Remember by Eileen Cook Page A

barked. His hand slapped down on the stainless steel Viking range, making me flinch.
    “I’m trying to explain why I did it. I tried telling you how I felt after Harry died.”
    “You did this over a stupid horse?”
    My dad’s words felt like a slap. I stood up straighter. “Yes. I did it because of Harry. I loved him.”
    My dad opened his mouth to say something else, but my mom put her hand on his shoulder, and his teeth slammed shut with a click.
    “I understand why you did this, but that doesn’t make it okay.” Mom’s voice was even. She had a tendency to get calmer the more upset my dad got. “There’s the issue that you disobeyed our express wishes. You knew we were against this. There’s the fact that by going forward with the procedure, you caused trouble for your dad’s business, but that’s not all. You asked Josh to help you. You made him a part of your lie.”
    “He can kiss his internship good-bye,” Dad added.
    My stomach went into a free fall. Dad being mad at me was bad, but Josh losing his internship was a whole new level of bad. Even though I didn’t like that Josh worked there, he needed that job. If he lost it, he wouldn’t be able to pay for college. “Dad, you can’t do that. It’s not Josh’s fault. It’s mine. I asked him to do it for me.” It might have originally been hisidea, but I was the one who pushed him. I couldn’t let my dad ruin his life.
    “I don’t care whose idea this was; the point is what he did wasn’t right.”
    “I know, but he believes so much in the procedure, in everything you guys do at Neurotech. He only did this because he knew it would make me better. He really thought he was helping.”
    The idea of Josh being a fan of Neurotech seemed to calm my dad down a notch.
    “The internship is everything for Josh. Please don’t take it away from him.” I could hear the pleading in my voice.
    Dad shrugged, giving nothing away.
    “I will do anything you want to make this up to you,” I vowed.
    Dad sighed. “You’ll start by going to the doctor tomorrow. I want a full medical workup done on you to make sure everything’s okay.”
    “Are you feeling all right?” Mom’s face was wrinkled up in concern.
    “I’m fine,” I lied. Now wasn’t the time to tell them I was having problems.
    It wasn’t until I went upstairs to my room that I realized both of my parents were worried about me having side effects. The side effects that they’d told me didn’t exist.

chapter eleven
    T here weren’t many places in a Catholic school where you could be alone with your boyfriend. They were afraid you’d start making out like mad. I suspected public schools weren’t keen on public displays of affection either, but Saint Francis saw it as nearly a hanging offense if they caught you holding hands with a guy. Ms. O’Neil, our gym teacher, was always talking about how our bodies were temples of the Holy Spirit and that we should leave room for Jesus between whomever we were dating and ourselves. Win once said she thought it was creepy that Jesus wanted to watch. She got detention for that. Our school wasn’t real “turn the other cheek” about snide comments about the Lord. Even from nonbelievers who paid the full rate for tuition.
    Our school’s ban on ever being alone with the opposite sexwas why Josh and I were hiding out in the library. If you went to the far back corner, there was a resource section, just in case the Internet ever died and people needed to consult a 1990s version of the encyclopedia in order to survive. We were sitting on the floor with our backs against the wall. The school might have been worried that we’d make out, but I never felt less like kissing someone than I did at that moment. I could also tell that despite the fact that he didn’t want to be, Josh was ticked at me.
    “I feel so bad,” I said for the millionth time that day. It had become my own personal mantra.
    “Don’t. It’s my own fault. You didn’t make me do