All In My Head (First Tracks Book 1) Read Free

accident.
    “Okay, fine. What were you doing before you woke up in my
head?”
    Silence. I waited through a long minute and then Kristina
walked in with a paper bag.
    “Snacks! They had muffins in the cafeteria. I grabbed
yogurts too.” She held up different items. At the bag of pretzels, I made a
face. “Those are for me, and I promise to eat them away from your breathing
space.”
    What’s with her?
    Like the good friend that she was, Kris knew I hated
pretzels, even the smell. It amazes me that people can eat them when they taste
like camel piss. Not that I actually know what camel piss tastes like, but I’m
pretty sure it’s pretzel flavored.
    “Muffin?” she asked. “There’s cranberry and apple crumb.”
    “Umm.” My stomach felt off, but I was still hungry after the
soup. “Maybe yogurt instead.”
    She handed me a Mountain Blueberry yogurt and sat on the
bed. We ate and chatted, and then she held my hand when my stomach didn’t like having
food after all. I kept it down, though, and then fell asleep at some point. I
woke up later, finding the room empty, and my bladder making me get up whether
I wanted to or not. I was washing my hands before I realized Marcus hadn’t said
a word in a while. The morphine. Doh. Ilaughed out loud, even though it
vibrated my head in a painful way.
    When I opened the door, Kyle was there, sitting in a chair so
close to Kristina that their knees touched as he leaned in toward her, making
their own little private space. It was only the tiniest of memories that I
dated Kyle for six months before he and Kristina were an item. That was ancient
history, though. Especially to them.
    I moved enough for them to notice me. Kyle glanced at me for
a millisecond before dropping his gaze to the floor.
    “What’re you laughing about?” Kris asked me while swatting
his hand away from her knee.
    I walked carefully to the bed with the drip pole, just in
case I wasn’t a hundred percent yet, before answering. “I thought I heard some
weird noises, but it’s better now, and I realized it was the morphine. I was
high for a while or something.”
    On morphine? I’m not so sure about that, babe.
    Oh, what do you know? I brushed him off until I
realized I’d heard him again. Kyle might have given Kristina a look. I caught
the expression on her face as she tried to convey something to him without me
seeing.
    “Funny, huh?” I asked, settling back and pulling the blanket
up to cover the hospital gown.
    Kris stood up, playing with the zipper on her gray jacket.
“I’m going to the nurse’s station to ask when you’re being discharged. This is
getting crazy. They keep telling me one thing but nothing happens.”
    I gave a weak okay as Kyle hopped up and followed her out.
He wore loose jeans and an oversized black hoodie today. Sometimes I wonder
what I ever saw in him. He’s not super tall for a guy, maybe 5’7”, with light
brown hair and blue eyes. He’s good looking, but when I think about it, he’s
kinda plain too.
    It sounded like the voice huffed an irritated sigh, like I
was bothering him by thinking. Hello, it was my brain.
    I prefer Marcus to “the voice.”
    Marcus.  That’s all I knew about him, his name. It had to be
from the concussion, which meant it’d go away. The doctor said I was fine …
except they hadn’t released me yet.
    I’d be in the car with just Kris and Kyle for the drive
home. They’ve been together a year now, and I was pretty sure he’d propose
sometime soon. Or maybe I was wrong, and he’d wait until after graduation. But
by all accounts, they were on the road to getting engaged, graduating, getting
married and starting a life together. Buying a house. Having kids. But
whatever. I have work to focus on anyway. Except now I’m hearing voices in my
head.
    Voice. Just one, babe.
    “Oh, you are still here. I haven’t scared you off yet?” I’d
started in a normal voice but dropped off to a whisper.
    Nope. So are we getting out of here soon?