Rain by Christie Cote Page B

better than Mom. I felt wet drops hit my shirt and soak through to my skin.
    I tried to console her. “It’s really okay, Mom. I’ll get to sleep without feeling bad that you and Dad are stuck with me in the hospital, and that is all I want to do.”
    “We aren’t stuck here, sweetie. We want to be with you,” Dad answered for her. I knew they wanted to be here with me, but it didn’t make me feel any better about the situation.
    “I know, but when you are here, I feel like I should be awake for you,” I admitted, hoping that this made them think going to work would actually be good for me.
    They looked at each other, having some kind of silent conversation like parents did.    
    “Okay,” they both said together, which made me smile, and Dad came and joined the hug as Mom held me close to her again.
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    The rest of the week blurred together. I didn’t even realize it was Friday until Liz showed up in my room, sleeping bag in hand. I never knew she owned a sleeping bag. Camping wasn’t exactly her thing, and when she slept over, she just slept with me. That was starting to prove more difficult now that we were both a lot bigger than when we started these sleep overs. I needed to talk my parents into getting me a bigger bed once I was out of here or maybe just buy another bed for Liz to sleep on. That would work.
    “How was your week?” she bubbled, throwing down her stuff in the room like she owned the place.
    “Let’s see—there was a lot of sleeping and puking,” I said bluntly.
    She scrunched up her face and crossed her arms. “Yuck. Maybe I should tell you about my week instead.” She smiled again, and I was ready for her distraction. She sat on my bed and instantly became animated, waving her hands around as she talked. “So you know Jarrod?” she asked but didn’t wait for me to answer. “He asked me out! Well, sort of. He asked me to come to this party next weekend. Can you believe it? If we dated, it would be perfect since he is friends with Austin. We could double, and he is pretty damn hot. I did get that stupid paper done. It took forever. Seriously, Mr. Clarke is trying to kill—“
    She stopped mid-sentence as Kyle strolled in. She took him in, arching her eyebrow at him and placing her hands on her hips. Oh boy. He was rocking his leather coat again today; I wanted to wear that coat. Maybe if I had gotten sick again that day he gave me the shirt, he would have given me that next. He wouldn’t have had anything to cover his chest, but that would have been just fine.
    Crap! What was I doing?
    Liz gave me a curious look before she eyed Kyle again. “Who…are you?” she asked, dragging out the oo part of the who, even though I had told her his name before. Maybe she didn’t remember, but I doubted that because she had an unnatural ability to remember almost every guy’s name, especially the good-looking ones.
    “Kyle,” he responded smoothly.
    “Kyle who?” She scrutinized him openly.
    An amused look appeared on Kyle’s face. “Thorne,” he answered without missing a beat. Dang, she was good. I hadn’t even known his last name until now—never thought about asking.
    She slid off the bed and walked around him, inspecting him fully. “Not bad…” she complimented him.
    What the hell, Liz? She’d just gone to a whole new level of crazy.
    “Now, Kyle Thorne, what are you doing in my best friend’s hospital room?” she questioned with her arms crossed, standing in front of him now.
    “Way to give him the third degree, Liz,” I chastised her, finally breaking my stunned silence. Kyle smirked, clearly entertained by her, but I was still a bit mortified.
    “Ah, you are Liz. I thought I recognized that voice,” Kyle said to her.
    She arched her eyebrow again, wondering what he was talking about.
    “You kind of yelled at Taylor in front of my house,” he told her.
    Realization came over her, and she looked a bit