Chapter 3

The doctor remembered me.

He listened while I explained the haunted house. His expression sharpened.

“Your discharge instructions were clear last year. Your heart condition is not something to test.”

“I didn't mean to.”

“The people who brought you in heard the explanation, too.”

I looked down at my hands.

Last year Nate had cried in the hallway. He argued with the others, brought me meals, watched me sleep. They had all apologized.

A year without an ambulance had persuaded them that I was fine.

After monitoring and treatment, the doctor arranged an urgent referral to a specialist cardiac center in Cleveland. I was stable enough to go home, with instructions to return immediately if the symptoms worsened.

He asked whether someone could stay with me.

“I'll figure it out,” I said.

At the apartment, laughter came through the door before I opened it.

All four of them were in my living room. Coolers of seafood sat leaking across the kitchen floor.

“What's this?”

Dean shrugged. “We're checking on you.”

“Without asking?”

“Since when do I need an appointment to see my sister?”

Nate nodded at the coolers. “Kelsey brought dinner. They're trying.”

None of them knew how to prepare it. I always cleaned the shrimp, cooked the food, washed the dishes. They played games until I served them, then began eating without waiting for me.

“Are you apologizing,” I asked, “or ordering a caterer?”

Kelsey looked wounded. “We can get takeout if you're going to be like that.”

I asked them to leave.

When I reached to move her bag off my chair, she grabbed for it. Her phone slipped, and a video resumed at full volume.

My screams.

Cartoon sound effects. Slow motion as I fell. A caption asking why every friend group had one drama queen.

Forty thousand likes.

“It's just a stupid edit,” she said. “People love you.”

I copied the link before she could hide it.

Then I went into the bedroom and packed my ID, medication, a few changes of clothes, and the little lamp.

Nate watched me wheel the bag past him.

“That was fast. Almost like you planned it.”

I had packed very little.

Leaving him behind didn't take up space.