Anything but Ordinary(16)

“Sorry to be a downer, but you’re not in stable enough condition to drink alcohol.” Carter spoke directly to her, not looking across the table. “Also, I just got a call from your parents. They need you at home.”

“Oh.” Gabby sat up straighter, looking at Carter with concern. “Are you her nurse?”

Carter let out a snort. “Kind of.”

Bryce couldn’t help but untwist her mouth into a small smile. Relief swept through her. It felt good to be needed somewhere. She limped away with Carter at her side, the ground like liquid beneath her feet.

“Bryce!” she heard Gabby call.

She turned to look at the couple, now blurred across the restaurant.

“Talk to you soon, okay?” Gabby’s voice sounded tentative.

Bryce finally looked at Greg, but it was as if the moment her gaze met his, he shrank away, disappearing. She turned and walked away from them, pushing open the doors harder than she needed to.





hough it was nearly evening, the parking lot was still bathed in bright light, the low sun beating off the car hoods and windows. Bryce supported herself on the parked cars, surrounded by the sounds of distant traffic and the dull thump of her boots on the asphalt. The cicadas buzzed.

Carter came a few feet behind her, and they arrived at his car.

“What happened?” Bryce said softly, trying to match the quiet. “Is it Sydney? Is everything okay?”

Carter leaned against the Honda. “I made that up. Your parents didn’t call.”

Bryce blew out the breath she’d been holding. “Ah, okay.”

“I thought I heard you guys ordering drinks so I started listening in. It didn’t sound good.”

Bryce said nothing. Maybe she should be angry with Carter for sticking his nose in her business, but after the news she’d just heard, it seemed like a small offense.

“I thought you’d want out of there.”

“Too much excitement for my rusty ol’ brain. Good work, doctor.” She started to take short, pained steps past the car.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I just need to move.” As she said this, she realized how stupid she sounded, as if getting her body away from what had just happened would keep it away for good. She used to do the same thing as a little kid. A plate broke, she fell down and skinned her knee, she would just scramble away as if bad things only happened in one place. She turned, leaning against the warm metal of the car.

Carter opened the driver’s door. “You want to go home?”

“Yep,” she said, although she’d been awake for long enough now to know that home didn’t exist anymore.



The seats were warm and the windows were down. Bryce held out her hand to catch drops of water from the sprinklers. Carter had started to tell her about a book he’d been reading. The sound of his voice was oddly soothing, the up and down, but all Bryce could do was look out at the houses whizzing by, letting the water droplets hit her arm. If Bryce focused hard enough, she could see each individual droplet catch the gold light as it flew through the air and then follow its arc over the sidewalks, over the curb, shattering against her skin as if it were made of glass.

Beautiful, Bryce thought. She wished Carter could see what she was seeing.

They pulled up in front of the big blue house. The restaurant, Gabby and Greg engaged, it was all catching up. She couldn’t act like she was happy for them, like they were two people she knew from long ago, like an old high school friend would act. They didn’t feel like people from her past. One day she’d fallen asleep, and the next her boyfriend was engaged to her best friend.

Diving, the van trips to tournaments, Gabby insisting they play gin rummy, lying in the bed of Greg’s pickup truck, dancing with Greg in the barn with no music…it was all last month to her.

It didn’t matter that they were getting married. Walking down the aisle, wearing nice clothes, that was a game. It was that they were in love, that they probably needed each other, relied on each other. They kissed each other. My god, they probably had sex. And it meant something. Her stomach twisted painfully. It probably meant everything. Which left her with what? Nothing.

Bryce could disappear into a coma again and their lives would go on as planned.

She had been flailing above the truth like she was treading water, and now she let go. Bryce slumped in her seat.

Carter took off his seat belt. “You okay?” he asked.

She looked at him, and tears came. She tried to swallow them. “They’re engaged,” she said.

“I know,” he said solemnly.

Bryce remembered her dad’s warning about phases. Her mom trying desperately to get her to stay home. Sydney that first night at the hospital. Bryce was the only one in the dark. They had all left her in the dark. Or maybe she had put herself there on purpose. She didn’t know which was worse.

“How could they do that?”

Carter tightened his lips and shook his head. “I don’t know.” He moved his hand to Bryce’s shoulder, letting it rest there for a second, leaving a trail of warmth on Bryce’s skin.

Bryce sniffed, shuddering, and lifted her boots to rest them on the dashboard. She was still restrained by her seat belt.

Carter reached over. “Here,” he said, and clicked the buckle open. The seat belt slid back into place. “I normally don’t let people put their feet on the dash, but I guess we can make an exception.”