Page 115 of Rules

Andrew opens his mouth, but I interrupt him before he can say anything. “It’s Jeanette.”

He sways on his legs like I’ve punched him, the color draining from his face.

“I have to get back. She needs me.” I swallow hard. “She needs us.”

Seconds slowly tick. It feels like it’s been forever since I got the phone call. My world is moving in slow motion, but it can’t be more than a couple of minutes at most.

I just want to hear her heartbeat.

My phone buzzes again. I expect it to be Dad, but it’s Derek.

“Are you guys coming or what?” he asks in way of greeting. I can hear the party raging in the background.

Did we just win the game only a few hours ago? It seems like an eternity.

“N-no,” I manage to rasp through my closed throat.

Derek must hear my panic because he grows serious almost instantly. I can hear him move until the noise is dampened, if only slightly. “What’s going on? Is it Andrew? Did something happen?”

“Andrew is fine.”For now.“It’s J-Jeanette. She’s been in an accident. They’re taking her to the hospital.”

I look at Andrew, still standing shell-shocked on the porch.

“I have to go,” I say, not even sure to whom exactly. But they seem like the right words because he snaps out of whatever spell he’s been under and starts to run.

Ten seconds at most, that’s how long it takes him to get back to the car. He doesn’t slow down. He doesn’t look back. He runs like his life is on the line. Maybe it is. I know mine is for sure because there is no world for me in which Jeanette doesn’t exist.

I need you to fight, Anette.

“We’ll be there,” Derek says. Not bothering to reply, I quit the call.

We both slide back into the car, pulling our seatbelts on before Andrew presses the gas to the floor.

“What the fuck happened?” Andrew gives me a quick look, his eyes wide before he returns them to the road ahead. His hands are clenching the steering wheel, knuckles white.

Snow is falling, the roads are icy, and he’s driving like he’s planning to win a NASCAR title or some shit. Not that I mind. I want to get to Jeanette as fast as possible

I run my hand through my hair, pulling at the strands.

What the fuck actually happened?Half of the conversation with my father was a blur. The only thing I’m sure of is that she was in an accident. What kind? I have no idea.

“Did she…” Andrew’s trembling voice breaks me from my haze. “Did she stop eating again?”

I turn around sideways to look at him, completely surprised by his question. “How do you know about that?”

“She told me.”

First, she told the girls and now Andrew too? I wasn’t sure if that was a positive or negative thing, and now wasn’t the time or the place to think too much about it.

“You’re lying,” I accuse.

I’m not even sure why it’s so hard for me to believe it. I believed when Brook told me just fine, so why not Andrew too? I know she has feelings for the guy. Maybe she’s even in love with him. Not that I like that very much, but the idea of her opening up to all these people, people she barely knows when she wouldn’t…

“She told me just after… just after she broke up with me.”

Why him? Why now? All I ever wanted to do was be there for her, be the person she needed me to be, but when she needed help, she didn’t trust me enough to confide in me.

I feel numb. Emotionally and physically. I don’t know what to think or say, but Andrew isn’t having it.

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