Under the Viaduct, H. Anderson [top young adult novels .TXT] 📗

but stopped. I thought he was…I thought maybe he was going to,” her hands balled into tight fists in her lap, “tell me how he felt about me.”

“Okay?” Allie said. “I still don’t understand why you’re so upset.”

“I went to his new apartment. I wanted to surprise him.” She bit her bottom lip. “He was talking to a creepy guy. Blayne told him I was ‘no one’ then turned and walked away with him!”

“Oh. Wow. That doesn’t sound like Blayne at all.” Allie frowned.

“I know. Allie, what if he’s back to his old behavior? What if having money for drugs was too tempting for him? Maybe that’s what he was trying to tell me.”

“No, Kay. That can’t be it. You should give him a chance to explain. Have you heard from him?”

Kaylee shook her head. “You should have seen the look he gave me. Disgust. Maybe even fear. He was afraid I’d caught him at something, maybe?”

Allie set her lips in a stubborn line. “I don’t believe that. You need to call him.”

“No. I can’t. He can call me if he wants to explain.” She stood and hugged her friend. “I’m going to bed.”

The night was long and full of conflicting thoughts. It was probably a good thing Allie couldn’t hear her crying and thrashing around in bed. Kaylee got up before her alarm went off—then realized her alarm, her phone, wasn’t even there. “Shoot!” A vague memory of dropping it in the parking lot at Blayne’s resurfaced. There was no way she could afford a new phone right now. And there was no way she was going to Blayne’s to get it. Maybe she could talk Allie into going to look for it.

She got dressed, brushed her teeth, and rushed to class, throwing her hair into a messy bun on her way out to her car.

“You look rough this morning,” her friend Jamie said as she plopped her bag down and slid into the chair beside her.

“Yeah. Rough night.” Kaylee pulled a notebook and pen out of her bag and faced the front of the class, not wanting to talk to anyone.

Kaylee stayed late at the library, “studying” after class and TA-ing. She really just didn’t want to go home. What had she expected? She knew falling for Blayne was a dangerous prospect. She knew the rate of relapse for drug addiction was high.

When she got home, she washed her face, brushed her teeth, then fell into bed. Allie rolled over in her bed across the room and flipped on her bedside lamp. “You’re late. Have you even eaten anything today?”

Kaylee shook her head and rolled over to face the wall. After a few minutes of silence, Allie clicked the lamp off and scooted down into her sheets.

The next two days were much the same, except with more nagging from Allie, trying to get Kaylee to eat more and trying to get her to go talk to Blayne.

Just before dark on the third night after the incident, Kaylee decided to go check on Mama C. She felt a ton of guilt for not having done it sooner. It wasn’t the older woman’s fault, what had happened with Blayne, whatever that really was.

As Kaylee pulled into her spot near the viaduct, she hesitated, looking toward it. Maybe they’d moved on. The fire was out and she couldn’t see anyone hanging around. What she’d thought was just a pile of sleeping bags, moved. “Well, someone’s here,” she said to herself.

She looked all around before getting out of her car, worried about the absence of Mama’s group. Seeing no one, she got out. But she froze, thinking, Maybe the person over there isn’t even one of them. Kaylee’s mind flashed back to the man who’d attacked her the first night she’d found the group. Her chest seized, and she froze. Not taking her eyes off of the pile of sleeping bags, she reached blindly for her door handle.

A horrible, wet, barking cough brought her out of her fear induced shutdown. “Mama C!” She rushed over, keys still jangling in her hand.

The gravel scraped at Kaylee’s knees as she slid to the ground beside Mama C. She pulled the covers back and gasped. Mama’s lips were blue, her eyes nearly glazed over. Kaylee felt her forehead and jerked her hand away. She was burning up with fever.

“Mama C. Say something. It’s Kaylee.” Tears ran down her cheeks.

“Kaylee.” The older woman’s chest rattled as she worked to draw in a breath. Another fit of coughing took what little air she’d been able to get.

“Mama.” Kaylee pulled at the sleeping bags and blankets, trying to get some cool air to Mama C’s skin. “Where is everyone?”

Mama looked confused, tilting her head and scowling. “Don’t know.”

She needed to get to a hospital. Kaylee reached into her pocket before realizing she didn’t have her phone. “Dammit!” She couldn’t pull her car any closer and there was no way she’d be able to get Mama all the way over to it.

“Mama, I’ll be right back.”

She ran to her car, spun the wheels in the gravel, and sped to the nearest gas station where she called an ambulance to meet her back at the viaduct. Before rushing back to Mama C, she turned the flashers on so the ambulance would know they were in the right place.

Kaylee looked around for a bottle of water, but found only empty ones. Where were the others? Why was Mama C alone? Kaylee shivered in the dark as she waited for the ambulance. She kept one hand on the old woman’s chest, worried that each next breath would be her last.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the ambulance pulled up next to Kaylee’s car. She met the paramedics halfway to where Mama C lay. “She’s over there. Hurry.” She led them to her.

They asked Kaylee a bunch of questions about Mama C’s illness, her name, any family? Medical history? Kaylee answered what she could then asked, as they buckled