Arcadia's Gift(33)

Not knowing what else to say, the best I could come up with was, “Um…I’m sorry. I mean, sorry that you have to live with this. So, like the disease…it is treatable, right?”
“Yeah. I take medication every day which has clotting factors in it. If a bleed happens, that’ll help, or at least buy time for me to get to the hospital.”
We sat down on a bench and watched a group of ducks bobbing along the shoreline. “Do you have bleeds very often?”
He shrugged. “Well, as much as my mother would like to completely encase me in Nerf, it’s impossible not to. Jesse and I were more careful with each other than most brothers, but we’d still fight. When I was six, he threw a Hot Wheels car at me and cut my forehead open. I was in the hospital for a week. I also had some joint bleeding when I hit my big growth spurt freshman year. Most people don’t realize that your joints are prone to bleeds. I guess growing seven inches in a year put stress on my knees, because they would ache and bruise up. Eventually, the pain went away, but the doctor says I might develop arthritis in them someday.”
“How old were you when you got this?”
“I was born with it, but didn’t start developing the symptoms for a few years. My mom was pregnant with me when Jesse was diagnosed. They knew I’d probably have it, too, so they banked my cord blood and had me tested right away.”
“How scary for your parents! It must suck to have this happen to both of your kids.”
“Yeah, I think my mom wanted more children, but they decided to stop after me. If she’d have had a girl, the baby would’ve been fine, but there’s no way to guarantee.”
I didn’t say anything, just wound a lock of my hair around and around my index finger. I loved the idea of having a ton of kids someday, and thinking about what Bryan’s mom must have gone through made me sad. We nibbled our cones in silence.
“Well, I guess we better go,” Bryan said. “I have a chemistry assignment to finish tonight.”
“Yeah, sure.” I popped the last bite into my mouth and wiped my fingers on a paper napkin before stuffing it into my pocket.
On the way home, I snuck a couple of glances at Bryan as he drove. We’d gotten pretty close in the time since Lony’s death. And those black glasses that he drove with did things to his dark eyes that made my insides squirm. It was probably wrong for me to choose this time to develop my first real crush. (I’m not counting the unrequited love I have for Orlando Bloom.) Was there an appropriate amount of time a person had to mourn before they were allowed to move forward with their life? My guilt felt like a lead helmet on my head…two sizes too small.
How would Lony have dealt with it if our situations were reversed? If I was the one who died, leaving her behind? She already had Cane, so it’s not like she would’ve stopped dating him just because of me. She also had a talent for selective thinking, not spending too much time on topics which depress her. Lony would have gone back to school last week when Aaron did. She probably would’ve roped her friends into putting together a memorial for me at the school, rather than ripping one down.
So, maybe I shouldn’t feel too badly about my feelings for Bryan. I couldn’t help the timing…heck, if it hadn’t been for Lony’s death, he probably would have never reached out to me.






 
    Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure,   Magic
    
 


 

Chapter 15


“You can do this,” I whispered to myself. “It’s no big deal.”
I walked purposefully up the front steps of the high school, holding my worn —and newly mended —backpack like a shield. Ice water pumped through my veins, my body’s reaction to the dozens of eyes following me down the hall. I wasn’t being paranoid. The quick glances away when I looked up were proof enough.
The funny thing was I wasn’t nervous at all about going to school that morning. I was actually looking forward to getting back to a routine. But once I entered the crowd of students, my stomach tensed up into one big knot and my skin grew damp with cold sweat. In fact, it was the most curious case of nerves I’ve ever felt; a mixed up cornucopia of emotions…excitement, joy, anger, fear. The walls of the hallway seemed barely strong enough to contain it all.
As I rounded the corner, there was Bryan, leaning up against the wall by my first hour government class, his attention on the battered Dean Koontz novel in his hands. I slowed my gait, pleased to watch him without notice. My pulse quickened and almost made me forget about the rest of the crowd. The intense gaze of his dark brown eyes seemed as if it might set the book on fire. Absently, he teethed his lower lip, drawing my attention to its full redness. His thick hair stood up funny in the back and he’d neglected to fasten the bottom button on his shirt, but to me, he looked perfect.