Every time I closed my eyes that night, Lauren was there, holding me so tenderly that I felt as though I’d died and gone to heaven. Then I would pull away, and instead of her carefree smile I would see nothing but charred black flesh. That’s when she would crumple into a pile of ashes around me.
I used to have nightmares all the time, right after my accident. But I hadn’t had one in so long now that my parents actually came to check on me when I woke up screaming this time. I told them to forget about it and go back to bed, but sleep was a luxury I couldn’t give myself. Not after that.
As if my nightmare weren’t enough to make me feel sick, Lauren was not at school the next day.
Aside from my obvious worry about the timing of her absence, I was filled with disappointment. It had been weeks since I hadn’t come into the cafeteria and met her curious eyes. I couldn’t believe how accustomed I was to being greeted by her smile, and even worse, how much I needed it to get through the rest of my day. I wanted to kick myself for feeling so addicted to her presence, but oddly enough, I wasn’t the only one suffering from her sick day.
Only Lauren Jauregui could have such an effect on an entire school. She was the sunshine in this crappy prison, and without her a dark, dreary force loomed over the entire cafeteria. Or at least the popular kids’ table.
On the bright side, it was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one she had cast under her spell. Zayn would grumble something to Niall every time he looked at the empty seat next to him—which nobody dared fill in Lauren’s absence—and Jade sat across from them, sulking rather pitifully. The strangest difference, however, was the empty seat next to Jade. Of course Jesy was sitting on her right, hanging on her every word as usual, but the seat on her left, Celine’s seat, was as empty as Lauren’s.
"She’d better be dying," Zayn was grumbling when I finally decided to see if they knew anything more than I did. "Coach was pissed when she ditched practice yesterday."
"Is that why you guys had to run so many laps yesterday?" Jesy asked. The scowl on Zayn’s face was an obvious yes.
"She must be really sick," Jade said. "Maybe we should go over to her house after school and check on her."
As much as I hate to agree with Jade on anything, I’d also thought about running over to Lauren’s house between classes. I just wanted to see if she was there and make sure she was okay, but I chickened out. If I didn’t know why she wasn’t at school, I could pretend that her parents just dragged her to some Buddha convention or something, instead of the more likely answer—that she was hanging out at home because she was too scared of me to come to school. If that were the case, it wouldn’t help any if she caught me superstalking her.
"I don’t know, Jade," Jesy argued. "If Celine’s gone too, maybe it’s contagious. We have our first cheer competition next weekend. We can’t all get sick."
"Celine’s not sick." Jade had so much edge in her voice it startled everyone present, myself included. "She sat next to me in calculus this morning. I don’t know why she bothered, though. She barely even said hi."
"Then where is she?"
"Avoiding us, obviously. She has been all week."
"You know?" Jesy looked as if she were just now realizing the truth in Jade’s statement. "She has been acting really weird ever since the dance." She giggled flirtatiously at Zayn and added, "What’d you do to her?"
"I didn’t do anything." I was surprised by the defensiveness in Zayn’s voice. "I don’t know what her problem is. We had a great time at the dance."
