Purple Hearts(56)

“Bye now,” Rita said, holding an ice cube to her forehead. “Thank you for your service.”

I could barely respond. The appearance of my creamy, sticklike shin peeking out of the bottom of the brace made me want to vomit.

“We did it!” Cassie said. “You want a glass of water or anything?”

My mouth was dry, but hell if I wanted her to serve me. “No, thank you.”

“Chin up, dude,” she said. “I wrote out my schedule for you so we can come up with a system.”

While Cassie was in the kitchen, I wheeled to where she had put my bag on the floor, reaching with hungry fingers for the straps, hoisting it onto my lap.

On the sky-blue futon, which I assumed would be my bed for the foreseeable future, she had set a folded blanket and a pillow, and on top of that, a handwritten piece of paper reading Cassie’s Schedule.

I could make out the phrases in her slanted hand: Nine AM wake up and play for two hours, sorry, I’ll be playing the same songs over and over. Doctor’s appt on the 9th. Band practice every Tuesday and Thursday.

I took a pill and closed my eyes. I hoped by the time she left the apartment, I’d be knocked out.





Cassie


“So it’s basically like having a roommate,” I was telling Toby.

Cross-legged on the floor, I aimed the lance at the pad of my thumb and waited for the stick. I’d told Luke to text me if he woke up and needed something, and came here to take a shower, and to remind myself of why I spent the entire day carrying Luke’s sweaty body around my apartment. When Toby asked me what I had been doing all day, I couldn’t bear lying to him. The Loyal. I did this for The Loyal, and now not only was he my actual partner, he was the only member of the band who didn’t know.

By now I had become good at telling the story. I would almost forget why I was telling it. It had become banal. Casual. A story about health-care premiums and city hall. But of course that wasn’t true. I would have to leave his apartment and at some point I would put my arms around another man, if only for show.

He was walking in a circle around his living room, running his fingers through his long brown hair, Lorraine following him like a shadow. He threw up his hands. “Yeah, like a sexy soldier roommate who’s also your, like, legal partner!”

I stuck my thumb onto the meter, and waited. Eighty. Good. Even though I’d been doing this for months now, I still waited on every glucose score like I was waiting on the lottery. But it was more like most tickets were winning tickets, and you were dreading when you lost.

“No, no, no, not sexy,” I assured Toby, thinking of Luke as I had found him before I left, head lolling on his shoulder as he slept. I had wheeled him gently against the wall, putting one of Mom’s old throw pillows behind his head. I would have moved him to the couch but I didn’t think I could do it without him being awake. “Plus we barely know each other.” I thought of our e-mails and Skype calls and wondered if my words were entirely true. There was the night before he deployed, too. . . . But, then again, I didn’t know the Luke who’d come back, the man who would stare out the window for hours, not talking, bristling every time I approached.

“Then why would you trust him? That’s what I don’t get.”

“T, I was desperate. You saw what happens when I get low blood sugar. It could happen again, and I just can’t afford another visit to the ER or”—I held up my meter—“any of this stuff on my own.”

He paused, picking up Lorraine, drumming her back. “Yeah,” he said, staring into space. “Yeah, I remember.”

“He also needs money, I think. I don’t actually know.”

Toby jumped on that. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“I thought it was best that I didn’t ask too many questions about his situation. Mind you”—I held up a finger, because Toby was starting to protest—“this was before I knew I had to live with him.”

He glared at me, brows furrowed. “So you didn’t plan to live with him.”

“No! Toby, no. Like I said, we have to keep up the ruse until he gets officially let go from active duty. It’s for you and Nora just as much as me,” I added.

“Because you can use your extra time for the album?” Toby said.

“Exactly.”

“I don’t know, Cassie.” His pace had slowed again. “I mean, we’re serious, right?”

“Yes. And I like it a lot.”

He smiled at that. I knew he would like that.

He set Lorraine down on the ground. “Honestly. Honestly, tell me something.”

“Honest,” I said, scooting forward on the couch, giving him my full attention. At least I could give him that right now. That seemed to be what he wanted. It was cute, almost childlike.

“You agreed to marry him,” he said, putting one finger out. Then he put out another. “And now you have this guy sleeping on your couch, in your home. And you expect me to just believe that you two don’t have a thing for each other.”

My chest tightened. A thing? Sure, Luke and I slept together once, and now we did things like watch each other go through various medical procedures and fight at our best friend’s funeral. We couldn’t have a thing if we tried. “Um. No, no, we don’t. How can I explain this?”