Lola knew he heard it too in the way his back stiffened. Sebastian had that stubborn set to his jaw and Lola knew he wouldn’t be dissuaded from his current thoughts or emotions anytime soon. If Roxanne was smart she’d leave him be.
“Sebastian,” she pleaded, “I didn’t mean for her to get hurt.”
He dropped his hands from Lola’s elbows and whirled around to face his girlfriend. “What did you think was going to happen?”
Roxanne had no answer.
“Let’s go, Lola. I’ll get some toilet paper from the bathroom to hold against it until we get there.”
They walked down the hall beside each other, just like they had every school day for years. It felt weird. Lola kept looking at him out of the corner of her eye. He did the same. They didn’t speak.
He felt like a stranger and she didn’t know how just a year had made that possible. But it had. So much had changed. Lola wouldn’t even know where to begin if he asked her what all had changed.
It was warm, close to seventy out. Lola squinted her eyes against the sun and looked at Sebastian. She felt dumb holding a wad of toilet paper against her chin. Kids looked at her oddly as they went down the steps.
“This way,” he said, nodding toward the school parking lot.
Lola followed him, aware of all the greetings he got along the way. Sebastian had always been popular. Not so much because he was good-looking and athletic, although that didn’t hurt, but because he was a genuinely nice person.
At the car, he paused, turning to her. “I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe she did that.”
I can, was what she thought. But what she said was, “I’m sure she didn’t mean for me to fall.” I’m lying. Also, your girlfriend’s crazy.
The interior of the car was clean and smelled like coconuts. ‘Between Two Lungs’ by Florence and the Machine played from the stereo.
Sebastian turned the volume down and looked at her.
Lola already felt stupid, but it magnified with his intense gaze on her. “What, Sebastian?”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, mussing it. “Nothing.” He fiddled with the keys. “Guess I better get you to the doctor.”
They pulled out of the parking lot. Lola caught a glimpse of a tall figure with a face devoid of expression near the lilac bush in front of the school.
She glanced back as the car drove down the street, but Jack was gone.
“Do you have to work tonight?”
She jerked her attention to Sebastian. “Um, yeah, I do.”
“I’ll take you and pick you up when you’re done, if you feel up to working.”
Lola thought of her lost money, thought of her plans to get a car, then to escape. It made her sick thinking about it. All that money. Gone. Any check she got she’d have to cash and hide from now on.
“I have to work, and no, I don’t need a ride there or back. I’ll be fine.” Nothing had changed between them.
Sebastian’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. “What did I do?”
Lola froze, disbelieving of the pain she heard in his voice. “What?”
The car came to a stop outside the blue building known as Morgan Creek Clinic. ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ by Gotye came on the radio.
“Fitting, huh?” Bitterness laced his words.
She frowned, confused. “What are you talking about?”
He gritted his teeth and twisted his body so he faced her. Sebastian stared at her, a tick in his right jaw. “What did I do to push you away? Did I say something? Do something? What?”
Lola stared at him. He looked so sad. She’d never been able to bear his sorrow. What hurt him had hurt her at one point. Apparently it still did.
“Sebastian, I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.” Their gazes met, his doubtful and hers troubled. “I didn’t—“
“Is it because of what I said?”
Lola searched her brain. Nothing came to her. “When?”
“The last time we talked.”
She couldn’t remember the last time they talked. How could he remember that? Why didn’t she?
The air in the car became thick, heavy, and Lola couldn’t breathe. She was suffocating. “I need—“
“God, what is wrong with me?” he groaned, thumping his head against the back of the seat. “You need stitches. Sorry.” Sebastian jumped from the car, jogged to her side, and helped her out.
The clinic had two doctors and two nurse practitioners; one of the doctors was Dr. Malory Jones, Sebastian’s mother.
Derek Jones, Sebastian’s father, owned a hardware store in town and that’s where Sebastian worked when he wasn’t busy with sports and whatever other extracurricular activities he had going on.