Fallen

Chapter Thirty

The halls of the hospital were silent but welcoming. The last few days I've been consistently around people. Especially the rainy day when I was stuck in April's house where I tried to avoid her dad. The wedding reception would continue on into the night so I had hours to sit with Audrey and think. Maybe talk to her, talk her back to reality.

I opened the door to her room and found she was not alone.

On the other side of the bed, sitting in a chair was Colt. He seemed just as surprised as I was when his clear blue eyes fell on me. The last person I would suspect to be here was him. He and his charismatic smile should be out at the reception making father's nervous of where their daughters are. But maybe that was why he was here, to get away from those giggling girls.

"I'm sorry," I said.

Colt shrugged. "If you need a quiet place to sit, you can sit here. Solitude is hard to come by."

"I think I will." I didn't really want to sit here with him but I needed him to be a friend. Or somewhat of a friend. Sitting in the chair on the other side of Audrey's bed, I watched her motionless limbs as her chest rose and fell with each breath.

Silence enveloped us. The only sound was the soft humming of the machines that crowded around Audrey and the soft flipping of pages from the book Colt was reading. There wasn't a clock in the room but I could mentally hear a clock tick as it counted seconds.

After the tenth page flip, I glanced at Colt. "What are you reading?"

"I said 'if you need a quiet place to sit, you can sit in here' that was not an invitation to talk to me."

"Well." My eyebrows shot up. Fuck you too. "You can read that book somewhere else."

"I got here first."

"But–" I stopped myself. I was going to say, 'but this is my friend and I want to talk to her.'

Colt looked up at me. One corner of his mouth raised in a cocky grin. "But what?"

I stared at him, trying to figure out the rest of the sentence.

Colt snickered. "Huckleberry."

"What?" I asked.

"I'm reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a second time."

I eyed the small book in his hands. The blue cover was worn from years of fingers holding it. The title could barely be seen on the spine. "I read that once. A long time ago. It's better than The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I never liked Tom. He comes in at the end of Huckleberry Finn and replaces Huckleberry as the main character."

"Yes, poor Huck doesn't hold his position that well as the main character." There was a pause before Colt asked, "Why did you read the book? It's really old."

I read it in school, but the Waste didn't have schools. "My dad had me read it. Wanted me to be cultured, but I hardly qualify that book to be cultured."

The easy laugh was almost soothing.

"Where are you from?"

"In a tiny village near the Wall." I tried to stick to the truth as much as I could. It was easier that way to keep the story straight. "It's bad over there. A war is brewing between the United Regions and the Raiders and I wanted to be somewhere peaceful."

"You chose the right place."

I didn't really think this was the right place but whatever. Silence fell between us, the only sound was the lullaby of the machines beeping.