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“No flippant remark?” I joked. “You really might have the plague.” She flashed me a middle finger, and I let out a short breath of relief.
“Can you turn up the heat?” she rasped.
I glanced at the dial that I had set to eighty-three. It was already broiling in the car, and I was in short sleeves. I gave her a concerned once-over. “I think you need to take off your hoodie, Mattie.”
She considered that for a moment, and then nodded with a sigh. “Right.”
“I mean, I’m no med school drop-out,” I went on blithely, shoving down my concern for her, “but I’m pretty sure bringing the fever down is the thing to do.”
Mattie glanced out the window at the frigid night beyond the halo of light at the gas pumps. The service station looked open, but the walk between here and the glass doors spanned a good thirty feet. “I have to pee.”
I reached over and brought up her hood to cover her hair, shimmying it around her face so it was snug. “I’ll go with you, then.”
Mattie gave me a suspicious glare. “You think I’m going to run?”
“Distinct possibility,” I confirmed.
Nodding again, she reached for the door. “He can be taught.”
I came around to her side, shivering momentarily at the nip in the October air, and I reached Mattie just as she stumbled out of the car. She looked horrible—pale lips, quivering body, and little purple lunulas under her eyes. She shut the car door and stared into the darkness. Whatever had frightened her in her nightmare, it had sucked the “Mattie” right out of her. We rotated our heads in tandem to survey the long, deep-shadowed length of asphalt between the well-lit pump area and the convenience store. I slanted a look down at her. “You going to make it?”
“I don’t know,” she said thinly.
“Do you know how many times I’ve had to carry you?” I accused, angling my body toward hers.
Shivering and standing with her arms folded tightly, she hooked a disgruntled look up to me. “About as many times as you illegally abducted me?”
“I don’t think there’s a legal kind of abduction,” I pointed out.
“Just don’t let me fall on my face,” she muttered, shuffling forward.
I took three strides forward, pivoted to face her, and then folded her over my shoulder like a sack of chicken feed. “If you give me a wedgie, I will retaliate,” I warned her. I turned again and headed to the convenience store with her furnace hot body draped over my shoulder.
Mattie went limp, and her hair nearly kissed the pavement it was so long. “This is not what I thought rock bottom would feel like.”
“What did you think it would feel like?”
“Less snot,” she grumbled.
When I reached the double glass doors that led inside, I set her down gently before opening one of them for her. “You have three minutes. We have a tight schedule to keep. Also, don’t run.”
Mattie coughed, hunching forward as she entered the small store packed with brightly packaged convenience foods. “I could still best you, even sick, you know.”
I walked with her, keeping a hand under her arm so she didn’t fall. “Yes, well, if you can’t beat ’em.” We reached the bathrooms at the back, and I released her. “Make ’em really ill and wear down their resolve.”
She gave me a distrustful look from under her too-large hood. “You being nice is freaking me out.”
“My new favorite hobby is freaking you out,” I replied gravely. She pulled a mildly disgusted look before pushing open the bathroom door. I tamped down another smile. I wasn’t sure what it was about Mattie, but she was massively entertaining. It was probably best not to examine that feeling too closely.
I wandered through the convenience store and found some ibuprofen, hair ties, and a package of jello and pudding. I added a couple bottles of water and a bag of fruit candy to the load in my arms and dropped it all in front of the bewildered store clerk. She looked me over, her dark eyes wary at first, and then softening with interest. “Hey,” she smiled. She had styled her hair in two low buns, and it made her look like a kindergarten student. Did we do away with child labor laws or something? Jesus.
I plucked a pack of bubblegum off the display at the counter, peering at it before I tossed it on top. The girl blinked up at me, ringing things up slowly, and I resisted the urge to sigh. There was no universe in which I would hook up with a Cabbage Patch doll. I texted Tabitha to see if she was still on schedule.
Picking up on my “no, thank you” vibe, the girl went sullen, rung everything up, and bagged it up with bored efficiency.
Mattie shuffled out of the bathroom, looking around like she wasn’t sure what dimension she was in. I met her halfway, gesturing for her to march back out the door. “Want a ride again?” I offered.
She held up her hands fast, eyes wide. “No. I feel better.” Her face looked dewy, like she’d slapped cold water on her cheeks, and it made the little waves around her temples stick to her skin in a way that was oddly tempting. Like the wisps were begging to be smoothed behind her ears.
