In Some Other Life: A Novel by Jessica Brody

Author:Jessica Brody [Brody, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 2017-08-07T18:30:00+00:00

Then I Find My Hidden Stash

I know I should be studying. I know I’ll completely regret it in the morning when my Windsor Achiever app attacks me like a NORAD alarm during an alien invasion. But after stuffing ourselves on Duke sandwiches and toasting Dad with cups of apple juice, Frankie and I zonk out in front of the television and watch bad reality shows. It’s strangely the only programming we can actually agree on.

By nine o’clock, Mom is still at the office, and I can’t stop yawning.

“Time for your Dormidrome,” Frankie says, grabbing the remote and flipping to the science channel.

“There’s that word again. What’s a Dormi—whatever?”

Frankie squints at me. “A Dormidrome.”

“Yeah. Sequoia said something about that the other day when she dropped me off after school. What is that?”

“Oh,” Frankie replies knowingly.

“What?”

But he doesn’t respond. He turns off the TV and beckons for me to follow him.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Just come with me.”

When we get to my bedroom, he yanks open the top drawer of my nightstand and I leap back as though a snake has slithered out.

“What is all that?”

“Your sleeping pills.”

I gape in disbelief at the contents of the drawer. There’s no way those are mine. There are like seven different bottles in there. “I take all of those?” I squeak.

“Well, not at once!” He starts pointing at the various pills. “This one is for when you can’t fall asleep. This one is for when you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep. This one is for napping. This one—”

“Okay. I get it!” I shut the drawer, narrowly missing his finger. I am so not taking any of those. “Does Mom know I have all those pills?”

Frankie chuckles. “Who do you think got them for you?”

* * *

An hour later, I lie in bed, thinking about everything sitting in my task list that I still haven’t checked off yet. There’s a little voice in the back of my head telling me that I should probably do some reading before I go to sleep. Maybe just one AP history chapter. Or a few pages of Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant for AP French. But I’m too tired.

Tomorrow will be the official catch-up day. Tomorrow I’ll work extra hard and plow through all of those pesky little alerts. Now that my interview is finished and the fund-raising gala is over, I can focus one hundred percent on my schoolwork.

I curl onto my side, sighing into the pillow. It feels so good to just close my eyes and go to sleep. Just drift off into peaceful dreams.

Any minute now the sweet, sweet darkness will come and pull me under.

Any minute now.

Seriously, what’s taking so long?

I groan and roll onto my back. My body is so tired. My eyeballs are so strained. Yet I can’t seem to fall asleep.

You can do this, I tell myself. Deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out.

Just relax and allow your brain to switch off. Just think

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