Deadly Double Love

Deadly Double Love 37

I quickly scrambled over to them, panicking.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “What’s wrong now?”

“He’s burning up,” Scott said.

I placed my hand on my dad’s forehead only to find that he felt way too hot. He was sweating so much that when I pulled my hand away, it was sopping wet.

“Just a minute ago, he was freezing,” Scott told me.

“What do we do?” I said.

“We can’t do anything,” Scott replied. “We just have to wait for Rory to come.”

I sighed and pushed my dad’s hair back from his forehead.

“It’ll be okay,” I promised him.

He didn’t respond.

“Let’s give him a little space,” Scott said, pulling me away.

We sat in silence for a minute before I finally spoke.

“We’re missing a lot of school,” I said.

“Yeah,” Scott said. “It’s going to take forever to catch up when we get back.”

“If we get back,” I corrected.

“Don’t think like that,” Scott told me. “We’re going to get out of here.”

“And then what?” I asked. “What do we do when we get out?”

“We go back to life like normal,” Scott told me.

“What is normal?” I said. “My life hasn’t been normal in forever.”

“Normal is me and you together,” Scott said, grabbing my hand. “Going to school, the movies, bowling, or anywhere else.”

“You like bowling?” I said, smiling.

“Of course,” Scott exclaimed, a mock expression of hurt on his face. “How could you not?”

“Bowling is stupid,” I laughed.

“Bowling is amazing!” Scott said.

The look on his face was so funny that I exploded into a fit of giggles. Pretty soon we were both lying of the floor, laughter shaking our shoulders.

Suddenly the door opened and Scott and I sat up quickly, our laughter coming to an abrupt stop.

“Something funny?” Rory asked.

“No,” Scott said.

“Alright,” Rory said as he pulled another grocery bag out of his backpack.

He tossed it to me and laughed as I failed to catch it because of the handcuffs. Three water bottles and a box of cookies scattered across the floor. Rory turned to leave.

“Wait!” I cried.

“What?” Rory asked in an exasperated voice.

“My dad is sick,” I said. “He needs a doctor.”

Rory paused for a minute.

“Yeah right,” he finally said, not believing me. “You just want me to take him somewhere where he can tell everyone what I’ve done.”

“No, I’m serious!” I said. “He has a fever and all of these other symptoms too!”

Rory’s eyes flitted over to where my dad lay shivering with a sheen of sweat covering his face.

“So maybe your dad has the flu or something,” Rory said. “He’ll get over it.”

Then he quickly ran out the door before I could reply.

“It’s not the flu!” I shouted. “It’s something worse!”

But Rory didn't come back.