Chapter 4

Queenie fell silent. After a long moment, she asked, "Can I ask for a different condition?"

"Then we're over," Evan said.

He crawled out of bed, about to leave.

Colin asked, "Where are you going? You're burning up and weak right now."

"Where I go is none of your business. Colin, starting today, we're not even friends anymore."

"Evan, don't go! I admit I was wrong, but just give me a little time. I'll end things with Joel once he gets better!" Queenie cried.

The second she said she would break up with him, Joel fell apart. "This is all my fault. I deserve to die! I'm sick, so I shouldn't even be alive and ruining other people's lives. Evan, please, don't break up with Queenie. I'll just kill myself instead, okay? Once I'm dead, you'll all be free of me!"

The words had barely left his mouth before he bolted toward the balcony.

"Don't! Joel!" Queenie looked aghast as she took off after him.

But she was still one step too late. Joel jumped without hesitation. There was a sickening thud as his body slammed into the ground. Blood quickly pooled beneath his head.

Queenie tore downstairs like a madwoman. "Joel!"

"Oh, my God." Colin slapped a hand over his mouth, looking stunned.

Evan was also frozen. He hadn't expected Joel to actually jump. He stumbled downstairs after them and saw Queenie kneeling beside Joel, helping him up from the ground despite the blood coating him.

"Joel, don't be scared. I'm taking you to the hospital right now," she said.

Joel weakly raised a hand and touched her face with bloodstained fingers. "Queenie, I'm sorry. If it weren't for me, you guys wouldn't be fighting like this… This is on me. I'm sorry…"

"Stop talking!" she snapped, losing control. "I'm not letting anything happen to you. We're going to the hospital. Right now!"

She rushed off with him.

Colin changed his clothes and prepared to follow. On his way out, he shot Evan a look. "Are you happy now that you've blown everything up, Evan? Do you know why we kept this from you? Because you're petty as hell. You turn the whole world upside down over the most trivial thing. Someone like you doesn't deserve a girlfriend. You don't even deserve friends!"

Then he left too. Only Evan remained in the now-empty apartment. He stared down at the pool of blood on the ground, Colin's words echoing in his head.

So apparently he wasn't even allowed to be angry after catching his own girlfriend cheating. Otherwise, he was petty. And apparently, in his so-called best friend's eyes, he didn't deserve friends at all.

Fine. In that case, he didn't want that friend either.

The entire city was practically drowning in rain. Evan left Colin's place, dragging his suitcase behind him.

On the way, his phone wouldn't stop ringing. Queenie called him repeatedly, but he didn't pick up. Then Colin started calling.

Evan had already given up on both of them. There was no way he was going to answer.

He wandered until he looked up and realized he had somehow ended up outside his parents' place. He hadn't wanted to worry them, but right now, he had nowhere else to go.

He rang the doorbell. No one came to open the door. Thinking his parents were asleep, he took out his key and let himself in.

He drifted off into a hazy sleep, only to be jolted awake again by his phone. This time, his father, Arthur Sutherland, was calling.

Evan snapped awake and answered immediately. "Dad?"

"Evan, get to the hospital, now! They're trying to force your mother to donate blood!"