Page 101 of Craving Theodora
Jess pulled back their lip and pointed at their missing molar.
“I heard you lost a couple. Sucks, but easy to fix, yeah.”
Jess nodded again and raised their arm, flexing their biceps. “Strong,” they said through their teeth.
“Understatement,” Curtis replied, his voice a little choked. He glanced over at Finn. “All three of you.”
“Where was Finn?” Jess asked, surprising me.
I’d told them very bare-bones details since they’d been awake. They knew that I’d followed them and Dylan to the hospital, and they knew that Curtis had stayed behind to find their brother, but they hadn’t really asked any questions.
“He hid under the Chevelle,” Curt said, glancing at Finn again. “We were lookin’ for hours before we found him.”
“Good,” Jess replied. The words were slow and labored as they tried to enunciate. “Told him to hide if anyone ever broke in.”
“You did well, Jess,” Curt breathed, his voice thick. “You and Dyl did exactly right.”
“Tried,” Jess said, tears welling up in their eyes. “Hard.”
“I know you did,” he replied. I swallowed back the sob rising in my throat.
“Dylan?” Jesse asked, raising their eyebrows. “Hurt bad?”
“He was,” Curtis said, nodding as he wiped his nose with the back of his hand. “But the doctors fixed him up. You’re both gonna be okay.”
“I tried,” Jess said, trailing off, wincing. “Help.” They shook their head a little. “Tried.”
“I know you did, sweetheart,” Curtis said, reaching out to gently cup their face. “You two were still holdin’ hands when we got there.”
Jess rolled their eyes. “Don’t tell Isla.”
Curtis let out a surprised chuckle.
Finn woke up a little while later, and Brenna walked him down to the cafeteria to get some breakfast while I sat quietly, listening to Curtis and Jesse talk. He was telling them about when he’d found and restored the Chevelle, and Jess was hanging tiredly on every word. Their eyes drifted shut and then opened again, clearly fighting sleep, but Curtis just kept talking, his voice getting lower and lower until Jesse was out.
“What’s goin’ on with you?” he asked me, turning his head to look at me for the first time in an hour.
“What do you mean? Nothing.”
“Somethin’ is. You haven’t been up to see Dylan again. You didn’t call me when Jess woke up. You’ve barely said a word since I came in here.”
“I was letting you two visit.”
“Bullshit.”
“They weren’t really talking to me before you came in,” I admitted. “I was just trying to stay out of the way a little bit.”
“Why the hell would you do that?”
I shrugged.
“They’ve been wakin’ up from surgery, and they have a concussion,” Curtis pointed out logically. “They probably haven’t been sayin’ much because they were still groggy.”
“Maybe.”
“No maybe about it.”
“Or maybe they blame me,” I said, the words tumbling from my mouth before I could call them back.
