Page 14 of Whiskey Shivers

“They might move me to a regular room tonight or tomorrow,” I said softly. “Still, they said it’s going to be awhile before I can go home.”

“What’s that look for?” he asked gently when again I couldn’t look at him.

“I guess it says something that you’re here but Mark…” I pursed my lips to fight back tears because damnit… it hurt. It hurt a lot.

“Yeah, I hear that,” he said. “You need anything?”

“Are you leaving already?” I asked.

“Nope,” he said simply. “I’m here as long as you need me.”

I smiled but it was probably more of a grimace as the tears switched from hurt to gratitude at the drop of a hat.

“Then you might be here a while.” I tried to joke and his smile grew, a soft wheezing gentle laugh escaping him despite his best efforts to remain serious.

“An’ that’s alright with me. I ain’t got nothing but time, Fable. I ain’t got nothing but time.”

I sniffed and nodded, stopping when it pulled on my neck and shoulder. I realized my right arm was in a sling and had been this whole time.God and Goddess, these drugs,I thought with dread. They screwed everything up.

“How are my students taking it?” I asked, and Hex swiped his thumb across the backs of my fingers.

“The whole school is just wrecked. They’re scared for you,” he said.

“You have your phone?” I asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Help me look a little less scary, and a little less like death has had its hand on my shoulder,” I ordered.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. He got up and helped sit me up some, shoving pillows behind me to hold me up.

The nurse came in and asked me, “What are you doing?”

“Having my fr-brother record a message to my students, letting them know I’m okay,” I said.

“Oh. Well, hang on. Don’t try to do too much. Give me just a moment and I’ll bring in some professional help. We don’t want you hurting yourself.”

We waited. We got propped up, and Hex took the quiet time to fix my hair into something less ghastly.

I didn’t look great – pale with dark circles under my eyes, a shadow under the hollows of my cheekbones from too much trauma and drugs. It drove me a little crazy that I looked so awful when I couldn’t remember why – no matter how much I told myself that I was blessed for that universe-given mercy.

Who in their right mind wouldwantto remember something like that?

Certainly not I, and I hoped I never would. But by the same token, I was absolutely certain that I wouldneverforget Hex and the kindness he showed me here today.

I swallowed hard and made him take a few takes until I was satisfied with the message I intended to convey correctly. I mean, I was a freaking language arts teacher. I had better get it right.

CHAPTEREIGHT

Hex…

“Oh, Mike… what can I do for you?”

I stepped more fully into Mrs. Donal’s office and asked, “Got a minute?”

“Of course,” she declared. Before I could even get the door shut all the way, she asked, “You aren’t ready to come back so soon, are you?”

I smiled and went around the pair of chairs in front of her desk, taking a seat across from her in one of the two uncomfortable wooden chairs with no padding she had set out.

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