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“Takes one to know one,” he shot back, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets. We lingered at the end of Evie’s bed, smiling at each other like we’d somehow slipped backward in time. Probably because we were both thinking about the same thing: the first day we met.

Mum had dropped me off late to footy practice, and I’d walked onto the oval already convinced I wouldn’t fit in. Peter had been sitting cross-legged on the grass near the sidelines, muttering angrily while wrestling with his shoelaces. I hadn’t even thought about it before dropping down beside him to help. From that moment on, we’d been inseparable.

“I missed you,” I admitted quietly.

Peter’s expression softened before he covered it with a scoff and a shake of his head. “I missed you too. Well…” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the television mounted high in the corner of the hospital room. “Maybe not as much, considering your face was on my TV every bloody week.” Ironically, a replay of my last game was playing silently across the screen. A laugh burst out of me before I could stop it, and Peter joined in, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he shook his head.

“What’s so funny?”

Our smiles vanished instantly.

Slowly, both of us turned toward the hospital bed.

Her eyes were barely open, hooded heavily with exhaustion, confusion swimming in the green as the heart monitor beside her suddenly picked up speed.

Peter sucked in a sharp breath beside me.

My heart stopped completely.

“Evie?”

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

EVIE

“Iremember the first time I saw you. We lost by a goal that day, and Mum was running late, so Robert offered to drive me home instead. I hadn’t really noticed you before that. I was too busy playing, I guess. You were sitting in the middle seat in the back, wouldn’t even look at me. You were so shy, you barely said two words the whole drive, but I remember thinking your Scooby-Doo socks were cool. And after that, the drives home just…became our thing. You started talking more and asked me questions constantly.

You always wanted to know what I was thinking or how I was feeling. I think that was what I remembered most about you back then. It was kinda obvious now that I said it out loud, huh? I was so oblivious. I wish I could go back in time and grab the younger me by the shoulders and tell him to wake the hell up. Tell him the girl sitting beside him was about to become the most important person in his entire life. And I’d tell him not to waste so much time being scared of it.”

“Evie? I know it’s late…I just…I can’t sleep. I had this nightmare. Wayne—I dreamed he found you. That he…that he killed you. And I was back there again, completely alone. I woke up and I couldn’t breathe for a while, because I don’t want to be alone anymore. Please don’t leave me alone. I love you. I love you too much, Evie. I wish you could just open your eyes and see that you’re safe now. You don’t have to hide anymore. It’s over. It’s safe. He’s gone. He’s never going to hurt you again. Never again, not while I’m around. So please, please, Evie…just wake up. I miss you, and I can’t do this without you.”

“The doctor’s going to come back soon, and they’re going to remove that thing from your nose. It’s called a nasal cannula, but I’m pretty sure you already knew that. She said you’re improving, and that you can start breathing on your own again. Isn’t that great? I knew you could do it, I knew you were still in there. You’re almost here again, you just need to keep fighting a little longer. I promise, I’ll be here when you do.”

“I miss the sound of your voice the most today. I miss the way you say my name. I miss your smile. I miss hearing your full-belly laugh. It’s been years, hasn’t it? It feels the same for me. I haven’t been happy without you—not really, not since you disappeared. I’ve been so lost without you, and I can’t lose you again. Not now. Not after everything. Please, Evie, please just wake up.”

The first sensation I felt was pain.

Not just in my body, but somewhere deeper, like my chest was remembering everything before I could. I tried to move, but nothing happened. “You’re a bastard, you know that?” Jackson said, and I almost cried at the sound. His voice had been the only thing cutting through the darkness. Not always clear, not always steady, but there. A thread I held onto when everything else slipped away. It felt like I was trapped inside something hollow, my mind moving while my body refused to follow. Like I was present and gone at the same time. I wanted to leap up from the bed and bury myself in his arms, never to be taken from him again. But I had been trapped, running through darkness I couldn’t see the edges of, desperate for something I couldn’t name.

Until now.

I inhaled a lungful of that antiseptic smell, sharp and distinct, and swallowed harshly against the dryness in my throat. I tried to pry my eyelids open, but they felt too heavy. Come on, Evie…you can do this. A dull throb started in the back of my head as I attempted again, and this time they fluttered, and a sliver of light broke through. The brightness hit me immediately, harsh and blinding, and I squeezed them shut again on instinct before forcing them open a second time, blinking rapidly until shapes began to settle into something real.

Like the two figures standing close together at the end of the bed.

Jackson.

Peter.

They were laughing.

Actually laughing.

Jackson’s head tilted slightly toward Peter, a wide smile breaking across his face, the kind I hadn’t seen in what felt like another lifetime. Peter was the same, eyes crinkled at the edges, just like they always did when we were younger.

“What’s so funny?” I attempted to say, but the voice that came out of my mouth sounded nothing like me.

The laughter died off instantly as both of their heads turned toward me slowly, like whatever they were about to see might not be real. It would’ve been funny in another life, if it didn’t feel like the air had just been sucked out of the room.