Peony

“Odi?” McKenzie’s voice crackles down the line. “Did I wake you?”

“Y-yeah,” I croak. “But it’s fine. Are you okay? Is it…The General?”

“No. It’s Kaiden.”

I’m out of bed before he’s even finished talking.

“What is it? What’s happened? Where are you?”

“We’re at the hospital.”

“I’m coming.”

“Thank fuck. Axel will be outside your house in five minutes. You need to come quickly.”

“Zie?”

“Yeah?”

“What happened?”

“It’s bad. I-we can talk about it later. Just get here for now.”

“Okay. Do you know if my mum—”

“She’s on the night shift. You can walk out the front door. Can you bring cash? None of us have our wallets and I think we’ll be here a while.”

“What about your family?”

“They’re away with Axel’s dad. Don’t worry about us. Hurry.”

The line goes dead before I can ask any more questions and the silence spurs me into action. I tear off my pyjamas and quickly pull on the clothes I had laid out for shopping tomorrow. I grab my phone and my purse out of my bag and jam both into the back pockets of my jeans. At the last second I remember my keys and snatch a hoodie from the back of my bedroom door – it’s one of the guys’, probably Kaiden’s – and race downstairs.

I fly out of the front door and down my driveway just as Axel pulls up on a moped. My eyes are saucers.

“Where did you get this?” I ask. I’m pretty sure he’s not old enough to be riding it. Especially without a helmet.

“Get on, Peony, we don’t have time for the third degree.”

I hesitate. I know it’s important and he’s in a rush, but I’m scared to get on the back of the bike. I thought he’d be collecting me on his pushbike and giving me a backy to the hospital. It isn’t that far. But to ride pillion on the back of a motorcycle driven by a fifteen-year-old? It feels crazy dangerous to me.

“So help me god, Peony!” Axel snaps, revving the engine so that I flinch. “I will leave your sorry ass here. Kaiden is dying! Dying! Do you hear me? And I don’t have time—”

I throw my leg over the back of the bike and wrap my arms around Axel’s chest. He doesn’t waste any time, gunning the engine and taking off in the direction of the accident and emergency hospital. My heart is fluttering hard in my throat the entire time, but it’s not from fear of being on the bike.

It’s the fear of losing Kaiden.