Free How to Save a Life by Kristin Harmel

question for you.”
    “Yeah, but now the roles are reversed,” Logan points out. “I’m the old pro at this tree thing. You’re new at it.”
    “True,” I concede. “But I still reserve the right to worry about you. I’m still the grown-up, and you’re still the kid.”
    He smiles. “Deal. But you shouldn’t worry too much, because I’m doing fine.”
    I sit down beside his bed. “Listen, I was wondering something. Since you’ve been living the same day over and over again, did you always see me?”
    He hesitates and nods. “Always.”
    “And was I always the same?”
    He nods. “Sure. Our conversations change, based on the time of day I saw you and what I asked you, but one of the things about repeating days is that the people you talk to are always consistent. Same mood, same everything, unless you do something to drastically change things.”
    “That makes sense.” I mull over this for a second. “So did we have interactions that I’ll never remember?”
    He nods. “Yeah. The person who isn’t repeating only remembers the very last day.”
    “So nothing you do or say really makes a difference, since it all gets erased the next morning anyhow.”
    He cocks his head to the side. “I guess the easy answer is yes. I mean, have you ever seen Groundhog Day ? You could wreck a car and wind up in jail, and you’d still wake up the next morning in your own bed, like nothing ever happened, as long as you also squeeze in a visit to the tree. But I don’t know. I like to think that there’s a little part of people that hangs on to the moments, even if they can’t remember them.”
    “What do you mean?”
    He shrugs. “Like you and me. We’re super close, right?”
    “Right.”
    “But haven’t you ever wondered why that is? Why you feel so invested in me? I think it’s because we’ve had so much extra time together, you know? I’m the one who’s been repeating the longest, and you’re the one I spend the most time with.”
    “I am?”
    He smiles. “Maybe it’s weird, but you’re like my best friend.”
    I look away before he can see my tears. “I couldn’t ask for a better friend than you, Logan.”
    “Want to head down to the tree?”
    I nod.
    As we make our way down to the lobby, avoiding Sheila and the other nurses, he chatters about Katelyn and Frankie, and how he’s been watching them flirt with each other for dozens of todays. “But they’re both too dumb to actually admit they like each other,” he concludes.
    I laugh as the elevator doors slide open on the first floor. “That’s called being a teenager.”
    “I rest my case,” he says.
    I think about what Katelyn said earlier about how her Make-A-Wish wish would have been to meet Original Scin. “Hey, random question, but going back to what you said earlier about how I could crash my car and I’d still wake up at home totally fine: Does the same go for, say, emptying my bank account? Like if I took all my money out today, or rang up a huge credit card bill, would everything be back to normal tomorrow?”
    “Sure.”
    “And if one of you guys got exposed to germs because of your compromised immunity, you’d be fine again on the next today, right? Like an infection wouldn’t carry over?”
    “Right,” Logan says. “Remember? It’s why it’s totally fine for us to come down to the lobby and touch the tree every day, even though we’re encountering all sorts of germs.”
    “That makes sense.”
    “Why do you ask?”
    “I’ll tell you tomorrow. Or, er, the next today.”
    We approach the tree, and we both ask it for one day more. As we turn to go, we see Jamie emerging from the elevator and striding toward us. His eyes light up when he sees me. “Jill! How did the balloons go over with your patient?”
    I smile. “She loved them as only a teenager could. Meaning she pretended to hate them. How was your party?”
    “Fantastic. The kids loved it.”
    “That was a really kind thing for you to do,” I