“It’s father appreciation day at our school,” Kiersten says. “They’re having a luncheon. Kids get to eat lunch with their dad’s in the gymnasium. Mom day isn’t until next month."

“But what about the kids who don’t have dads? What are they supposed to do? That’s not very fair.”

“The kids that don’t have dads just go with Will,” Kel says.

Lake looks at me again. She doesn’t like being out of the loop.

“I asked Kel if I could eat with him, too,” I say.

“Will you eat with me, too?” Kiersten asks. “My dad won’t be back until Saturday.”

I nod. “If I go,” I say. “I don’t know if I need to go, though.”

“Go,” Lake says. “I’ll be fine. You need to quit babying me so much.”

I lean forward and kiss her. “But you are my baby,” I say.

I’m not sure which direction it comes from, maybe all three, but I’m hit in the head with french fries.

***

I help Lake into the bed and pull the covers over her. “You want something to drink?”

“I’m fine,” she says.

I turn off the light and walk around to the other side of the bed and crawl in. I scoot closer to her and put my head on her pillow and wrap my arm around her. Her bandages come off at her next doctor’s visit. She’s so worried about how much hair they had to cut. I keep telling her not to worry about it. I’m sure they didn’t cut much, and the incision is on the back of her head so it won’t be that noticeable.

It hurts if she’s not lying on her side, so she’s facing me. Her lips are in close proximity to mine, so of course I have to kiss them. I lay my head back down on her pillow and brush her hair behind her ear with my fingers.

This entire past week has been hell. Mentally and physically. But especially mentally. I came so close to losing her. So close. Sometimes when it’s quiet, my mind wanders to the possibility of having lost her, and what I would have done. I have to keep reeling myself back in. I keep having to remind myself that she’s okay. That everyone’s okay.

I didn’t think it was possible, but everything Lake and I have been through this entire past month has somehow made me love her even more. I can’t even begin to imagine my life without her in it. I think back to the video Sherry showed me, and to what Jim said to her.

“It’s like you came along and woke up my soul.”

That’s exactly what Lake did to me. She woke up my soul.

I lean in and kiss her again; longer this time. But not too long, I just feel like she’s so fragile.

“This sucks,” she says. “Do you realize how hard it’ll be sleeping in the same bed with you? Are you sure he specified an entire month? We have to retreat for a whole month?”

“Well, technically he said four weeks,” I say, stroking her arm with my hand. “I guess we could stick to four weeks since it’s a few days shy of a whole month.”

“See? You should have taken me up on the offer when you had the chance. Now we have to wait four more weeks!" she says. "How many weeks is that total?”

“It’ll be sixty-five,” I quickly respond. “Not that I’m counting. And four weeks from today is February 28th. Not that I’m counting that, either.”

She laughs. “February 28th? But that’ll be a Tuesday. Who wants to lose their virginity on a Tuesday? Let’s make it the Friday before. February 24th. We’ll get Kel and Caulder to stay with your grandparent’s again.”

“Nope. Four weeks. Doctors’ orders,” I say. “We’ll make a deal. I’ll get my grandparent’s to watch the boys again if we can make it to March 2nd. The Friday after it’s been four weeks.”

“March 2nd is a Thursday.”

“It’s a leap year.”

“Ugh! Fine. March 2nd,” she says. “But I want a suite this time. A big one.”

“You got it.”

“With chocolates. And flowers.”

“You got it,” I say. I lift my head off of her pillow and kiss her, then roll over.

"And a fruit tray. With strawberries."

"You got it," I say again. I yawn and pull the covers up over my head.

"And I want one of those fluffy hotel robes. Both of us. That way we can wear them all weekend."

"Whatever you want, Lake. Now go to sleep. You need to rest."

She's done nothing but sleep for five days, so I’m not surprised she's wide awake. I, on the other hand, have had close to zero sleep for five days. I could barely keep my eyes open today. It feels so good to be back home, back in my bed. It especially feels good that Lake's right next to me.

“Will?” she whispers.

“Yeah?”

“I have to pee.”

***

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” I ask her for the tenth time this morning.

“I’ll be fine,” she says. She holds the phone up to show me she has it close by.

“Okay. Sherry’s at home if you need her. I’ll be back in an hour, the luncheon shouldn’t last that long.”

“Babe, I’m fine. Promise.”

I kiss her on the forehead. “I know.”

And I do know she’s fine. She’s more than fine. She’s been so focused and determined to get better that she’s doing way too much on her own now. Even things she shouldn’t be doing on her own, which is why I worry. Her indomitable will that I fell in love with sometimes irritates the hell out of me, too.

***

When I walk into the gymnasium, I scan the area looking for the boys. Caulder is waving when I see him, so I walk to his table.

“Where’s Kel and Kiersten?” I say as I take my seat.

“Mrs. Brill wouldn’t let them come,” he says.

“Why?” I jerk my head around looking for Mrs. Brill.

“She said they were just using this lunch as an excuse to get out of study hall. She made them go to regular lunch at 10:45. Kel told her you’d be mad.”

“Well, Kel’s right,” I say. “I’ll be right back.”

I walk out of the gymnasium and turn left to head to the cafeteria. When I walk inside, the noise penetrates my eardrums. I forgot how loud kids were. I also forgot how much my head still hurt. I glance at all the tables but there are so many kids, I can’t spot either of them. I walk over to a lady who looks like she’s monitoring the cafeteria.

“Can you tell me where Kel Cohen is?”

“Who?” she says. “It’s too loud, I didn’t hear you.”

I say it louder. “Kel Cohen!”

She nods and points to a table at the other end of the cafeteria. Before I reach the table, Kel spots me and waves. Kiersten is seated next to him, wiping at her shirt with a wad of wet napkins. They both stand up when I reach the table.

“What happened to your shirt?” I ask Kiersten.

She looks at Kel and shakes her head. “Stupid boys,” she says. She points to the table across from theirs. I turn and look and there are three boys that look a little older than her and Kel. They’re all laughing.

“Did they do something to you?” I ask her.

She rolls her eyes. “When do they not? If it’s not chocolate milk, it’s apple sauce. Or pudding. Or Jell-O.”

“Yeah, it’s usually Jell-O,” Kel says.

“Don’t worry about it, Will. I’m used to it now. I always keep an extra change of clothes in my backpack just in case.”

“Don’t worry about it?” I ask. “Why the hell isn’t something being done about it? Have you talked to a teacher?”

She nods. “They never see it when it happens. It’s gotten worse since the suspension. Now they just make sure they only throw things at me when the monitor’s aren’t looking. But it’s fine, Will. Really. I have Abby and Kel and Caulder. That’s all the friends I need.”

I’m pissed. I can’t believe she has to go through this every day! I look at Kel. “Which one’s the one Caulder was telling me about? The dickhead?” Kel points at the boy seated at the head of the table.

“You guys wait here.” I turn around and walk toward Dickhead’s table. As I get closer to them, their laughter succumbs to looks of confusion. I grab one of the empty chairs at their table and slide it out, then pull it around next to Dickhead and straddle the chair backwards, facing him.

“Hey,” I say. He just looks at me confused, then looks at his friends.

“Can I help you?” he says sarcastically. His friends laugh.

“Yes. Actually you can,” I say. “What’s your name?”

He laughs again. I can tell he’s trying to play the part of the big, bad twelve-year-old that he is. He reminds me of Reece at that age. He can’t hide the nervousness on his face, though.

“Mark,” he says.

“Well hi, Mark. I’m Will.” I extend my hand and he reluctantly shakes it.

“Now that we’ve been formally introduced, I think it’s safe to say that we can be frank with one another. Can we do that, Mark? Are you tough enough to take a little bit of honesty?”

He laughs a nervous laugh. “Yeah, I’m tough.”

“Good. Because you see that girl over there?” I point back to Kiersten. Mark glances over my shoulder at her, then looks back at me and nods.

“Let me be frank with you. That girl is very important to me. Very important. When bad things happen to important people in my life, I don’t take it very well. I guess you could say I have a bit of a temper.” I scoot my chair closer to his and look him straight in the eyes. “Now, while we’re being frank with one another…you should know that I used to be a teacher. You know why I’m not a teacher anymore, Mark?”

He isn’t smiling anymore. He shakes his head.

“I don’t teach anymore because one of my dickhead students decided to mess with one of my important people. It didn’t end well.”

All three of the boys are staring at me, wide-eyed.

“You can take that as a threat if you want to, Mark. But honestly, I have no intentions of hurting you. After all, you’re only twelve. When it comes to kicking someone’s ass, I usually draw the line at fourteen-year-olds. But I will tell you this…the fact that you bully people? And girls, for that matter? Girls younger than you?” I shake my head in disgust.

“It only goes to show what a pathetic human being you’ll turn out to be. But that’s not the worst of it,” I say. I turn and look at his friends. “The worst of it is the people that follow you. Because anyone weak enough to let someone as pathetic as you be their leader is even worse than pathetic.”

I look back at Mark and smile. “It was nice meeting you, Mark.” I stand up and swing the chair back around until it’s back in its place under the table, then I place my hands on the table in front of him. “I’ll be keeping in touch.”

I look all three of them in the eyes as I back away from their table, then turn back to Kiersten and Kel. “Let’s go. Caulder’s waiting on us.”