Page 86 of Fall Fake-Out

Wade

I’ll pull the car around.

One minute later, I brisk-walk out of the front of the gas station. I’m already halfway in Wade’s truck before he comes to a complete stop.

“You look fine to me.”

“My internal organs tell a different story.” I point straight ahead. “Drive.”

“What is going on?”

My chin lifts in an effort to show some dignity. “I’d rather not say.”

“I’m not being your designated driver until I know what’s going on.” He puts the truck in park and sits back in his seat.

“It’s personal.”

“Yeah, well, I need to know how serious this is before we go. Like, do I need to run red lights⁠—”

“There aren’t even red lights in Autumn Ridge for you to run.”

“Okay, so we’re just going to the family doctor in town?”

“Unless you think I should go to the hospital in Burlington.”

He throws his hands out. “I don’t even know what’s wrong with you!”

My shoulders fall in defeat. “There was blood in my stools. Like a lot.”

The lines across his forehead crease. “Blood in…” He doesn’t finish. “I don’t even know what causes that.”

“Neither did I, so I Googled it.”

“And?”

“And I shouldn’t have Googled it,” I snap, mostly out of fear that the last minutes of my life are being spent arguing with Wade.

“You never Google it. Everybody knows that.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Okay, then what did Google say?”

“Cancer. Internal bleeding. Ulcers. Stuff like that.” I heave out a heavy sigh. “So, this is it for me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I have evidence! I took a picture.”

“Let me see.”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT.”

He presses his lips together like he’s trying not to react. “Okay, I can see you’re very distraught. I’ll take you to Autumn Ridge Family Practice, and we’ll have them check you out. I’m sure everything is fine, though.”

Easy for him to say.

Wade’s voice is calm, but his left knee bounces up and down the entire drive there. And both hands grip the steering wheel when previously, to Burlington, he’d been much more relaxed. Two signs that he might think I’m dying too.