Page 65 of Chasing You

PRESENT

The soundof a beeping machine makes my mind stir behind my eyes.

“It’s okay, Miles,” I hear my sister’s soft voice somewhere distant. My mind feels hazy, like a low fog on a highway you have to move through at a cautious pace.

“Isla?” I mutter. It’s never felt so hard to speak. My chest feels tight.

“Oh my god, he’s awake,” she says to someone.

I force my eyes open, but shut them with a groan when I see the brightness of the room I’m in. A headache pounding behind my eyes.

“Miles,” my sister whispers. I get the vague feeling of someone holding my hand.

I try to move, but just groan in pain. “Mmm.”

She sobs. “Oh my god, I was so scared you weren’t going to wake up. Didn’t I tell you to bow out?”

“Okay,” I cough, my throat rough as sandpaper. I desperately need some water. “Can we wait for the lecture?”

“I’ll get the doctor,” I hear Caio’s voice, followed by the soundof footsteps receding until I can no longer hear anything but this stupid beeping.

I try again to open my eyes, and when I do, I look down to see a white hospital blanket draped over my body. The knuckles on my left hand are red with inflammation, but otherwise, things look okay.

I try to think. What happened? Why am I in the hospital?

I file through my thoughts, trying to remember the events of…was it last night? How long have I been here? I close my eyes, remembering the start of my fight with Boulder.

I remember feeling worried, which I hadn’t felt all night. I remember getting a few jabs in, I remember him bowing out in the first round when I had him pinned, throwing punches to his head. Then I vaguely remember the predatory look in his eyes at the start of the next round, the pain of a hard punch to my gut, the force of which I’ve never quite felt before. I remember the feeling of my back hitting the ropes and the sound of Leo’s shouts. Was he shouting at me? Or the referee? I can’t remember. It hurts to think, so I stop, letting my memories hide behind the fog.

“How do you feel?” Isla says after a little while.

“Probably as rough as I look, how bad is it?”

When she doesn’t answer me, I open my eyes once more, seeing her teeth tugging on her bottom lip. “I’ll let the doctor explain.”

I let out a pained chuckle. “That bad, huh?”

The sound of sneakers squeaking on the floor fills the room and it irritates the ache in my head. One second, it’s just me and Isla, and the next, Marina is standing in the doorway, her eyes wide and shining as she looks over me.

What do I look like?

A lone tear falls over the edge, sliding down her face. But she doesn’t wipe it away, she just does her best job of putting on a brave face. A weak smile blooming on her face when she says, “Hey, hotshot.”

An ache pulses from somewhere deep inside of me, and it’snot from my injuries. It’s simply because I haven’t heard her call me that in four years.

She’s not supposed to be here. She’s supposed to be in Ruby Cove, not in a hospital in Sorrento. She’s supposed to be at home resenting me, but instead, she’s here in my hospital room.

Isla gives my hand a light squeeze before she gets up from her place by my bedside. “I’m going to go find that doctor.”

Marina all but rushes to sit in the chair Isla just vacated, her eyes frantically surveying the damage over my body, but she can’t stop looking at my face. “How are you here?” I ask.

Her nostrils flare, and she flicks her hair over her shoulder. “I’ve got this motorcycle. It can go around two hundred and fifty kilometers an hour if you really want it to.”

“You shouldn’t be doing that,” I cough and my ribs protest in a dull ache. “It’s dangerous.”

“Somehow, I don’t think you’re the one in the position to be telling anyone what is and isn’t dangerous at the moment.” She raises her brows like she’s telling me off, and it reminds me so much of the Marina I used to know I nearly smile, but my face doesn’t allow it. “What happened?”

“I met Boulder.” I try my best to shrug, but when screaming pain sears through my shoulder, I wince, looking down to see my right arm in a sling.

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