The Challenge (12 page)

"I can't stand this anymore...I'm going outside," I said. Once outside, I flipped open my phone. I didn't care who I called...I just wanted to call one of my friends for support.

"Kris! Oh, my God, where are you?" Darla's voice asked. "Henry said you were called out of class to go to the office and you never came back."

"My grandma is in the hospital and I don't know what's going on!" I said. I put my hand over my mouth and blinked rapidly to stop from crying.

"Oh, God! Are you serious?" Darla asked.

"Yes." I said. Unable to choke back the tears, I collapsed down against the wall and wrapped my arm around my legs.

"Hold on," Darla said.

"Oh, Kris, are you alright?" Lena's voice suddenly asked.

"Did you guys put me on speaker phone?" I asked, laughing and crying and wiping the tears from my face with my sleeve.

"Yeah," Amanda said.

"So you don't know anything?" Lena asked.

"No," I said. "I'm scared. I don't know what's going on and I don't know what to do."

"Awww, Krissy..." Darla said. "I wish we could be there but all the guys are at work."

"They have jobs?" I asked.

"Yeah, didn't you know that?" Amanda wondered. "They all applied at the club."

"And they got the jobs?" I asked, still not believing it.

"Yeah...I think Lukas said something about the joys of having a fake ID," Lena said.

"Kris, what hospital are you at?" Lena's voice rang through the receiver.

"Memorial Hospital, near where my grandma lives," I said.

I was about to say more when I heard Stephanie call my name from the doorway.

"I gotta go, guys," I said then flipped my phone shut and ran over to her. "Are we allowed to see Grandma yet?"

"Not yet," Stephanie answered. "But we will soon. Uncle Ethan just told us that." I nodded and followed her back inside.

We did get to see Grandma...for maybe ten minutes. Unfortunately, she looked really pale and her breathing didn't sound right. All of us refused to leave, so we wound up spending the night at the hospital. Uncle Ethan called the schools, telling them that Megan and I wouldn't be in the following day. I doubted I'd want to go to school at all this week; it was no secret that out of all her grandchildren, I was the most attached to her. And no matter what anyone said, I could tell she wasn't getting any better.

I must have fallen asleep, because I felt someone shaking me lightly and I heard a familiar accent calling my name softly. When I opened my eyes, I saw Henry kneeling in front of me.

"Lena told me that I should come see how you're doing, love," Henry said. I looked around and saw that, apart from a nurse, we were alone. He took my hands and looked at them for a while, before looking back at me. "Let's go for a walk," he suggested. "We won't go far."

I sighed and we took off down the hall, hand in hand, walking slowly.

"Did you meet anyone here yet?" I asked after a while.

"Just Megan and your cousin. I think everyone else was with your grandma."

I looked at him and noticed that most of his bruises were gone and his black eye was healed, but his lip had a scar from the cut that had been there.

"How'd you get here?" I asked.

"Left school at lunch," Henry said. "Told them I wasn't feeling well."

We walked around the hospital for about fifteen minutes, mostly talking about the work I was missing at school. When we decided to head back to the waiting room, Megan and Stephanie was there, along with Stephanie's mom, Aunt Joan.

I introduced them. "Aunt Joan, this is Henry."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, miss," Henry said.

"I've heard a lot about you," Joan said.

I raised an eyebrow. I had never told her about Henry, so I glared at Megan, who was trying exceedingly hard to look innocent. "From the sounds of things, you're a definite upgrade from Kristina's ex-boyfriend. Oh, what was his name? Dale...Dan...?"

"David," Megan offered.

"I'd be careful if I were you though, Henry. Ethan is very protective of Kristina," Joan warned.

"He'll probably give you the evil eye for hours," Stephanie added.

A few minutes later, Ethan sauntered down the hall towards us. "So, you must be Henry."

"Yes, sir," Henry said.

"We finally get a chance to meet," Ethan said. "May I speak to you alone for a minute, Henry?"

"Be nice," Joan said.

I gave Henry's hand a squeeze before he followed Uncle Ethan down the hall and around the corner. This wasn't exactly the ideal setting for my boyfriend to meet my uncle. Truth be told, I didn't want them to meet at all.

I wondered what Henry would say. Uncle Ethan was good at telling if someone was lying, whether it was someone he knew his whole life or someone he had just met. Would he wind up making Henry spill the truth about how this whole thing started as a way to get back at our exes? Sometimes I didn't really know what was fake or real with Henry anymore-it just felt good, whatever it was. Henry was doing things I never expected from him, like running to my aid at a time like this just because Lena called him and told him to.

I STOOD SPEECHLESS at the spectacle before me. This just wasn't possible. Megan must have also thought it was amusing because I heard her giggle as Henry and Uncle Ethan were walking back to us, laughing as if they were long-time friends or something. I think I felt my heart stop for a second when Henry came and hugged me. At least I was at a hospital if I had a heart attack.

"What's going on?" I asked in suspicion.

"Your uncle knows my dad," Henry said.

"Charles Wilson! He does the finances for my clubs!" Uncle Ethan said in excitement. "I knew he had just moved here from England, but I didn't know he was your father! Guess I should have put two and two together..."

I couldn't believe it! Uncle Ethan's accountant was my boyfriend's father. There were so many surprises with this boy. I felt a huge sense of relief that Uncle Ethan and Henry were on good terms due to their newfound mutual connection.

Henry took my hand. "I must get going, pet."

I was disappointed, but I promised I would walk him back to his car.

He climbed in and rolled down the window. "Will you be coming back to school anytime soon?"

"I'm not sure, Henry," I said, tucking my hair behind my ear

He reached out the window and pulled me in close. "It'll all get better, love," he said. "You'll see."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I'm psychic, absolutely mental..." Henry said. This made me smile. "See, already got you smiling, didn't I?" He leaned forward and kissed me softly.

I watched his taillights until they disappeared onto the highway before I went back into the hospital.

For the rest of the day, all I could think about was how sweet he was. All the stuff he'd done for me, a lot of guys wouldn't do for their own family, much less their girlfriends. I loved him so much for it. I think that feeling had been there for so long, but I never acknowledged it. I guess it scared me to think that I actually
did
love him. I felt sort of sick about it too, because I had probably set myself up for a big heartbreak. As soon as Lauren threw herself at Henry, he'd go back to her, I was sure of it.

Then again, maybe he wouldn't. Suddenly I wasn't sure about anything. A fake boyfriend wouldn't ditch school to spend time with his girlfriend, especially since he didn't have to. What did he tell Uncle Ethan about us? I started for Grandma's room, wondering if I could get him to tell me, but doubted that I could because Uncle Ethan was like a vault.

We stayed at the hospital for another two days. I didn't go to school at all that week and on Friday, when we got home, Lena, Amanda, Erin, Darla and Sam came over with the work I missed and helped me with all of it. Also, Grandma did get better; Aunt Joan and Stephanie said they'd stay with her until she recovered fully.

However, there's a problem with missing a whole week of school-you go back and find some things have changed. Things were always changing in high school and when I got back on Monday, I found out that Lauren and David had broken up. How the hell did that happen?

We were sitting in Drama when Henry looked at me from over the top of his script. He smiled at me and then jerked his head over to where Lauren was sitting at the other side of the auditorium. "I think it had something to do with her finding out that I skipped classes to see you last week," he whispered.

"So...what's that mean?" I asked.

"It means they're broken up," Henry affirmed, "no longer together, flying solo... probably dating someone else this time tomorrow." I sighed, looked down at the script in my lap and wondered if he knew what I was talking about...what I was trying to say. There was a fall dance next week, and with this news of David and Lauren...

Henry broke my reverie. "Thanksgiving is this weekend."

"Yeah," I said, looking back at Henry. "Meg, Uncle Ethan and I are going up to our cottage."

"So am I," Henry replied, "or at least, my stepmom's cottage. It'll be my first Thanksgiving. I'll call you, and we can stay in touch."

My smile grew and my worries about what would happen faded for now. Although I still didn't know much about him, I definitely wanted to learn more. I knew he was eighteen, he was from Liverpool and a bit about his family, but most of that information came from Uncle Ethan, who got it from Henry's father, Charles. Henry, on the other hand, knew practically everything about me.

"What's the matter, love?" Henry asked.

"Just thinking," I said. Then I realized we were already in his car. How long had I been in this daze? "We've been like...this...for over a month now, right?"

"Yeah," Henry said. "Is this an anniversary thing?"

"No...it's not one of those things." I looked out the windshield. "I was just thinking that I don't know much about you really."

"What's there to know?" Henry asked.

"Favorite color, song, person, movie maybe," I said.

"Blue, like your eyes;
Fluorescent Adolescent
by Arctic Monkeys; you; and
Pulp Fiction
," Henry said.

"Oh," I started. "Wait...you said 'you'."

"Yeah," Henry assured me.

"I'm your favorite person?" I interrogated him. Henry pulled into my driveway, put the car in park, leaned over and kissed me, catching me off guard. I leaned closer to him, pressing my lips harder against his.

"Does that answer your question, babe?" Henry asked, smirking. I smiled softly.

I got my bag and, after climbing out of the car, looked back so many times I was surprised I didn't bump into anything. I waved at Henry, saw him wave back, then I went into the house, where I leaned against the door and sighed.

I SAT IN the front seat, earphones in my ears, listening to the band that Henry mentioned he liked, Arctic Monkeys. I felt my phone vibrate against my hip and flipped it open to read Henry's message:

Sooo bored. I wasn't made for 2 hr drives.

I smiled and sent a reply back.

Same. I got music tho.

It was barely a minute before I got another text.

What music?

I smiled even more and told him I was listening to his favorite band, which he thought was "brilliant."

The long Thanksgiving weekend had arrived and I was spending the whole of it away from my friends and Henry. I didn't know how I was going to survive. Thank God my cell phone had service at the cottage. My phone vibrated again and I saw a message from Lena.

Town sucks without U.

I smiled and put the phone in camera mode, turned it around and stuck out my tongue at it. It took a few tries, but I finally got a good one and sent it to Lena with a message:

Ha ha!

An hour later, we pulled up outside the cottage. It was a cute, chalet-style building surrounded by thick woods and fronting the beautiful Severn Lake, which was large enough for swimming and canoeing but small enough that it didn't attract too many visitors every year.

I got a text from Henry saying that he had arrived at his cottage and I told him I had arrived at mine. He texted back saying that he wished I was there and I sent him a picture of me making a kissy face.