[2022 WATTPAD BOOKS AWARD & WATTY WINNER: GETTING PUBLISHED 2025]
There's a boy at Evergreen High that has a different girlfriend every two weeks, and yet, none of them speak badly of him.
This perplexes Skyler Fox, a clever girl with a strong sen...
My hands were starting to shake again. Letting out a deep sigh, I locked my phone and shoved it into my pocket. Maybe I could think of something later.
Rubbing a hand down my face, I shook my head in frustration.
Teach me what love is, Skyler Fox.
Fuck. What was I thinking? Why had I said that? Dating Skyler had been nothing like what I expected. For someone that seemed to passionately dislike me, she was fun, and kind, and smart.
Everything in my life was a mess. A mess of noise and anxiety and fear and loneliness.
But when I was with her, it felt like the world was finally quiet. Like everything else just stopped and only the current moment existed.
And she was starting to make me crave that feeling. It was intoxicating, addicting.
Dangerous.
This wasn't love. I knew it couldn't be. She was just something new and exciting and she made it easy to focus on getting to know her.
At most it was a like.
Then again, it was more than I'd felt in the past year of dating.
And that was the thing.
I was feeling. I felt something for that girl, even though I couldn't identify what that something was. Something was better than nothing. Right?
"Archer?" The gruff but familiar voice of Mom's doctor made me jump up from my seat.
"Yes?"
The doctor glanced around, a sympathetic look on his face. "Is your father around?"
Ha. What a joke. He'd been here for exactly 16 minutes to deal with any administration and then he left without a word.
"No, had to go back to work," I said and tried to fake a smile. "You can tell me, I'll let him know what's going on."
Not that he would care.
The doctor nodded. This wasn't his first rodeo. Even though he'd never mentioned anything to me, I knew everyone noticed the lack of adult presence at my Mom's bedside at the hospital.
"We've started treatment for an infection" the doctor said. "The chemotherapy has weakened your mom's immune system which increases the chances of contracting something. This particular infection is viral and targets–"
I nodded along to what the doctor was saying, the sinking feeling slowly weighing me down again.
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Gentle hands combed through my hair, slow, delicate. My eyes opened and I looked up to see Mom smiling down at me.
"You're awake," I said, dumbly, running my hands over my face to wipe the sleep away.
