When we return to campus, Milo and I haul Nathan into the nurse’s office through the school’s back entrance.
She shrieks when she enters the room in her nightgown, carrying a gun. “Jesus Christ, I thought you were burglars!”
“Please help us,” I say, breathing ragged breaths.
“What the … you’re students, aren’t you?”
I nod.
“What happened to you?” she asks, putting down the gun. “It’s the middle of the night!”
“Does it matter?” Milo asks.
She sighs out loud and waves her hand around. “Put him on the bed.”
We do as she asks, dragging him all the way to the bed.
“Turn him over,” she says, grabbing her supplies.
He groans from the pain as we flip him over. “Fuck.”
“You want my help? No swearing,” the old lady grumbles.
He groans again. “A little hard when you’ve been shot in the back.”
“Is he going to be okay?” Milo asks.
“Let me check,” she says, rolling his way on her little chair.
She grabs her tools and starts digging into his wound. He roars from agony.
“That’s a bullet,” she says, and she eyes us both suspiciously. “Yours?”
I shake my head. “We’ve made enemies.”
“So it seems.” She narrows her eyes.
“Can you take it out?” Milo asks.
“I’ll try,” she replies, grabbing a syringe.
She shoves it into his side, and he hisses from the pain. “Jesus, did you have to get a needle that big?”
“Stop whining, boy,” she says. “It’s a sedative.”
“Oh …” Nathan sighs, and Milo hides a little bit of laughter.
“It’ll still hurt a little, though,” the nurse says as she digs into his back.
Suddenly, the door bursts open, and Lana storms in, completely covered in blood. “Is he alive?”
The nurse looks up, her tool still stuck in Nathan’s back, and her eyes widen in shock at the sight of all that blood. “Oh my God.”
“It’s not mine,” Lana says swiftly, laughing it off.
“What happened to you?”
“Good question,” she says, grasping a few paper towels to wipe herself off, but it’s no use. “I’m fine. I just want to know if Nathan’s okay?”
“Working on it,” Nathan groans back.
She immediately walks to him and grabs his hand. “I was worried.”
“Worried? About me?” he retorts, coughing, then cringing from the pain. “I’ll be fine. It’s just a flesh wound.”
I laugh. “You’re only saying that because she’s here.”
“Shut up,” Nathan retorts.
The nurse plucks out the bullet, and he grunts in pain again, gripping the bedding with his free hand. “Goddammit.”
The nurse smashes a cotton soaked with alcohol into the wound, making him hiss even harder. “What did I say about swearing?”
“So is he going to be okay?” Lana asks.
The nurse sews him up. “He’ll be fine.”
We all breathe a collective sigh of relief.
When she’s done, he rolls over again on his back. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she replies, then turns her attention to Lana. “Now let me look at you.” She pulls Lana’s face toward her. “That’s a big cut. Where’d you get that?”
“Nowhere,” Lana mutters, looking anxious.
She inspects her arm next. “And that stab wound?”
She shrugs and eyes Nathan. “I protected him.”
He smiles. “You did.”
The nurse cleans her wounds with an alcohol pad and sutures her cuts too. “There. Finished. Here’s a towel too.” The nurse chucks a wet one her way. “To clean up the blood.”
“Thank you,” she replies.
“Are you two good?” the nurse asks Milo and me.
I nod. “No wounds, other than a couple of scratches.”
“Same,” Milo adds.
She narrows her eyes at us like she doesn’t believe us.
“What about Nathan? What do we do with him now?” Lana asks.
“He needs rest.”
“That’s it?” I ask.
She shrugs. “That’s it. If it starts to fester, you call me.”
Suddenly, the door smacks open again and in step Felix, Penelope, Alistair, and Dylan.
The nurse’s eyes widen. “Oh God. Not you three.”
“What?” Dylan says.
“I’m not going to do this again,” the nurse says, sighing as she waves them away. “Whatever your business is, you can do it on your own. I don’t care if you stay here. Just don’t touch my stuff. I’m going back to sleep.”
She waltzes past them and throws the door shut.
“Well, that was interesting,” Penelope mutters, laughing a little.
“She really hates our guts,” Alistair says.
“We didn’t even do anything,” Dylan adds.
Penelope folds her arms and stares at him. “Really?”
Dylan just shrugs and walks off whistling.
Felix approaches us and focuses on Lana. “You okay?”
She nods. “Better now that I’m here.”
Caleb comes in too, clearing his throat. “I see you all made it out alive.”
Nathan tries to sit up, but it’s tough. “Thank you for helping.”
“Sure. So we’re done here?” Caleb asks.
Nathan nods. “Sorry I blamed you.”
“Yeah.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “It’s all good. Keep this on the rain check for when I need y’all, okay?” he says, winking. “See ya.”
And he walks off again, closing the door behind him.
“Thanks, I guess?” Lana mutters.
“I thought he was the one who shared your picture,” Nathan says, reaching for her.
“Yeah, about that …” She grabs his hand. “Crystal did it.”
Nathan’s eyes widen. “Crystal? No, she wouldn’t—”
“It was an accident. She didn’t mean to do it.” She interjects, swallowing back the tears. “I wanted to forgive her, but I never had the chance to tell her. And now she’s gone.”
I swallow back the anger and take her into my embrace, hugging her tight.
“Crystal …” Nathan grinds his teeth together as he looks at me. “We have to go look for her. She’s my friend too.”
I nod, still hugging Lana tight. “We’ll do our best.”
“Hey …” Felix growls.
When he sees how Lana leans into me, he backs off again.
“I’m sorry,” she murmurs at all three of us. “For yelling and not believing you.”
“We understand why you had to,” I answer, tilting her chin up. “You don’t have to apologize. You did nothing wrong.”
She swallows. “But I hurt you guys.”
“True,” Nathan says.
“And got yourself into some nasty trouble,” Milo says, snorting.
“But we saved you,” Penelope says, winking.
“I’d get hit by ten more bullets if it meant I could keep you safe,” Nathan brags, groaning when he moves too much. “Okay, maybe nine.”
“Thank you, everyone,” Lana says, smiling at us. “I can’t believe you all worked together.”
“You think I’d just abandon my sister?” Felix scoffs, making a tsk sound.
I grab her shoulder and whisper into her ear, “I’ll stay here. Go talk with him.”
“He knows everything now, doesn’t he?” she whispers back.
I nod. “Everyone saw the picture. We can spin a story for the rest of the students, but it’ll take a bigger lie to convince him …”
“No, it’s all right. I want him to know the truth,” she answers, looking at me intently before heading toward Felix.
“You think she’ll come back?” Milo asks. “You know, since the deal we had no longer exists.”
A devilish smirk forms on my face. “What do you know about cats?”
He frowns, confused. “I don’t know? They have nine lives?”
I lick my lips as I watch her walk into the hallway together with Felix, but before she disappears, she throws one last glance at me. “A cat will always know the way back home.”
