Haze by Erin Thomas

Author:Erin Thomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV032060, book
ISBN: 9781459800724
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2012-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

chapter fourteen

I made it back to school just in time for Tuesday chicken dinner. I didn’t say much, not even when Droid asked about my torn sleeve and the scrapes on my arm.

And when I finished eating, I was still fuming. If I were a cartoon character, there would have been a black cloud over my head.

“Study hall, bro?” Droid asked on the way up to our room. I grunted and shook my head. I wasn’t going to be able to concentrate, math test or no math test.

Instead, I changed into a pair of long shorts and a T-shirt. The T-shirt sleeve flapped against the road rash on my arm. Each touch stung. It felt sharp. I wanted that. “I’ll be in the weight room,” I told Droid.

He raised a thick eyebrow. Yeah, I’d been for a bike ride. But I needed to move, and no way would I be allowed off campus for a run at this time of night.

The weight room was deserted. Good. Somebody had strung a row of cardboard skeletons along the wall of mirrors. Somebody else had taken a marker and labeled the bones. The room smelled like stale sweat, as usual.

I started on the treadmill. It wasn’t the same as a real run. But at least my feet were pounding, my blood was racing and I didn’t have to think.

My legs felt rubbery. After the treadmill, I moved on to my upper-body workout. One of the fluorescent lights in the room was loose and buzzing. It set my teeth on edge.

The last time I’d been in this room, Jeremy had been here too. I took a second to hope with every fiber in my body that he was going to get better.

And then I worked. Arms out, then back slowly, pushing from the shoulders. Ten presses. A break. Ten more. I knew my routine by heart. Sweat dripped into my eyes and stung. Jeremy would have said I was pressing too much weight. I didn’t care. I wanted to.

Every time Abby slipped into my thoughts, I drove her out of my mind. I had just been…convenient for her. Someone to help her find answers.

Hell, if Jeremy was my brother, I would probably have done the same. He was a friend. And he had taken a big risk, telling me as much as he had.

Was what happened to him my fault?

I stood slowly. My knees shook. I looked around the room, and suddenly none of the machines made sense. Wires and pulleys, weights and benches. Everything became tangled up together. I didn’t know where I was in my routine or what came next. I stared back at myself in the mirror. Sweaty hair. Scraped-up arm.

Guilty conscience.

I shook my head, trying to focus. What happened to Jeremy was the fault of whoever had done it. Steven. Coach. I didn’t even know anymore. And maybe we would never find out.

Stupid Jeremy and his hiding games. Talking in riddles, never coming right out and telling me or Abby what information he had or why it mattered.

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