Falling by Amber Jaeger Read Free Book Online Page B

are supposed to tell me about where you are from. I thought you would be more grateful. I could have asked for much more.”
    I fidgeted with my dress, choosing my next words carefully. “Thank you for helping my brother. You have no idea how grateful I am to have him back. And I will uphold my end of the bargain. It’s just that I have no idea how any of this is possible and you seem to. I just want to know—”
    “I think that’s enough questions for now,” he said, setting his glass down.
    “I have a couple more,” I tried to say but he shook his head and pointed at a rosy glow coming up the smoke chain.
    “I think you’re needed at home. Until next time,” he said with small, sad smile. He hesitated in front of the fireplace as I began to drift off. “I hope we can become friends.”
    His face and the sound of the crackling fireplace faded to a rushing, dreamless gray.

Chapter 6
     
     
    I AWOKE EXPECTING TO FEEL groggy or unsettled, but I was rested and alert, just as if from any regular dream or sleep. Even the bandage on my wrist was in place as it had been when I went to sleep. Noting the old blood that had seeped through, I stripped it off and to my horror found ... nothing. No cut, no mark, not a scar or even a faint line. I clamped my other hand over the area so I wouldn’t have to look at the proof.
    “Proof of what?” I whispered to myself. “That I’m crazy?”
    “Bixby!” my dad bellowed up the stairs, interrupting my panic. “We’re leaving in five minutes; your grandma is already down here.”
    “‘Kay,” I tried to respond normally, but my voice came out a squeak.
    I splashed water on my face, brushed my teeth and threw my hair into the messiest ponytail ever. I was sure my dad wouldn’t notice anything wrong and I hoped to be calm by the time we got to Linc, but to myself I looked crazed.
    I curled up in the backseat as Dad drove us back to the hospital but the thought of seeing Linc again after thinking him gone forever couldn’t keep my mood dark.
    “Now, Bixby,” my dad said as we pulled into the parking garage.”Don’t say anything to anyone.”
    “Who would want to talk to me?”
    “Don’t smart ass me!” he snapped.”Just keep your mouth shut.”
    I sighed as quietly as I could and reminded myself he would be gone again in a few days.
    Up on Linc’s floor, I noticed the stares from the nurses and a security guard twirling around a chair at the nurses’ station.
    Linc’s face lit up when I walked in the room. “Bixby! You come to take me home?”
    I looked at my dad who looked at the nurse that had followed us in. “Tomorrow,” she promised.
    “Everything okay?” I asked.
    She nodded. “A concussion, some fractured ribs, he’s been rehydrated and will need to finish up his antibiotic for pneumonia, but he’ll be fine to go home.”
    Linc and I grinned at each other.
    “Mr. Gray, if we could just have a word?” she asked, pointing towards the hallway.
    When dad was out, Lincoln whispered, “Bix, did you know there are reporters here?”
    I nodded.
    “What do they want?”
    I chewed my lip. “Well, everybody sort of thought you were dead, so I guess they want to know where you were and what happened.”
    He nodded and chewed his own lip. He looked so foreign to me, sitting so still, so pale, and his eyes looking large in his thinner face.
    “Bixby?” he finally asked.
    “Hmmm?”
    “If I’m not dead, who did you guys bury?”
    My stomach rolled at the thought. “I don’t know. I’m sure the police will figure it out.”
    “Well, where did they find the body? Couldn’t you guys tell it wasn’t me?”
    I shifted uncomfortably, knowing what I was about to say may not apply to him anymore but did apply to the guy who had been his best friend.
    “It was a pretty bad accident. The car was in really bad shape and there was a fire ...”
    He was quiet, and then said, “So how did you guys decide it was us? ‘Cause if we were so burned up, our