As quickly as possible, I scooped up all the jacks just in time to catch the ball as gravity pulled it back to the ground. "Ha, I win." Carly crossed her arms and pretended to pout. "Oh, get over it. You won the last twenty times."

She rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue at me. "Pfft!"

My eyes shifted Sam who was sleeping soundly. "Shh, you'll wake her up."

"It's about time she did. She's been asleep since we got here." Carly took the jacks from my hand and put them back onto the ground. She chucked the ball at the tile floor and it shot up in the air. She grabbed all the jacks and looked up. "Ouch!" She rubbed her face where the ball had hit and grunted.

"Just let her sleep, her body needs rest. She lost a lot of blood."

Carly gave me a strange look. "Since when do you care about how much rest she gets?" She rolled the ball over to me and I just tossed it from one hand to the other.

My shoulders shrugged. "It's just been different since we kissed."

She nodded, and then looked me in the eyes with a sly smile. "Wait, it isn't because you like her, is it?"

I didn't say anything.

"Oh my gosh, you do!" Her hand shot up to her mouth and she giggled. "That's so cute! Freddie and Sam, sittin' in a tree..."

"Okay! I get it! Geeze."

"Well are you gonna tell her?" Carly asked, taking the ball from my hand and throwing it on the floor.

I shrugged. "Maybe. It kind of seems like a bad time, don't you think?"

She caught the ball, but one jack fell from her hand as she did. "Darn. I have to win!"

"Hello? Bigger issues over here!" To keep her from getting distracted again, I snatched the ball from her hand.

"Just do whatever you think is best."

If only I knew what that was.

The door opened behind me and I turned to see who it was.

"Hey guys, is Sam still sleeping?" Spencer asked, shutting the door behind him. Sam snored, and he laughed. "Never mind." He joined us on the floor. "Whatcha guys doin? Playin' some jacks, talkin' a little?"

Carly smiled and nodded. "Yep, just talkin' and playin'."

"Well hey, I've got some playing cards down in my car. I'll go get them," Spencer suggested. "Anyone want to join me?"

"I'll go," I offered.

"I'll stay here in case Sam wakes up," Carly said, going to sit in the chair beside Sam's bed. "See you guys soon."

Spencer and I left the room, shutting the door quietly behind us. The only people at the hospital that early in the morning were a few nurses and two men. They were leaning against the wall fairly close to Sam's room. I felt like I had seen them somewhere before.

Once we boarded the elevator, I started thinking about what Carly had said. If Sam knew about my feelings for her, things would be weird. Unless, of course, she liked be back. But then what? Could her and I really date and it not be weird?

"Hey Spence, can I ask you about something?"

He shrugged, "Yeah, sure."

"Well, I kinda, sorta... have feelings for Sam. And I'm not sure if this is a good time to tell her or not, considering everything that's happened. What do you think?"

He crossed his arms and thought for a moment. "Think of it this way. What if you hadn't of found her when you did? It might have been too late." He moved his hand across his throat like his head was being sliced off. "You don't always know what's gonna happen. Anybody's number could be up today. This cord holding up this elevator could snap, sending us into a certain death. See what I mean?"

"Yeah, and I also see that I'll be taking the stairs back up."

We both laughed and exiting the elevator. "It's never really the wrong time to tell someone you care about them, because you may never get another chance."

That being said, I decided to tell Sam once we got back to her room. The worst thing that could happen was she wouldn't like me back, and there are other girls out there. It would just be hard to leave those feelings for her behind...

Spencer and I arrived at the door to her room. My lungs filled slowly with air, and then the air was released through my lips. The knob turned with my hand and the door eased open. My eyes widened when I saw an empty bed and dangling IV cords.

"Carly, where's..." The sentence got stuck in my throat when I saw Carly slouched in a chair, unconscious.

I suddenly realized where I had seen the men who were standing in the hallway before. They were the ones who were at Carly's apartment not even an hour before I went to Sam's house. They were the ones who had passed me on the staircase.

Two men had hurt her.

They were the two men.

And now she was in their hands.

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