Project Publicity || l.h

Chapter 30// Animated

Help me reach 15k please! It's my biggest goal this year XD

If you go on my Twitter (@katejung6) I have the link to Undercover Heart in my bio, if you'd retweet it, it'd make my day <3

"Calm down," Hailey says, her hand gripping mine. "He's in shock. Don't take it too hard." I look down at Luke, who's just gone unconscious again.

"But he remembered you," I mumble.

"Like I said, he's in shock. We just need to get him to the hospital, okay?" Hailey asks urgently, her eyes wide and stern. I think I said something in response, but I don't remember entirely what it was I said.

A teacher begins to yell. He approaches the scene, trying to recover Luke the same way Hailey does, but he still isn't responding.

You know how sometimes, when you're sad, you sit down next to your friends, and they're yelling, laughing, and they're talking, and they're so loud, but you're sitting there thinking about something else, and you can't hear them anymore? Like you've zoned out, but not really. You're completely somewhere else, and you're hearing things but not really listening, you're seeing things but not interpreting.I feel like that right now. Like my body is somewhere different than my mind. I don't know if that makes any sense.

There's not much to remember of the next few minutes, except that the ambulance pulls up and all of the campsite has woken up to crowd around the scene. "Stay back," the teachers keep repeating, pushing us further away from Luke. Stay back.

"I need to be with him," I plead. But they won't listen to me. Even Hailey, who was in the middle of treating Luke, gets pushed into the crowd. The medics take over. They shine a flashlight into Luke's eyes, then put an ear on his chest to check his heartbeat.

I spot one of the medics standing off to the side, inspecting the area and walk to her, my sight blurring, knees weak. "I want to go with him," I say urgently.

"Are you family?" She asks sternly, and I'm about to shake my head, but Hailey interrupts like always.

"You can say that," She replies, then she pushes me past the medics and into the back of the ambulance. They don't seem to care, really. I get a few glances, but that's it. They're too busy getting Luke onto a stretcher and into the vehicle. He's semi-conscious, and coughing up the last of the water he swallowed. At least he's responsive.

I've never been in an ambulance before. It feels strange, sitting in one, and not being the one who's hurt. I wait for the medics and the nurses to load Luke, along with jackets and bandages and an AED responder to the back of the vehicle, then they give a signal to the driver and the engine spurs to life.

I get a last glance of Logan trying to push past the crowd to get to me, but he's shoved back by another medic. His lips are parted like he wants to say something, and I give him a slight wave as he stares, dumbfounded. He raises his hand to wave back, but the doors close in my face, and I'm surrounded by silence.

Then I brace myself, hands on the rattling walls of the ambulance as we begin moving away.

Only when the ambulance begins moving I realize, that what Hailey said was partly true. If Luke's mother is with my father, does that mean that we're step siblings? But if they're not married yet, what does it make us?

I look down at Luke, who is completely still on the stretcher next to me. And there are two medics riding with us, watching me look at him, as if they're worried I might do something to him. Too bad I might've already done some collateral damage.

"Is he going to be okay?" I ask, glancing at the straps holding his pale limbs down.

"Of course," a medic replies. I like her immediately. Her name tag reads 'Jennifer' and her blue eyes are wide and friendly. Her makeup is modest, her hair is tied back in a simple, conservative bun. I have a feeling I'll see her around more often.