Suitehearts #1 by Claire Kann

Author:Claire Kann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

DYLAN: Are you here yet?

D: At school, I mean.

D: I guess I’ll just go to class then. Unless you’re running late?

D: Did you stay home today?

D: Is everything okay? Amber said Rose didn’t show up either.

Chapter

12

Devastation.

It was the only word to describe the feeling when something you didn’t even know you wanted was dangled in front of you until you realized you did want it and then it was brutally snatched away. Complete and utter devastation.

Dylan Matthew Jackson

and

Ariel Rita Lucille Meyer

It was a brand-new Band-Aid being ripped off a sensitive patch of skin. It was stepping on a rock and rolling your ankle until you fell, scraping your hands and knees in the process. It was brushing your hair and hitting an impossible knot threatening to pull that entire patch straight out of your scalp.

Dylan being Cora’s Kindling hurt like that—harsh, sharp, and lingering.

“Are you crying?” Aunt Tanya hovered in the doorway, holding the doorknob in a death grip.

“I’m not crying. I’m sick.” Cora sniffled to emphasize her point. “I don’t feel good.” She didn’t want to lie, but she also didn’t want to tell the whole truth. “Is Rose better?”

“She’s getting there.” Aunt Tanya hurried across the room and sat on the bed. She pressed a hand against Cora’s forehead and then her cheeks. “You don’t feel warm.”

“I’m congested.” And devastated.

“You certainly sound like it.” Aunt Tanya looked concerned, eyebrows pulling together. She sighed once, looking uncomfortable. “About Dylan—”

“You’re not allowed to help me.”

Cora sniffled again, wiping her nose with her hand. She focused on her bedspread so her aunt couldn’t read her face. Two sides of her life had collided and now everything was imploding. She just needed some time to figure everything out. To adjust. To let go.

Why was this happening?!

Aunt Tanya sighed again. “All right, well, I guess you’re both staying home today. I have to go into the office, but Jackie is going to come by to check on you girls. Maybe bring you some soup.”

After she left, Cora rolled over, curling into a ball. Crying took up a considerable amount of time. Hours had passed before the tightness in her skin, around her face, and the puffiness around her eyes began to feel unbearable. Her head hurt too—a headache that pulsated in one eye.

And yet, somehow, she still had the strength of will to get some water and medicine.

Her body felt sluggish. Sitting up was like trying to pull herself out of quicksand and took up the last dregs of her energy. This was how she would exist now. A gnarly tortoise. An exhausted sloth. She’d make it to the kitchen eventually.

Next to one of her pillows, her phone rang. The screen filled with a long number she didn’t know but recognized as an international call.

Cora’s heart chugged to an abrupt stop as she answered, voice barely more than a whisper. “Hello?”

“Cora?”

“Mom?”

“Hi, honey,” her mom said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t call sooner. I got your first message—”

“It’s against the rules.” Cora had to take deep gulping breaths to stay calm and not dissolve into incoherent babbling mush.

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