Free Lost in Thought by Cara Bertrand Page A

that I was in a small, generic bedroom. I was contemplating letting myself go back to sleep when I heard soft voices outside the door. It was a jumble of frantic whispering, from which I caught only snatches.
    “…do with her?…”
    “…can’t carry her over to the infirmary, Cartwright…”
    “…think she doesn’t know…”
    “…definitely no idea…”
    “…Legacy, she had to be…”
    “…Brooke Barros said…”
    “…Jill and I…watching…hadn’t seen her do it before…”
     
    L O S T I N T H O U G H T | 59
    Tired of being discussed just out of earshot, I cleared my throat and called out, “Hello?” The conversation abruptly ceased, and after a second, Melinda pushed open the door. I could see Carter lurking behind her along with his Uncle Jeff, Melinda’s husband. No Jill, at least not within my line of sight. The cast of characters in the hallway answered where I was anyway. I must have been brought up to the Revells’ and Carter’s apartment above the bookstore.
    “Oh, Lainey! Sorry honey, we didn’t mean to wake you,” Melinda gushed from the doorway. “Are you okay? Do you need anything?
    Water? Do you want me to shut the door? You rest here as long as you need, don’t worry.”
    “No, no, it’s okay,” I said, sitting up a little. “I…” didn’t know how to finish that. What was I? Confused, definitely. Curious about their whispered conversation, absolutely. I decided to start small though. I switched on the lamp next to me so I could see them better and asked, “How long was I out?”
    They tentatively made their way into the room, Melinda coming to sit on the edge of the bed.
    “Not long,” she answered. “Just a few minutes, really. I had Carter bring you up here to get you away from the bedlam. Your classmates are a little hysterical, I’m sure you can imagine.”
    Great. Now they all knew my problem, in the most sensational way possible. At least I would make a good story. I was pretty sure by the time I got back to campus, half the students would believe me dead, and the other half would think I’d accosted Jill and she knocked me down. “Great,” I said out loud this time. “Who’s watching the store?”
    “Jillian’s taking care of it for us. She helps out all the time.”
    Melinda was apparently the designated talker here. “Not that I think she has to do much more than babysit right now,” she added with a frown.
     
    60 | C A R A B E R T R A N D
    “It’s okay,” I told her. “This isn’t the first time this has happened, though it’s the first time since I got here, and definitely the first time I’ve had the chance to become an object of gossip for an entire school, but I’ll recover. Sorry about the disruption to your evening though.”
    I looked around at them. Melinda was frowning again. Carter was watching me with a blend of concern, surprise, and for some strange reason, smug satisfaction. Jeff was completely unreadable. “So,” I said.
    “What is it that I don’t know?”
    That caught them off guard. Sort of. Carter blinked, Jeff was, well, still completely unreadable, and Melinda froze before stepping up again. “I don’t know what you mean, honey,” she said. “You fainted.
    Jillian said it looked like you got dizzy first. I thought Carter told me you had a history…”
    “Oh, come on,” I interrupted. I hated being rude to her, but I couldn’t let them pretend there wasn’t something going on here. And they knew . I knew they did. “I know this isn’t just some migraine thing I’ve got. I’ve always known, just been too afraid to tell anyone. But I know you guys know what’s causing them. I heard you. So tell me.
    What don’t I know?”
    My question came out more forcefully than I’d meant it to, but I couldn’t help it. I sensed that finally, finally , I would get some answers to this sickness that had been plaguing me for three years. And I knew, suddenly, that this was why I’d come to Northbrook. If it