Page 12 of Not You Again
Shireen finally spoke to Carly. “Are you going to just lie there until I actually run you over?”
Carly tried to move, but the moment she did her body seized. “Ow, ow.” The words barely came out and her eyes filled with tears.
“I think you threw your back out,” Adam gently said.
“Because you tackled me,” Carly hissed.
“To save you,” Adam quickly clarified.
Shireen muttered, “That’s just fucking great.”
Carly’s dad had thrown his back out on occasion—years as a camera operator had worked their magic. Each of those times involved her dad lying on the floor and unable to move. But Carly was face down in a gravel parking lot... How was this going to work?
“Stay still,” Adam said. “I have some pain relievers in the office.”
Carly should’ve been surprised by the earnest tone, but she was in too much pain to react. She pursed her lips as a way of saying,Okay,and Adam quickly headed for the funeral home.
With only the sound of Shireen’s shoes kicking pebbles, Carly added, “Sorry. I didn’t notice your car backing up. I was just trying to get away from him.”
“You and me both.” Shireen scratched a spot on her forehead.
Carly almost felt sorry for Adam, but she felt worse for Shireen, who was now spending additional time with the exwho sometimes went out of his way to make digs at her expense. “You don’t have to stay,” Carly offered.
And while she’d sort of meant those words, she was a little surprised when Shireen quickly answered, “Okay.”
And even more dumbfounded when Shireen got in the car and pulled it forward over the bumper and across the grass, like Carly was on fire and she had to escape.
Which is how Carly found herself alone in the parking lot of a funeral home, as unable to move as everyone else in the nearby cemetery. Which made her think of her dad, something she absolutely didn’t want to do.
Things couldn’t get worse.
Except, apparently, they could. Adam’s footsteps crunched toward her. She pinched her eyes closed. Now she was stranded in a parking lot, in pain, and the only person who could help was this guy.
“Shireen left?” he asked.
“You can go, too. I’m fine,” she said. “In a few hours, I’ll reset and the loop will fix everything.”
She hoped he would speed off, but then his steps closed in. She supposed this six-foot-whatever person should be intimidating, but as Adam crouched down his expression was confusingly kind.
“Despite what you might think of me, which I’m coming to realize isn’t much, I’m not the type to just leave someone who is clearly hurt.” His fingertips tenderly brushed a small rock from her cheek. “Even if that someone sicked a dog on me only hours ago.”
Carly glanced down then, sure her cheeks had flooded pink from embarrassment. Unlike Adam, she didn’t relish being rude. He just happened to bring that side out of her.
“I’m going to turn you onto your side and lift your head.” He carefully slipped his palm under Carly’s head and gentlylifted her. As he eased her shoulder up, she turned so that she was on her side. He handed her two pills and a cup of water, and she swallowed them down.
“Thank you,” Carly said. “What are they?”
“Vicodin. My dad has a bad back. He always keeps these in his desk.”
A long section of Adam’s blazing red hair fell across his face, and Carly itched to tuck it behind his ear.
As if reading her thoughts, he swiped the hair back and revealed the line of his cheekbone. “Were you... I mean, was that on purpose? Were you trying to hurt yourself?”
“No,” she said, maybe sounding a touch defensive.
“Okay.” It was clear Adam didn’t believe her. “Well, you know youcan’tkill yourself, right? Because everyone has tried at some point already.”
“I don’t need you to mansplain how the loop works. I know I’d just reset.” No one died in the loop. If they tried to disappear, they just reappeared in the next one. Still, out of all the ways Carly attempted to escape, death hadn’t been one of them.
