CHAPTER SIX
Twix Bars & The Sun
LAKE
Sneaking around a hospital with an IV bumping into my ass and dangling from my arm is easier than expected. I prepared myself for someone to stop me and drag me back to my chilly hospital room, but that’s yet to happen. Just a minute ago, a nurse asked me where I was headed. I told her I was taking a walk and she let me go on my merry trip. Walking is good for me. Blood clots are bad. Blah blah.
Truth is, I got ulterior motives on my walk. I’m booking it towards the closest vending machine. Slowly. So nobody notices. I can’t let a single suspicious movement happen, or allow any emotion to show on my face. I’m good at that. I’ve tricked cops into not searching my pockets.
Although I’m not smuggling any heroin in my back pockets today. My plan is to hide some chocolate. I’m not supposed to have chocolate. I can hardly keep in a few sips of water, but if I can’t have drugs, this is my next option.
My feet stop at the vending machine. I raise the three one dollar bills I have clamped in my fist. I stole them from Brooks’ wallet yesterday.
He hasn’t decided on the terms of me getting my inheritance yet. I guess there’s some dumb stuff with the lawyer handling River’s will. Brooks also hasn’t decided how he’s going to help me get there because of his promise to River. So I kind of had to steal.
I glance around the empty hallway. A nurse up the hall is the sole worker in sight. She focuses her eyes on the monitor in front of her and stabs her fingers at a keyboard.
My eyes land on the Twix label. Empty spirals fill the space behind it. “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I mutter under my breath.
I scan the rest of the machine. No Twix bars anywhere. I keep the grunt in my lungs as muted as possible, so I stay undetected. No other vending machine is propped in this hallway except this one.
I suffocate Brooks’ three dollars in between my fingers, and grab onto my IV. Mrs. IV is my trusty companion. She follows next to me, and I quietly clop my blue hospital slippers on the sanitized tiles below.
The want to stomp on the tiles tingles in my legs, but I resist. Gotta keep blending in with the bland hospital scenery. I face my back to the elevator and hit the button behind me, acting oblivious to the sound of it rising.
The same nurse is still busy typing, so when the elevator clinks and the doors open, I inch backwards into the space. I’m not fully inside when I sense something burning into the back of my neck. I spin around in case I’m about to walk into someone.
I meet the bright shade of green inches below me. She’s burning a damn hole in my face. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Pretty is a screwed up way to describe her. Up close, she looks like God’s gated heaven. I haven’t seen her so close until now. Her jaw hangs apart as she waits for me to respond. Her front bottom teeth showing—imperfect and one is slightly overlapping another.
She speeds around me, waving her arm between the elevator doors to stop them from shutting. Then she takes my arm and attempts to drag me out of the elevator, but I want my damn Twix bar.
“Phoenix!” Serenity shouts, pulling at my arm until I find the strength to plant my feet into the floor. Halfway in the hallway and halfway in the elevator. She huffs out of her lungs, squeaking her sneakers on the floor as she fails to drag me.
“You’re a foot shorter than me. Stop.” I twist my arm free of her small hand, back up into the elevator, and, well, she flies after me.
This time the tiny blonde flutters around me, digging her palms into my back and attempting to shove me out. “I’m taking you back to your room, and I’m not a foot shorter than you!”
I turn and drop both my hands onto her shoulders. Using more of my weight. If I had strength, this would’ve been over a minute ago, but withdrawal is sucking the life out of me.
I grin as the doors close. “No, you’re not, Angel.”
She huffs and furrows her eyebrows, which are a few shades darker than her hair. Once again, I’m locked on her face. Something otherworldly. She doesn’t let me stare for long. Instead, she slides around me, blocking the rows of buttons, and hitting the emergency stop.
“You’re not leaving,” she insists.
I drop my shoulders. “Not trying to leave.”
That doesn’t convince her. She hugs her body closer to the wall. I try to move her aside, but her hand snaps around my wrist like a slap-bracelet.
This woman is so damn stubborn. I should’ve expected it, considering she bruised and almost fractured my ribs just to revive me. She’s still annoying the hell out of me. What’s even more annoying is each time she sticks her nose where it doesn’t belong, I want to show her what my mouth can do.
Yeah. Brain chemicals and I aren’t cooperating.
I take her wrist in my other hand. Her free hand takes that wrist, and now our hands are playing Twister.
“No—” I huff.
We stack our hands over and over. Every grab and pull grows more aggressive. My hands burn from the constant contact. Angel gets so riled up that her face turns a shade of pink, and she starts slapping at my wrists as we stack and twist.
Keep it going for a minute and study her movements. At the perfect time, I steal my opening. I grip both of her wrists into one of my hands. My palm burns like I just grabbed a fallen star. I got no clue why. Something to do with her stubborn self.
“Lake!”
I need to catch my breath. So I lift her arms up above her head and back her up onto the elevator wall.
“Lake!” she yells again, squirming around in my grip.
My chest slows. I release the elevator from its emergency stop and hit a random floor. Meanwhile, Serenity twists her entire body left and right, trying to escape my singular hand.
“Angel.” I realize how close I am to her, and it’s like someone dumped an entire bottle of kerosene on me, then dropped a match. I step back, but I keep my flaming palm around her wrists.
“Listen. I’m not trying—”
She cuts me off. “Yes, you are! Brooks left early. You thought I wouldn’t visit early. So you’re making a damn run for it!”
She squeezes her eyes shut and keeps squirming. Pieces of blonde hair falling over her face.
This woman makes no sense to me. She shouldn’t care so damn much, but here she is. Again. She’s muttering cuss words and swinging around, acting like I’m hanging her over a pot of boiling water and about to drop her in.
I can’t even decipher the package of feelings circling my stomach. Like when she twirled around me in the ER. I almost started laughing the hardest I have in years.
“I want a damn Twix bar!” I shout.
Angel goes still. Her eyes stay shut, but she straightens her head in my direction. “Huh?” Her cheeks are burning crimson.
I sigh so heavily her hair whisks around her. “Twix. Vending machine on my floor doesn’t have any.”
Her wrists relax in my palm. She settles her body against the wall, letting me hold up her now droopy arms. “But you’ll throw up.”
“Probably,” I say, “but I want a Twix.”
Her eyes peel open. She looks up at me, and I can’t tell if I’m generally annoyed or annoyed that the sight of her peering up at me through messy hair and restrained wrists makes me twitch.
“Don’t you dare call security. Won’t forgive you.”
She angles her head and looks past me, like she’s thinking. I just watch her, and I keep holding her in case she goes batshit crazy again and attempts to drag me upstairs.
Then she pipes up, “do you need a Twix to distract you?”
My turn to go still. I don’t say anything. A fat lump forming in my throat.
“From your withdrawal?” she adds.
I wait a moment. Questioning how to respond, but her innocent grass-lined eyes are so bright. Helpful. No matter how hard I try, it’s too difficult not to be drawn in. I tip my head forward. That’s all I do.
“Okay. I’ll help you.”
I blink a few times. “What?”
“I wouldn’t help you if you said a different chocolate, but Twix is my favorite.” She beams a tight-lipped smile, and rays of sunshine fly out of her and go straight through me. “So, I understand.”
I release her hands and turn to the side. “I don’t need—” She’ll insist on coming with me in case I’m lying, so I shut up. An argument will delay me from getting my Twix bar.
The blinding angel takes her spot right next to me. I try to ignore her, but I’m once again splitting in half. The doors pry open. I drag my IV. Serenity and I march to the next vending machine. Well, she marches after me. Part of me is still trying to escape her.
I lean in front of the machine. Saliva creeping into my mouth. I search around each coil filled with different chocolate. My eyes find the Twix label.
No damn Twix.
I slap my palms flat on the vending machine. “Why do they have everything but a Twix?”
Serenity scratches her forehead and squints her eyes at the empty slot in the machine. “Maybe they have a shortage? A recall?”
I stand up as straight as I can manage and turn away from the damn machine to face her. “Angel, I’m telling you right now, if I don’t get that damn Twix, it’ll be my last straw.”
She lifts onto her toes and pats my shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll tie you down.”
My jaw falls open. She just walks away, wandering back towards the elevator.
I wouldn’t mind.
“What?” She looks over her shoulder.
Did I just say that out loud? I make a confused face at her.
She pauses her footsteps. “Did you say something?”
I follow after her. “No. I coughed. Didn’t wanna cough in your face, though.”
She taps the button to call the elevator. Her hands secure behind her back, and she grins at me. “That’s very charming, Phoenix. Thank you.”
Charming my ass.
***
I grumble, rubbing my cheek against my IV stand.
“Lake, it’s okay. I’m sure the ER floor has one.” She trails behind me.
“We’ve been to five different machines. I was out of energy after the first one.” I sloppily drag my feet until we’re stopped before the stupid hunk of fucking metal containing a bunch of treats. Probably all the ones I don’t want.
My eyes open a little wider, darting to the Twix label, with a single golden wrapper held between the coils. I celebrate by plowing my fist into the air.
“Yay!” Angel claps her hands and cheers.
I watch her lift on her toes a few times. She’s trying to be quiet, but she’s still unable to contain her excitement without making noise.
She holds her hands together and bites her lower lip, watching me pull out my three stolen dollars from the pocket of my sweatpants.
I shove them into the slot.
“B-two, B-two—”
I cut her off. “I know it’s B-two.”
Her hands drop right to her hips. “I’m just making sure!”
I shake my head. Then I almost select B-three, and I refuse to look back at Serenity, because I know she’s making a face that’ll tick me off.
Hit B-two, and watch the spirals unfold. I mentally cross my fingers while Angel physically crosses hers. By some miracle, the Twix bar falls into the bottom of the vending machine.
Serenity squeals. Then slaps her palm over her mouth. I shake my head at her and bend forward, popping back the flap of the machine and pulling out the Twix bar.
“Finally.” I hold it like I just found the one and only object that’ll save all of mankind.
Serenity’s phone buzzes from her scrubs pocket. The little ding frightens her skin right off her body. She pulls out the device protected by the shiniest case I’ve ever seen. Her eyes follow words on the screen, and I witness her lungs freeze over.
I droop my posture and come close to rolling my eyes. “What is it?”
Her phone case, covered in sparkles and glitter flowers, disappears back into her pocket. Then she gives her head a little shake. “Nothing.”
She smiles again, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Eat the chocolate! We went on a mission for it!”
A weird feeling swirls around in my gut. Maybe a warning to not put the chocolate anywhere near my mouth, but I’m almost positive it’s related to the lack of light in Serenity’s eyes.
Something just drained her.
I don’t like it.
If the sun exploded, she could take its place. She could do a better job. If anything, I’m not the moon or even a thunderstorm. I’m an annoying drizzle. Her and I don’t clash, but the earth needs the sun. She can’t fade. That would be a tragedy.
I tear open the wrapper. With no hesitation, I split the sticks apart and hold out my hand.
Serenity blinks at the chocolate. “For me?”
My body slouches into my IV. “No. I just like to dangle your favorite chocolate in your face.”
She looks away. “Oh. Okay.”
My half of the chocolate knocks me in the forehead when I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Yes. It’s for you. Take it.”
“But it’s yours.” She lightly shakes her head.
“I’m not gonna eat my half if you don’t eat yours,” I tell her.
One thing I’ve learned about Serenity is that her generosity never stretches too thin. She sure doesn’t keep much for herself. I could stand here and bicker with her for twenty minutes about her eating half the chocolate, but I lack the patience for that. Gotta cut corners by making it seem like it’ll also benefit me for her to have some.
The light returns to her eyes. She reaches out and taps the edges of my fingers when she takes it. She munches and returns to smiling.
I bite off a piece of my half, and I smile the tiniest bit, knowing her day has been saved. At least temporarily.
***
I throw up an hour later. I’m hovering over the toilet when Serenity busts in, wasting her second break, the only break she’ll have for hours. I don’t know how she figured out it would take an hour for my stomach to reject the blissful chocolate, but she’s here.
“To be fair, that Twix was really stale. I’ll probably throw up, too.” She squats next to me and swipes tissues across my mouth and chin. Not phased at all. Like cleaning vomit off of a grown man is second nature to her. I guess it is.
My lips twitch. “Still good.”
With a hand rubbing my upper back, the heavenly nurse leaves me questioning if I have any trust in myself at all.
She giggles at my comment. “Yeah, still good.”