Invincible by Amy Reed

fault. Stella did this for me. She caught something while we were out and it’s all because of me.
    â€œMr. Burns,” Nurse Moskowitz says when we get to the fifth floor, “please help Evie back to her room and ask Nurse Jill to help get her back in bed. I’ll take care of Stella.”
    â€œYes ma’am,” he says, and starts pushing me away. I turn my head to watch Stella as Moskowitz wheels her in the other direction toward her room. She looks smaller than I’ve ever seen her, empty somehow. She raises her head and for a split second the light comes back in her eyes. She winks at me and I mouth I’m sorry , but she shakes her head. So I mouth Thank you instead, and she nods, satisfied.
    I turn the corner into my room and Stella disappears from view. My hand tightens around the CD she made me, perfect and solid in my lap.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
    HarperCollins Publishers
    ..................................................................
eight.
    â€œI BROUGHT YOU A BAGEL,” KASEY SAYS AS SHE LOWERS herself into the chair next to my bed. She places the paper-wrapped bagel on my bedside table, and the smell of garlic and herb cream cheese makes me nauseous. Not because I’m sick. Not because of my body. Because of the pale, tired light barely making it through the window. Because Kasey’s skin is still somehow tan.
    â€œThanks,” I say.
    â€œGod, I can’t believe what you guys did last night,” she says. “Your parents told me all about it on the way here. They were so worried about you.”
    â€œI feel really bad about that,” I say, and I mean it. After everything they’ve gone through. After everything they’ve already suffered because of me.
    â€œIt was really stupid, Evie.”
    â€œI know.” Like I need one more person to tell me that.
    â€œDo you know what’s going to happen to you yet?”
    â€œMy parents and Stella’s are talking to Dr. Jacobs and the hospital director right now.”
    â€œThey should kick that girl out of here.”
    Did she really just say that? “ That girl has leukemia. I think it might go against the Hippocratic Oath or something if they kicked her out.”
    â€œWhatever,” Kasey says, and I kind of want to throw the bagel at her head.
    â€œI’m not really hungry right now,” I say, pushing it away from me. She doesn’t seem to hear me. She’s looking at the bagel ravenously. “Do you want it?” I ask.
    â€œOh, no,” she says, breaking out of her trance. “I’m on a diet.”
    â€œYou look hungry.”
    â€œI’m fine.”
    â€œYou’re too skinny.”
    â€œReally?” Her face brightens. “You think so?”
    I forgot that in the outside world, that’s supposed to be a compliment.
    I decide to change the subject. “So what’s happening? How are things going with that guy?”
    â€œPretty good. You know.”
    No, actually, I don’t. I don’t know anything except that he goes to Skyline High School and she met him at a party and it’s awkward for her to talk to me about it because I’ll be dead soon.
    She’s looking at her pink polished nails. “Did you get a manicure?” I say.
    â€œHuh?” She looks up. “Oh, yeah. Some of the girls from the squad got together last night at Taylor’s and did our nails and facials and stuff. Lisa did mine. She did an okay job, but there’s a spec of something on this one.”
    â€œThat sounds fun,” I say, but it doesn’t. Compared to what I did last night, it doesn’t sound fun at all. Normally, I would have loved a night like that. Before I got so sick, there’s nothing I would have rather done than sit around with a bunch of girls, green goop on our faces, excited about my pores getting opened, excited to talk about boys, about school, about so many innocuous things, back when