Kofi’s mind flashed back to the teachers’ lounge. To the casual cruelty in their voices as they’d talked about her.
’Cursed.’
’A black cloud.’
He looked at the girl in the oversized hospital gown, the one who looked so small she might disappear into the white sheets. She didn’t look cursed. She looked like a kid. A kid who’d been through a at grinder and was just trying to figure out if she was still in one piece.
’They’re the cursed ones,’ he thought. ’Not her.’
Thea finally wiped her face with the back of her hand, a gesture that was both childish and deeply weary. Her eyes, red-rimd and full of a dawning horror, were locked on him.
"Live... with you?" she whispered, the words sounding foreign and impossible. "I don’t even know you."
(Which, you have to admit, is a pretty reasonable objection. A random boy from school shows up and offers to let you live with him. It’s either a trap or the start of a really terrible indie movie.)
"I know," He said. His own voice sounded strangely calm. "It’s a weird plan. A really weird plan."
"Weird doesn’t cover it. It’s insane." She shook her head, pulling the thin blanket up to her chin like a shield. "You’re a kid. I’m a kid. We can’t just... do that. That’s not how things work."
"The doctor said it’s the only option that isn’t terrible," he explained, leaning forward just a little. "He said if you leave here, you either go to a shelter or you go back to... that house."
He didn’t have to say anything else. The look on her face told him she understood exactly what ’that house’ ant. Her guarded expression crumbled for a second, a sign of raw fear showing through.
"He said it would just be for a little while," he continued, his words slow and careful. "Just until the people who are supposed to help actually do their jobs. My apartnt is paid for. It’s clean and there’s food."
He felt stupid, listing the bare minimum requirents for human life like they were luxury features. A clean room. Food. It was the most basic thing in the world, and for her, it was an impossible dream.
She looked away from him, her gaze dropping to her hands, which were twisting the edge of the blanket into a tight knot.
"Why would you do this?" she asked again, but this ti the question was different. It wasn’t about his motives. It was about his sanity. "You don’t get anything out of it. It’s just... a problem. I’m a problem."
"No, you’re not." The words ca out fast, more forcefully than he intended. "The situation is a problem. You’re just stuck in it."
He waited.
He knew this was the part where he was supposed to say sothing reassuring, sothing that would make her trust him. But he didn’t have the words. He wasn’t a hero.
So he just told her the truth.
"Look," he said, his voice dropping. "My life, up until a few weeks ago, was really, really boring. I didn’t talk to anyone. I didn’t do anything. I just... existed. And then a bunch of stuff happened, and it’s not boring anymore. It’s complicated, ssy, and honestly, it’s a huge pain. But it’s better than what it was."
He looked at her, and saw that she was looking at him, listening.
"I don’t know what I’m doing. I have no idea if this is a good plan. But it feels like the right thing to do. And I’m tired of not doing the right thing."
Thea was quiet for a long ti. She was really looking at him now, her head tilted slightly, like she was trying to solve a puzzle. She was trying to figure out if he was a liar, or a creep, or just a genuine, grade-A idiot.
Finally, she let out a long, shaky breath. The fight seed to go out of her.
"I... I have to think," she whispered. "It’s too much."
"That’s fine," he said imdiately, standing up from the chair. He’d said what he needed to say. Pushing her now would be cruel. "Take your ti. There’s no rush."
He started to back toward the door.
"Hey."
He turned.
"The candy," she said, nodding toward the little plastic bag on her table. "What flavor is it?"
"Lemon."
A tiny smile touched her lips.
"I like lemon."
Kofi just nodded, a small smile of his own forming.
"I’ll, uh, see you later," he said, and then he slipped out of the room, closing the door softly behind him, leaving her alone with the quiet beeping of the machine and the most impossible choice of her life.
---
He walked out of the hospital, the automatic doors sliding shut behind him. The air outside felt different, cooler. He found a bench near the bus stop and just sat down, his head feeling way too full.
The whole conversation with Thea, the doctor’s offer... it didn’t feel real. It was like a scene from a movie he’d watched, not sothing that had actually just happened to him. He ran a hand through his hair.
’What did I just do?’
He had offered his ho, his life, to a girl he barely knew. A girl who was broken in ways he couldn’t even start to understand. It was the stupidest, most reckless thing he had ever done.
It also felt right.
He leaned back on the bench, his body still aching, and pulled out his phone. His thumb hovered over his mom’s contact. This was the next step.
He rembered her last ssage. Their flight had been delayed again. A problem at the airport. They were supposed to be ho this week, just for a few days. Now it was looking like next week, maybe. They’d been apologetic, sad they were going to miss him.
This was going to be an interesting call.
He pressed the button. It rang, the sound tinny and distant.
"Kofi, honey! Is everything okay?" His mom’s voice, warm and familiar, ca through the speaker.
"Hey, Mom. Yeah, I’m fine." He could hear his dad’s voice in the background, asking who it was. "Are you guys busy?"
"Never too busy for you," she said. "We were just having terrible coffee. What’s up? You sound a little... serious."
He took a breath. There was no easy way to do this.
"So," he started, his own voice sounding strange in his ears. "Sothing happened."
He told them everything. He started with Thea, the fight at school, walking her ho. He told them about the house, the neglect, the single loaf of bread. He told them about finding her, the empty pill packet, the hospital. He told them about the doctor, and the aunt who didn’t care if her niece lived or died.
The other end of the line was dead silent. He just kept talking into the void, laying out the whole, ugly story.
When he finally got to the doctor’s offer, the insane, impossible plan to release her into his care, he just let the words hang there.
He waited.
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