Sunkissed Kasie West (best free novels .TXT) 📖

The first thing I noticed was that Lauren was one of the people in the circle, perfectly fine. Relief washed through me. But then I saw that the person on the ground was Ian, his hand on his head, blood dripping out from under it, down his eye and chin and onto his chest.

“Everyone take a step back,” D was saying, her face pale.

Brooks jostled past me and kneeled at Ian’s side.

Maricela pointed up the hill. “I’m going to get the emergency kit.”

Brooks nodded. “Ian, hey, look at me.”

Ian groaned. “It’s fine.” He pulled his hand away from his forehead and looked at all the blood. “Did I win?” Blood continued to gush from the open wound.

“You totally lost, dude,” Kai said in his cheerful way, trying to calm the group.

Brooks, water dripping off his hair, directed Ian’s hand back to his forehead. “Just keep that there for one more minute.” His voice was perfectly steady, which I was sure helped Ian.

“This is why there is a no-diving rule,” D said, her panic immediately counteracting Brooks’s presence. “We always say no diving.”

“D. Maybe you can go grab a towel for Ian,” I said, hoping that would remove her from the scene.

“Yes, I will. I’ll be right back. Everyone just stay calm,” she said as she sidestepped away.

“What happened?” Brooks asked.

“He dove off the last slide and hit a rock,” Lauren said, burrowing into Kai’s side. “Is he going to be okay?”

Ian pulled his hand away again. “I’ll be fine.”

“Keep it there,” Brooks said, now using his own hand to hold Ian’s in place. Then he smiled at Lauren with his magic smile. “He’ll be fine.” How was Brooks this calm under so much pressure? His dad, I realized. He took care of his dad.

Maricela appeared with a black backpack. She opened it and several things fell out. I dropped down and collected the fallen items. One was a big square gauze pad.

I ripped it open and went to Brooks’s side. “Here, use this. Is there a roll of gauze in there, Maricela?”

“Yes,” she said.

Brooks took the gauze pad from me and pushed it against Ian’s forehead. “We just need to keep the pressure for a minute.”

Ian lowered his bloody hand to his thigh.

“Janelle is going to kill us,” someone said.

Brooks shot the guy a dirty look.

“Ian,” I said. “Do you know what day it is?”

He rolled his eyes. “What?”

“Aren’t you supposed to answer questions like that when you hit your head?”

“Do you know what day it is?” he asked.

“Friday…right?” I actually wasn’t positive about that. It felt like we’d been at camp forever but I was pretty sure it had only been two weeks. “Fine, bad question. How old are you? Where do you live?”

“Now you’re just trying to get personal info out of him,” Kai said.

The group laughed. Even though Brooks had been playing calm this whole time, I could see the tension in his jaw. I found myself wanting to put my hand on his shoulder, tell him it was going to be okay. I folded my arms across my chest to resist.

Maricela had found the roll of gauze and helped Brooks wrap Ian’s head.

Ian’s eyes began to droop.

“Ian,” I said. “Stay awake, okay?”

“Of course I’m going to stay awake,” he said. “I don’t sleep on rock beds.”

That produced another worried look from Brooks. “Let’s get you back to camp.” He stood and slowly helped Ian to his feet, draping his arm around his shoulder. Kai went to Ian’s other side, doing the same. Maricela repacked the first aid bag.

“You know what would be helpful in a situation like this?” Lauren asked.

Kai looked at her and smiled. “Cell phones?”

“Exactly!”

My skin felt hot. I knew without even having to look, as I lay there in bed, eyes closed, that I’d gotten sunburned the day before. It was a long hike, after all, made longer by how slow we’d walked back with Ian. But we’d made it and Ian went straight to the nurse. And that’s the last I’d heard. The band hadn’t played at dinner and my sister and I had exchanged worried glances all night.

My hand went to my collarbone. I wondered if we had any aloe.

The door opened and so did my eyes. Lauren swept into the room, shut the door behind her, and sat on her bed, cross-legged, facing me. “So, Ian’s still in sick bay being observed,” she said without preamble.

“I figured,” I croaked in my morning voice. “But he’s okay?”

“I haven’t seen him.”

“Then how do you know he’s still there?”

“I saw Kai.”

“Where?” I sat up, flinging the blanket off my legs.

“You’re sunburned,” she said.

“I know.”

“I’m going to visit him,” she said.

“Who?”

“Ian. Who else? Are you awake?”

“Don’t let Janelle catch you,” I said.

“Or D, I know,” she said.

I narrowed my eyes at her. That sounded like someone who’d had experience avoiding those two.

Seeming to read my mind, she said, “I’m doing the documentary. I’ve been around the band more than you.”

Maybe I was overreacting about Kai. Maybe, like I had told Brooks, her enthusiasm about getting to know the guys really was about her documentary.

“And D caught you?” I asked.

“They were on the clock and practicing, so there wasn’t much she could say.”

I nodded. So D had caught both me and my sister hanging out with band members. I had a feeling that was going to come back and bite us.

“Do you want to visit Ian too?” she asked.

I hesitated, not wanting to make things worse. But I knew Lauren was going to go with or without me, and maybe it would be better if she wasn’t caught there by herself. “Yes.”

“Then get ready and let’s go.”

We knocked on the door with the red cross on it. An older woman answered. “Can I help you?”

“Is Ian still in here?” I asked, hoping this woman didn’t know who all the staff members were and would assume we were two of