Haze Read Free Page A

walked back and forth between the front steps and the nearest lamppost to keep warm. It wasn’t breath-frosting chilly, not yet, but my arms were all goose bumps. I stretched my calves, leaning each foot in turn against the concrete steps. A jack-o’-lantern sat on the top step, its hollow eyes following me.
    I waited five minutes, then ten.
    I texted Jeremy and even tried phoning. No answer.
    I left the school grounds at a light jog and didn’t really start pushing myself until I had passed a few cookie-cutter mansions. My usual five-mile loop took me up around Yale and back to Strathmore in time for breakfast. I passed some woods, then the golf course, and then headed toward downtown New Haven. It started to rain—a light, misty drizzle that felt good on the back of my neck.
    On my way back to school, I saw flashing lights up ahead, near the Catholic cemetery. A police cruiser was parked across the road, blocking the way. I detoured past some more monster houses and made it back to school only a little later than usual.
    The minute I walked through the dining hall doors for breakfast, I smelled bacon. It took me a minute to notice the quiet. A charged quiet, not a sleepy one.
    Some of the Sharks, but not Jeremy, sat huddled around a table in the corner. Nate crumpled a paper napkin while I watched. Steven said something to him, and Nate shook his head.
    I finally spotted Droid. He was sitting with Red Cap and some of the other pond scum, not with his usual crowd of computer geeks. I slid into the seat across from him. “What’s going on?”
    Red Cap stopped mopping up yolk with his toast long enough to look at me. “You don’t know yet?”
    I got an eyeful of the half-chewed egg in his mouth. “Know what?”
    Droid spoke. “It’s your friend Jeremy. He was hit by a car this morning. He’s in the hospital. Bram, I’m sorry.”
    No one at the table met my eyes. I gripped the edges of my chair. I needed Droid to keep talking. I needed not to have to ask.
    Red Cap swallowed whatever was in his mouth. “They don’t know if he’s going to make it. Do you think they’ll open up another spot on the team?”

chapter five
    I still wasn’t used to Saturday-morning school, but that was the way they did it at Strathmore. Wednesday afternoons off for athletic training, Saturday morning classes instead. Geography and English passed in a blur, except for the part where the guidance counselor came in to talk about Jeremy’s accident and some of the things we might be feeling.
    How would she know?
    I signed out before lunch and hopped on my bike. Jeremy was at the hospital in downtown New Haven. His family had probably arrived by now. Storrs was just over an hour away. There was nothing I could do that they couldn’t. But I had to go.
    By the time I reached the hospital, my jacket and jeans were soaked through with rain. I locked my bike and carried my helmet inside. I wanted to shake like a dog and get the water off as I passed between the two sets of glass doors that led to the lobby. I settled for wringing out my jacket.
    At the information desk, a gray-haired lady with a volunteer pin on her sweater frowned at me. “Can I help you?” Her eyes flicked to the puddles forming by my feet.
    â€œI’m looking for Jeremy Blackburn,” I said.
    She pinched her lips and typed something into a computer, never once looking at the keys. “Are you family?” she finally asked.
    â€œUh, no. Close friend.”
    â€œIt’s family only up in intensive care,” she said, and motioned to the next person in line.
    I should have lied, but at least now I knew he was in intensive care. The floor plan posted on a wall near the elevators told me I needed to get to the seventh floor.
    The elevator ride took forever. When the doors finally slid open on seven, Coach Gordon was there, waiting to get on. He stood with his hands in his