Page 172 of Feed Your Fiends

“Hale.”

Suddenly, my knees are weak as I slump against the door and think about the way Hale hovered over Gant’s bed for the first three hours after he was stable. Refusing to take his eyes off his rising and falling chest, too distrustful of the machine’s steady beeps. He’d been there before.

“It was the worst day of my life,” she whispers before a shake racks her. “He’d casually pop pills to party. They all would, and they all stopped when we almost lost Hale last summer. That’s when we got super close, and that’s when things changed between us.”

Not for the first time do I think about how many memories the group has that I don’t. But what prods at me is how much I don’t want to miss any more. I want to be engrained in Gant’s circle.

“How?” I ask.

“I’ve always had a crush on him, but I’m sure he always saw me as a little girl. Zedd’s little sister, despite the age difference being seven minutes.” She rolls her eyes. “Anyway, that summer, he began talking to me. Not just joking and teasing; he was opening up to me. I thought… I thought he was beginning to see me as a woman, and I got confused. I was so stupid.”

I touch her arm and lead her to the small, private waiting area. “Stassi, what happened at your birthday party?”

She shakes her head, not meeting my eyes. “He put me in my place. Reminded me that we come from different worlds.”

I knit my brows. “But…he’s always so sweet, so gentle with you,” I say, remembering the renovations nearly two weeks ago when I witnessed their interactions free of Zedd’s interventions. “What caused him to change?”

“Me. I overstepped. Remember, I had three wishes?”

“Yeah?”

“I asked him to do something for me…”

I can tell she won’t share the details. Yet. “He turned you down?”

She shakes her head no, taking me by surprise. “He gave me an ultimatum. If I did this, he’d do that. He knew I couldn’t do it. It was so… humiliating.”

I put my arm around her. “What? What did he want you to do?”

She hiccups as someone enters the hall. Someone with red hair.

My lungs seize.

“Jaime?” Stassi whispers in my ear as she pulls away from my embrace and gets to her feet. “Aria’s almost here. She got on the first train back. I’ll go meet her in the cafeteria with Zedd, and then we’ll come up to see if Gant’s awake.” She squeezes my shoulder. “We’ll talk more at Beaulieu, yeah?”

She doesn’t wait for me to reply before she saunters off in the opposite direction of Jaime, who’s pushing someone in a wheelchair.

Someone who’s wearing disposable bedroom slippers and a robe.

Jarett stares beyond me, unseeing, as he mumbles to himself.

“Ellie.”

The chuckle had taken me by surprise, but my full-on laughter as tears spring to my eyes, and my stomach contracts as I keel over more than shocks me.

Mum mistakes this for joyful laughter, happiness at the sight of two fuckups.

“Ellie?” she repeats, pushing Jarett closer. “What are you doing here? Did you come to see Jarett?”

When the laughter dissolves into stoicness, I lean back in my seat, tilting my head against the wall and ask, “Why would I be here to see Jarett?”

Her brows knit in confusion. “I thought you must’ve heard the news.”

“What news?” I ask, but I don’t care. It’s like my lips formed the question as something to do.

“Jarett’s medical insurance was accepted. He’s a part-time resident in the psychiatric ward for the next six months. He’ll undergo therapy sessions, physiotherapy, the works, right, Jay?”

Jarett mumbles, spit bubbles popping at the corners of his mouth.

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