly who I was talking about and had no intention of admitting it. “Don’t know any doc with tattoos and I ain’t exactly eye level. Maybe if you describe his package, we could compare notes?”

A smile tugged at my lips and I liked the feel of it. I found comfort in the uncomfortable. Which wasn’t what this kid was looking for. He wanted to see disgust. He wanted me to turn away and squirm. He wasn’t all that hard to figure out… even though he thought he was.

“Sorry but a lady doesn’t kiss and tell,” I replied in a dry tone. Sounding more bored than bothered.

“Funny ?cause I don’t see a lady,” he countered.

I looked across the room, gaging his reaction, then back down at myself before lifting my hospital gown over my head and giving the kid an eyeful. I had no problem turning the tables when it came to getting someone’s attention. “How about now?”

The boy stared at me wide-eyed for a minute before clearing his throat and reapplying his signature smirk. “All right. I’ll play. This guy don’t look old enough to be a doc if ya asked me. But he seemed to know his shit. More importantly, he seemed to know you .”

I dropped the hem of my gown, smoothing out a few wrinkles and crossing my arms over my chest. “What makes you say that?”

“He had your name and number in his burner. Was awfully desperate to get a hold of you too, came off real stalkerish.” The boy reached into the waistband of his hospital pants.

And I watched as he pulled out one of those cheap throwaway cell phones and dangled it in front of me.

I shot out an arm to grab it, and he snapped his back.

Clutching the device against his chest while tsking his tongue at me.

“Yeah, I don’t think so. This baby’s mine.

The dumbass didn’t even realize I’d clipped it. ”

“Does this dumbass have a name?” I asked, trying not to seem as desperate as I was starting to feel.

“Show me those tits again and I might just be motivated enough to find out.” The boy lifted a challenging blonde brow.

“Find out and I might just be motivated enough to show you my tits again,” I threw back at him .

“You drive a hard bargain, princess. But I’ll see what I can do,” he yelled over a shoulder, already pivoting down the hallway towards the pediatric wing. He must have also clipped some kind of employee badge, seeing as he came and went as he pleased and I couldn’t get past the double doors.