“Me too.”
We’re silent for a few minutes as we search job boards.
“Maybe something online?Something we could do from home?”Mabel suggests, and I know she must be coming up empty, too.
“Some of those jobs seem like a scam,” I say, showing her my phone screen for an online product reviewer listing who is somehow getting paid two hundred dollars an hour.
“Yeah, maybe don’t apply for any of those.”
We spend the morning applying for every job in a fifty-mile radius that seems halfway decent.By lunchtime, I’m sick of staring at my phone screen.
“Want to head into town and explore it a bit?”I ask Mabel.“Maybe we could ask around about places that might be hiring.”
“Miles said to stay put.He thinks things will get worse before they get better.”
I’m not exactly happy to be cooped up inside after being stuck in the hospital for days, but I don’t argue.
“I’m going to make lunch and maybe take a nap.”
I smile.“Sounds good.I need to take a shower.”
Mabel nods and grabs the laptop before heading downstairs.
I head across the hall to the bathroom and turn on the shower.Stepping under the hot spray feels amazing, and I spend a while standing under the water.
By the time I step out and dry off, the house is quiet.Mabel must be asleep.I tiptoe into my bedroom and pull on some clean clothes.
What should I do now?
I look around the room, and my eyes lock on the folder from the hospital.Mabel’s words from earlier play in my head.I sigh as I grab the folder and jump back onto the bed.
I open the folder and flip through the discharge paperwork.The first few pages are what they went over with me before I left.I almost give up, but then I flip the page and see the pictures from the X-rays.
“Whoa,” I whisper as I see the broken bones.
I flip faster, scanning the report.
Multiple contusions.
Internal bleeding.
Broken bones.
Cuts.
Bruises.
By the time I’m done reading everything, I’m in shock.Mabel told me it was bad, but I guess I thought it was shock on her part.I mean, I felt fine when I woke up that first morning.A little sore but nowhere near as shitty as I should have felt, considering the injuries I sustained in the accident.
Could Jensen have been telling the truth?Was biting me really the only option?
“You read it.”
I jump, my startled gaze leaping to Mabel standing in the doorway.
“Yeah,” I whisper.
“And?”
