Page 159 of Of Heartbreak and Harmony
Torren releases a choked, breathy sob.
“I love you, Callie. So, so much.” He looks at me like he’s still waiting to find out this is a dream. Like it’s all one big prank. His eyes drag over my face, then up and down my body. “How do you feel? Do you feel okay? Does it hurt?”
I smile softly and shake my head. “What happened?”
He flinches and blinks before answering. “You were in an accident.”
I nod slowly. “On the I-10.”
His eyes go wide. “You remember?”
“Sort of. I remember driving home. I remember taillights. I remember slamming on my brakes and swerving, and then...”
I trail off as I remember something else...Glory...my mom...the pictures. My eyebrows shoot up with a gasp.
“Glory. Mom. Are they okay? Did something?—”
“They’re fine. Everything is fine. They’re both safe. They were never in any danger.”
I shake my head. “But the pictures? The text...”
Torren tilts his head to the side slowly, his eyebrows slanting harshly with concern. “What pictures?”
“I got a text. Pictures of Glory leaving the apartment. I just...” I furrow my eyebrows and sift through my muddled memory before finding what I’m looking for. “Glory always answers her phone, but she wasn’t. No one was. I wanted to check on them, but everyone was gone, and I couldn’t...I just thought...”
“That’s why you left...? Someone sent you pictures of Glory?”
Torren says it slowly, as if he’s confused. He’s trying to understand, but it makes me defensive. It makes me angry, and all the emotions I’d had when I got the text surge back through my system.
“Yes, Torren. Creepy pictures. Like she didn’t know they were being taken, and I didn’t know the number. I got them right after I saw the text from Glory of the flowers...oh god...”
I stare down at my bed, eyes frantically searching back and forth as if the answers will appear in my lap. Distantly, I hear the beeping from my monitor speed up, and I breathe. I breathe.
“We’d just had to evacuate the concert,” I say, trying not to panic, clawing for clarity. “I saw Glory had gotten flowers. Then I got this creepy text with pictures of her, and they weren’t answering theirphones. I was worried, but everyone was busy. Sav and Levi and Red were on a video call, and Mabel was on the phone in her room, and you were in a meeting, and everyone was fucking busy, so I thought, you know, it’s late, so traffic is probably light. I could be there in thirty minutes. It wouldn’t take long. I was just worried. I wanted to make sure it was nothing.”
Despite my rising anxiety and the tense set to Torren’s shoulders and jaw, he continues to speak slowly. He rubs his thumb over my hand. His voice stays even, and I try to match his calm. I latch on to it and breathe.
“Your mom was asleep, and your sister was out with a boy. They were and are perfectly safe.”
“Oh, thank god,” I whisper. My body slumps with relief and my eyes sting. “Those pictures,” I continue, shaking my head. “The flowers. I just...I just needed to make sure. It’s not like I could have known that this would?—”
“No. No, I know. This isn’t your fault. You didn’t know there would be an accident. No one could have known.”
My thoughts begin a new spiral, this time focusing on my mistakes. I scold myself for being so impulsive. For overreacting. If I hadn’t left. If I’d have just waited. Hell, if I had taken a different route, I wouldn’t have been in an accident, and I wouldn’t be here. Instead of sitting in this hospital bed, I’d be going to tonight’s show with Glory and my mom.
Fuck.The show.
“What are you doing about the show tonight? Are you still playing?”
Torren’s face falls and his lips part, but he doesn’t speak right away. The longer he’s silent, the more my skin starts to prickle with anxiety. Then he shakes his head once.
“No. The shows were cancelled and will be rescheduled.”
In the silence that follows, I search his face. I note the scruff on his jaw when he’s usually clean-shaven. And his hair...itislonger. Then it dawns on me.
“How long have I been here?”
He swallows once before he answers. “Twelve days.”
