The Apocalypse (11 page)

Nobody would ever drag the truth from Hannah—the truth of how she'd struggled to sit still in all of her classes and how she felt smothered by so many people asking her questions. She knew that people meant well, but Hannah just wanted to be left alone. The swarms of people in her classes and the insistence of her 'friends' made Hannah feel like even more of an invalid. The only people she felt comfortable around were Jake and his friends, simply because they didn't push themselves on her. In fact, they treated her normally, or at least she thought they did. If they didn't, it at least felt natural.

Almost cautiously, Patricia entered Hannah's bedroom. "Um, this is completely up to you, Hannah, but…Greg's downstairs. He said he'd like to see you." Patricia sat on the edge of Hannah's bed and reached out to smooth her daughter's hair tenderly. "Do you want me to ask him to leave?"

Surprised, Hannah could only stare at Patricia. To be honest, she hadn't thought about Greg Hudson much at all. After she'd been told that her boyfriend had wrecked the car she'd been injured in, Hannah had put the thoughts out of her mind and focused more on herself. Aside from casually talking about Greg to Jake and his friends, Hannah's mind had been totally void of Greg. And now he was downstairs.

"He said he understood if you didn't want to see him," Patricia went on gently, tipping her head so that her blonde hair swept down. "There's nothing that says you have to see him or that you can't see him either, Han."

"I know." Hannah swallowed and moved onto her knees. She considered her options; she could refuse to see Greg and never know what he had to say, or she could see him and have her curiosity satisfied. Ultimately, it really wasn't a difficult decision. "I'll see him."

Hannah slipped off her bed and did a quick check in the mirror. Content with her appearance, even in pink flannel pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt, Hannah exited her room and padded down the stairs slowly. She saw Greg quickly enough and marveled at how different he looked in person versus in pictures. His hair was still the color of honey, and Hannah certainly expected his eyes to be the same shade of brown, but Greg seemed shorter than she'd expected. Having reached the bottom of the stairs, Hannah cleared her throat, and Greg faced her. His face looked exactly as she'd expected, although there was a cut on his cheek that was healing.

"Oh, Han," Greg murmured softly, moving toward her quickly. Much to Hannah's approval, Greg stopped about two feet in front of her, managing not to crowd her too much. "It's good to finally see you. When I heard you went to school today, I thought you might not mind a visitor."

Unsure, Hannah walked over to the couch in the living room, and, a few seconds later, Greg joined her. Motioning to the cast on Greg's right arm, Hannah softly asked, "How's your arm doing?"

"It's good," Greg replied brightly, smiling a little. His eyes searched Hannah's face, and it made her feel uncomfortable. "How are you? I've been really worried about you. God, I'm so sorry about that night."

To Hannah's ears, Greg sounded very concerned and very genuine. It helped her relax, if only a little bit. "I'm doing okay too," she answered, offering Greg a small smile. "It's weird, but things will work out."

Relief appeared to calm Greg, and a real smile broke out on his face. "It's good to hear you sounding positive," he said with a light laugh. "I was kind of afraid you'd be furious at me."

"We were both stupid to go out on an icy night." Hannah's voice was slow and quiet as she mulled over what she was saying. "I'm not mad at you. I'm not mad. I think if I get mad…I'll be mad at myself." She shrugged. "But nothing can be done about it now."

"That's true," Greg agreed softly.

"Can I ask you a question?" Hannah's forehead wrinkled as Greg nodded. She knew this was going to come out awkward. "What happened that night?"

Greg swallowed audibly and seemed to shrink back into the couch. He lowered his eyes and swallowed again, obviously nervous, which made Hannah even more anxious. "We got together with some friends to study for a physics test," Greg answered slowly. "Then…after that, we went to Friendly's." Hannah furrowed her brow in confusion, so Greg explained, "It's a restaurant. Um, they serve a little bit of everything, but we went to get milkshakes." He grinned then. "They're amazing."

Hannah nodded slowly. "So…we stopped there and then…"

"We were talking about Winter Formal, and…" Greg looked away, refusing to meet Hannah's eyes. "We sort of had an argument. Actually, we broke up."

Hannah's mouth fell open. "What? Why?" She tried to process this new information, but she couldn't. Believing so strongly that she'd had a boyfriend and then learning that they'd broken up—it rocked the foundations of Hannah's mind and made her realize even more that she knew absolutely nothing about herself.

Still refusing to look at her, Greg sighed very softly. "It was kind of a spur of the moment thing." He fidgeted under Hannah's gaze. "Um, I don't know."

"You don't know why we broke up?" Hannah asked in disbelief, blinking slowly. "Greg, how is that even—"

"You didn't want to go to Winter Formal," Greg blurted suddenly. His brown eyes were glued to the floor, and Hannah thought that his behavior was curious, if not suspicious. "I did. We just, you know, blew it out of proportion."

Hannah nibbled her lower lip. "Oh."

Silent for several moments, Greg finally went on. "By the time we left, we weren't really talking. The ride was silent—right up until we hit ice." Greg's voice was growing quieter, sadder, and Hannah had to strain her ears to hear him clearly. "You screamed, and that's the last thing I remember until the paramedics came."

Hannah shivered unwillingly and curled up into the couch. "Why didn't you tell me or someone else before now that we broke up?" Hannah dropped her eyes. "You have no idea how stupid that makes me feel, that I didn't know that."

Greg winced. "That wasn't my intention," he replied earnestly. "For one thing, I didn't want people to assume that I broke up with you because of…what happened. And I thought it would upset you more if I told you too soon." He reached out and stroked Hannah's forearm tenderly. "I wanted to wait until you started settling in. That's when I wanted to be honest with you."

Plenty of questions were swarming around in Hannah's mind, but she couldn't bring herself to ask him any of them. She wasn't entirely sure if she wanted more details about their breakup, and she feared humiliation if she asked him if he wanted to get back together. Was that even a suitable question? She didn't know him anymore, but if Greg missed her—the old her, anyway—as much as Hannah missed knowing herself, she'd do anything to ease his comfort, since nothing could be done about hers.

Looking over, Hannah saw that Greg's eyes were back on the floor, and she wondered if he wanted to leave. It was impossible for her to read people's thoughts, if she ever could, because she wasn't familiar with how her friends and family usually acted or, really, how anyone in general was expected to act. The longer Hannah tried to understand things, the more frustrated she grew with realizing that there was even more for her to not understand.

"I guess I should go," Greg said softly, killing any hopes of Hannah's that he'd answer more questions, if she could think of a suitable one. "My mom's been really strict about me being on the road, and if I'm gone too long…well, she'll freak out on me."

Nodding, Hannah stood up, ready to walk with him to the door. She'd seen that on one of the soap operas she'd watched while in the hospital, and Hannah had thought it seemed pretty polite. "I understand. Thanks for coming by."

Greg followed Hannah to the front, smiling slightly. "You're welcome, Han. If you need anything, just call me, okay?"

Hannah nodded again and watched Greg exit her house, go to his car, and pull out of the driveway. Across the street, a few cars were gathered at Jake's house, and Hannah was interested in what was going on. She considered wandering over for about two seconds, but then the dreaded homework that was waiting for her upstairs was remembered. So instead of socializing with people she'd like to socialize with, Hannah went up the stairs, pondering her conversation with Greg and wondering how she was going to manage to complete her homework.

"Don't forget, you're getting your stitches taken out after school, so try to hurry outside after your last class." Patricia was hurriedly snatching bowls and glasses from the kitchen table while Hannah and Isaac were putting their coats on and Benjamin was finishing his coffee silently. "I'll be there to pick you up as—"

"She heard you the first time, Mom," Isaac cut in gently, zipping his coat. He gave Hannah a sympathetic smile because of their mother's babying, but, at the same time, he understood Patricia's worry. "Hannah won't forget."

"I won't," Hannah promised, secretly giving Isaac a smile. "I'll be there."

Fretting, Patricia studied her children lengthily and finally nodded. "You two be good today," she murmured, waving her hand gently toward the door. "And tell Jake he's invited to dinner tonight."

Hannah followed Isaac to the living room and then out the front door. Once the heavy door had shut behind them, Isaac griped, "Jake knows he's invited all the time. I don't know why we'd have to tell him that."

"I don't know," Hannah replied, feeling as though she had to say something, and increased her pace to Jake's truck. It was her turn to sit in the middle, since she and Isaac had debated about it the previous night, so she slid across the seat until the side of her left thigh was touching Jake's right one. "Hey, Jake."

Isaac scooted in after Hannah and smiled at the older boy. "Dinner tonight," Isaac commented lightly, pulling his seat belt on. "Anyway, I'm tired."

Confused, Hannah looked at her brother oddly, not understanding at all how those two sentences went together. Under her gaze, Isaac closed his eyes and leaned his head against the window as Jake drove. Maybe speaking about unrelated things was just one of Isaac's quirks; Hannah had no idea.

"Your mom's picking you up after school, right?" Jake asked, speaking for the first time at a stop light. Hannah looked over and met his eyes, marveling at their greenness. Snapping out if it, she nodded. "Making sure."

Those were the last words spoken until Jake parked at school, and the silence somewhat unnerved Hannah. Isaac, being half asleep, was excused, but Jake… Maybe he was tired too. That was Hannah's reasoning anyway, and it remained her reasoning as they walked down the hall together to their lockers, still in silence.

The layout of the school was vaguely familiar now, Hannah noted with pleasure. She had her locker's location, number, and combination memorized, and she could recall the general directions to her classrooms, though she still wanted someone along to check her. Unfortunately for her, Jake seemed less interested in being the one to help her, given that he was rushing to the point where Hannah could barely keep up.

Her first period English AP class passed slowly, but Hannah didn't feel too overwhelmed by it. She'd managed to read the required chapters—since her class had only just started the novel recently, it was easy to catch up—so she wasn't clueless. Hannah's second class—a computer class—didn't stress her out either, and her third period teacher was reviewing for a test in American History AP. Not only was the course work going well, but no one was aggravating Hannah, since her teachers required silence during lessons.

Fourth and fifth periods—physics and calculus—were Hannah's failures, and the entire time she spent in the classrooms was spent miserably. However, what she thought was even worse than that was after fifth period, when she was on her way to lunch and she was intercepted by Tisha Wilson.

"Hi, Hannah," Tisha greeted brightly, falling into step beside her friend. "You
are
going sit with me and the other girls at lunch today, right?"

Something that felt like contentment died inside Hannah as she attempted to smile. "Uh…yeah."

A bright grin lit up Tisha's face. "Oh, good!" she exclaimed. "I was kind of afraid you were mad at us or something, but…whatever. None of us could understand why you were sitting with Jake's friends yesterday." Tisha sounded absolutely incredulous. "I mean, you
never
wanted to be around them before."

Hannah shrugged. Since she didn't know what else to say, she said, "That one guy asked me to the Winter Formal." Tisha's eyes enlarged as Hannah furrowed her brow in thought. "Not Brent… Uh, Ethan?"