Between the Lives - By Jessica Shirvington Page 0,62

off my apology. ‘I won’t tell anyone I saw you.’

‘Thanks, Davis. I’m … you know,’ I said, still fumbling with my words.

‘It’s all good.’ He nodded once to Ethan. ‘I was just on my way out.’ And with that he turned and headed straight for the door.

I spun around. Ethan dropped his arms and stepped back, retrieving the drinks he’d left on a nearby table. I sat down again and took a sip – rum and Coke.

I couldn’t look at him.

‘What was that all about?’ I asked, staring at my drink.

‘You were freaking out. This way you can tell your friends you snuck out of hospital with a secret boyfriend and they’ll leave you be. At least about why you’re in hospital.’

‘And when they expect to see you and me walking hand-in-hand afterwards? What then?’ I blushed, thinking of how nice that would be.

When I glanced up he was looking at me, his expression tinged with sadness. ‘It won’t be a problem.’

‘What does that mean?’

He shrugged. ‘It means you’ll think of something.’ After a pause he smirked. ‘You can tell them I turned out to be a loser.’

‘That won’t be hard, I suppose.’ I returned the smirk.

He sat back in his chair. ‘Anyway, we’re here to talk about you, Sabine.’

Now was the time to take my chance, while I still had it. I couldn’t get lured in again. Ethan had proved he was full of tricks, and despite his help with Davis I couldn’t trust him. I leaned in innocently. ‘Ethan, I’m … I just need a moment. I’m going to go to the ladies, okay.’

He looked at me suspiciously, but what was he really going to say? He nodded. ‘I trust you.’

If words could hurt … they did.

I started to weave my way through the groups of people. When I was sure Ethan could no longer see me, I quickly slipped out the front door and ran towards the convenience store we’d passed a few blocks away. When I stumbled in, the old man and his wife sitting behind the counter stood up. ‘Are you all right, girl?’ he asked, looking beyond me to see if someone was following me.

I sucked in a few breaths. My heart was racing. Running flat out after my recent medical adventures might not have been the best idea. ‘Yeah. Fine. Just in a rush. You don’t happen to offer a key copying service?’

The man smiled, and pointed to a sign above him: Key Cutting $8.99. ‘Do you have the key?’

I dipped my hand into Ethan’s jacket pocket and pulled out the set of keys. I removed the one Ethan had used to open the window and passed it to the man.

‘Just that one?’ he asked.

The truth was, I would have liked them all. For all I knew, one of them was a key to the front door. But I only had the ten dollars my parents had left me and I couldn’t risk the extra time. I nodded. At least a key to the window meant I could get out.

When I got back to the table, Ethan looked relieved to see me. I shrugged off his jacket and sat in my chair. ‘The ladies bathroom is much more interesting here than at the clinic,’ I said conversationally.

Ethan smiled, watching as I took a sip of my drink. ‘Go easy on that, it’s the only one you’re getting.’

I rolled my eyes, settling back and trying hard not to look out of breath. I’d run most of the return trip.

‘Do you think it’s a parallel world? Or another place, like another planet or something?’ he asked, getting down to business.

‘I don’t know. It’s just like here, only different. I’m different. The world is generally the same, but … I don’t know how to explain it.’

‘Would this place exist there?’ he asked, looking around the bar.

‘Maybe, maybe not. But even if it did, it’d be different. Maybe run by different owners. Sometimes it’s like the worlds have the same general plan, like they’ve been mapped out or something, but then because the people are all different, everything has been interpreted differently. You know, buildings, houses, schools … It’s like everything is similar, but just not quite the same.’ I tried not to look as nervous as I felt. I’d thought about this stuff for so long now, but I’d never tried to explain it to anyone.

‘So you have different people around you?’

I nodded. ‘Every now and then I’ll see someone in both worlds. It’s weird. I