Page 253 of Exiled

But Abby’s with Mel tonight.

In fact, they’re out to dinner right now with Vance. It’s Abby’s first time meeting Mel’s boyfriend officially, something we agreed upon a couple weeks ago when Mel told me how serious it was getting.

Fast? Maybe. It’s only been three months.

But I fell in love with Skyler in a matter of weeks, so who am I to judge?

The phone rings and vibrates against the hard wood of the table.

My concern only grows when I see it is in fact Mel, her name and the goofy ass picture of her sticking her tongue out flashing across the screen. I don’t even remember her setting that up. Definitely wasn’t me.

Scrambling for the answer button, I quickly raise it to my ear. “Mel? What’s—”

“Nolan,” her voice breaks, pitching high like she’s sobbing—or hyperventilating.

I’m barely aware of the couch catching my ass when I stumble back. I hear a thud—the remote falling to the floor, smacking off the wood where the rug stops.

Mel’s talking in my ear, and somewhere inside me, I’m registering her words—

Anaphylactic shock.

Restaurant.

Vance.

Dessert.

Ambulance.

“She couldn’t breathe—sh-she was blue—I c-can’t, I c-can’t—” She’s crying, and I can barely make sense of her as I try to piece it all together. “I forgot. I didn’t th-think, I…”

Her voice fades, replaced by a thumping, whooshing noise that makes me think of Skyler and what it feels like to put his ear to my chest.

He said it’s soothing, but I’m not finding it very soothing right now.

I don’t…understand.

“Is she alive?” I hear myself whisper.

Footsteps sound as if from a great distance, though they’re literally right there, carrying a body toward me. Skyler drops down in front of me, sinking onto his knees between my spread legs.

Mel sniffs. “Y-yeah, but—”

“Where?”

She rattles off the hospital in town, and I mutter something along the lines of we’ll be right there, before hanging up.

I jump to a sudden stand, looking around, needing—

“Nolan.”

“I—”

Hands clutch my cheeks, forcing my head down.

Big, worried brown eyes collide with mine, and it’s as if someone took claws to my chest and yanked—like my heart’s a stuffed bear being snatched up in one of those crane vendor machines—and suddenly I can breathe again, and it hurts,fuckdoes it hurt.

My chest heaves, and I feel like I’m going to throw up.