THE STARS ARE BEAUTIFUL - WATTYS AWARD NEW ADULT WINNER 2019

Callum | Chapter 10

BED 708 BELONGED to a pale, skinny boy Everly's age named Truscott Zoe. His smile said he understood what I felt first whenever I saw her. His eyes lit up in the same fashion, and he made me wonder if I were still a boy just dreaming of this girl.

"This is the doctor I told you about," she announced, sitting on his bed.

"So it's a co-conspiracy," I said.

His pale face smiled. His weak hand reached for hers. "You bring coffee for me?"

She placed his hand back on the bed but kept her palm on top. "You know you can't have that stuff."

"You're becoming too much like them. Stop going to school with your dad every day."

She smiled at Truscott and then faced me. "I can't. That's where I found this doctor who is going to save your life."

"But if he's still in school, he's not really a doctor and therefore can't really save my life."

I raised my hand. "Right here. Hearing fully works."

Everly chuckled and then got down to business. "This is my friend, Truscott, and he needs a new heart."

"Well, I'm sorry, but mine is kind of in use right now, Everly Anne. I'm sure it'll be available once your father finds you missing from Nurse Ratchet's care, though."

"You see?" She looked at Truscott. "He's perfect for the job."

"Exactly what job am I being assigned to, Everly Anne?"

"I told Truscott he can have my heart when I die." Guilt overtook the poor kid's face. "Don't," she said to him. "I'll be dead. Better it save you than just become some deranged science experiment."

Truscott looked at me. "Don't you think it's like wishing for someone to die? I mean, I need a heart to live, and the sicker I get, the more everyone wishes a heart will become available for me. So, if it's Everly's heart, then it's like we're all wishing for her to die... right?"

I didn't answer that question because the truth would have upset her, and a lie would have been pointless on this kid.

"What do I have to do with this?"

She stilled, but then suddenly sweet, nineteen-year-old Everly Anne Brighton transformed into her father 2.0.

"You have a differential due, yes?"

"You're gonna hold my grade hostage unless I agree to whatever you'd like me to do?"

Everly shook her head. "I already made sure you wouldn't pass. Have you checked your notes lately? Not much there, right? Too many days spent wondering about the girl and not her condition. Even if Logan liked you—which he doesn't—his notes aren't much better. He'll be lucky if they let him become a janitor in a hospital."

"I'll just go to your father and tell him—"

She cut me off. "Tell him what, Callum? That you were too smitten with his daughter to pay attention in class?"

I stepped toward the door. "I'm not being strong-armed by a ninety-pound girl."

Everly jumped off the bed and didn't permit me passage without my having to touch her, the last thing I was going to do.

"Don't you have it right there?" Her finger corkscrewed into my chest. "Doesn't that feeling live just right there?" She stared up at me, and more than anything I wanted to look away, push away, get away, but the invisible cord wouldn't allow me to move.

"What?" I snapped. "What am I supposed to have, Everly?"

"The cancer. The helplessness you felt. The wish. Hasn't all that scorn made a home right there?"