Time Bomb(70)

“Hey,” Z had said, sitting up against the pillows on the bed.

“I just wanted to come by and tell you how sorry I am.” Kaitlin had died in surgery. They’d done their best, but it hadn’t been good enough. It was amazing she had survived as long as she had. Z had shrugged and looked off toward the window while Rashid transferred his weight back and forth, trying to come up with something else to say. “You know, you still haven’t told me why you’re called Z.”

“You really want to know?” Z had looked back at him. “When my mom was first diagnosed, she told me she was going to beat it, because she wanted to be there for me. So she was going to follow every step her doctors told her to take—A to Z. After that, I called myself Z to remind her I’d be there at the end of it all. Guess I need to go back to calling myself Alex now.”

“I don’t know,” Rashid had said. “I kind of like Z. It suits you.”

“Why?”

“Because you chose it.”

When leaving the room, Rashid had turned back and for a second caught a glimpse of the smile from the photograph in the yearbook. The next day, there had been a note waiting for Rashid at the nurse’s station.



GOING TO CALIFORNIA. THANKS FOR EVERYTHING. —Z





This time it had been Rashid who smiled, because Z had chosen who he wanted to be. And wasn’t that what they were all trying to do?

Tad lifted the tile to his nose. “I’ll never forget this smell.”

“It smells like fear,” Cas said.

Rashid looked at the two of them and said, “And courage.”

“Kind of like going to high school.” Tad laughed.

Cas smiled. “It would be nice if it would get easier.”

“Yeah,” Rashid said, looking back at the school where so much had happened. Where so much would continue to happen. Yeah, it would.