In A Holidaze - Christina Lauren Page 0,12
glance up at Benny, who is drawing something with Zachary in the snow with a branch. My voice wobbles: “Hey, Benny Boo.”
He grins, jogging over to me and sweeping me up in his arms. “There’s my Noodle.”
Yes. Benny. This is who I need. I grip him like he’s a deeply rooted vine and I am dangling over a cliff, whispering urgently into his ear, “I need to talk to you.”
“Now?” His hair brushes my cheek, and it’s soft and smells like the herby hippie shampoo he’s used my entire life.
“Yeah, now.”
Benny puts me down and disorientation spins at the edges of my vision, making me dizzy. I don’t realize I’m leaning to the side until he catches me. “Hey, hey. You all right?”
Mom rushes over, pressing a palm to my forehead. “You’re not hot.” She gently touches beneath my jaw, searching for swollen glands. “Have you had any water today?”
Lisa moves closer and they share a look of concern. “She’s lost all her color.”
My brother glances up from his phone. “She was being weird on the plane, too.”
“She had a nightmare on the plane,” Dad corrects, admonishing. “Let’s get her inside.” He comes up behind me and wraps an arm around my waist.
“Can you stop talking about me like I’m not standing right here?”
As we make our way up the broad front steps, I look back over my shoulder at Andrew. Our eyes snag and he gives me a half-playful, half-worried grin. He’s wearing that terrible silver sparkly sweater he loves so much, the one he wears on the first day of the holidays every year.
The one Miso ruined only a couple of days ago.
Just as I have the thought, Miso races forward. In a flash of déjà vu, I shout, “Watch out, Kennedy!” But I’m too late: the dog barrels between her feet, knocking her over the threshold and into the entryway. Kennedy bursts into tears.
I stare numbly down, watching Aaron and Kyle check her chin, her elbow. This happened before. My ears ring. Just this morning, I stared at Kennedy at the kitchen table with a well-worn Care Bears Band-Aid covering her cut knee.
“Her knee.” I am freaking the hell out right now. “She scraped her . . .”
Kyle rolls one pant leg up and then glances over his shoulder at me, impressed. The blood hadn’t soaked through the fabric yet, but the cut erupts with bright red drops. “How’d you even know that?”
The laugh that rolls out of me is bordering on hysterical. “I have no idea!”
We walk into the house. Kyle takes Kennedy to the bathroom to clean her up, and I’m led to a seat at the kitchen table.
“Get her some water,” Lisa whispers to Andrew, who brings me a glass and sets it down like the table might shatter. Staring down, I notice he put extra ice in it, just like I would’ve if I’d done it myself.
I lift it, hand shaking, ice tinkling, and take a sip. “Okay, you guys, stop staring at me.”
No one moves. Mom comes closer and starts massaging my free hand.
“Seriously, you’re freaking me out.” When everyone tries to find something else to do in the small kitchen, I catch Benny’s eye, and then widen my own: We need to talk.
Like a heat-seeking missile, my attention shifts to Andrew when he crosses the room and sneaks chocolate from the Advent calendar. He looks over at me just as he pops a piece into his mouth and offers a faux-guilty shrug. Nearby, Dad leans against the counter, watching me with Worried Parent eyes until his gaze is caught by the plate full of beautiful cookie bars beside him.
My stomach drops. He’s going to get one, and he’s going to bite it, and—
A sickening crack echoes through the room.
“Oh my God,” he says, sticking a finger in his mouth. “I cracked my molar.”
OH MY GOD.
Lisa goes ashen. “Dan! No. Oh no. Was it—?”
Everyone rushes to reassure her that Of course it wasn’t the cookie that broke his tooth and Oh, they’re a little hard, but they’re delicious. Andrew grabs another piece of chocolate. And I use the commotion to sneak out of the kitchen to catch a giant gulp of fresh air outside.
chapter six
Outside, I can breathe.
Inhale, exhale.
Deep inhale, slow exhale.
It wasn’t a dream.
I traveled through time, backward six days.
I’ve seen things like this in books and movies: Someone has an accident and comes out of it with superpowers. Flight, superstrength, super-vision.
Man, I wish I’d paid attention to lotto numbers last