MACEY
I woke up to the sound of something beeping. Soft, steady, mechanical. My mind couldn’t place it right away.
For a moment, I thought I was still at the restaurant—that maybe Sam was still across the table, sipping her iced tea, rolling her eyes at something stupid I’d said. But when I tried to move, everything around me felt wrong. The smell. The crisp sheets. The weight on my chest.
A hospital.
My eyes blinked open slowly, the white ceiling blurring into focus. The steady beep came from a monitor beside me, and the light in the room was painfully bright. My throat felt dry, my body heavy, like I’d been underwater too long and only just surfaced.
“Mace?”
My head turned toward the voice. Sam was there—sitting in a chair by the bed, eyes puffy, her phone in her hand. The m
