Free Waking Nightmares by Christopher Golden Page B

and more, of late, she had found herself losing interest in such things. She still had nearly two years left of college, but partying had lost its appeal the day she had turned twenty-one. Not that she had ever been nearly as into it as Tami. The girl had her charms, and Amber adored her, but she was a self-proclaimed drunken slut. There was real heart and intelligence and wisdom underneath the party-girl exterior, but over the past six months or so, Amber had been having to dig deeper and deeper to find that part of her friend, and it saddened her.
    Loser, Tami texted her.
    I know. How can u stand me?
    So is he still there or what?
    Amber clutched the phone in her hand and shifted her pocketbook from one shoulder to the other as she went out into the emergency room’s waiting area. She spotted Ben Draper immediately. He was reading a paperback book but seemed to sense her attention and glanced over to see her looking at him. Instantly, he jumped up from his chair and hurried toward her, his eyes hopeful.
    Yep, she texted.
    Wow. He so wants you.
    Doesn’t everyone?
    I do, Tami joked. Right now.
    Rain check. TTYL.
    Amber silenced her phone and dropped it into her pocketbook, zipping it up as Ben approached.
    “Hey,” Ben said, searching her eyes. “Are you okay? You look okay.”
    “Yeah. I mean, they think so. But ohmygod, Ben, you didn’t have to wait all this time. You’ve been here all day.”
    “Not all day,” he said, smiling. “Besides, it’s fine. I told Professor Varick I’d go with you, and when you said you didn’t want anyone to call your parents, I figured you’d need someone around to drive you back to campus to get your car. Anyway, I ate lunch and picked up this book at the gift shop.” He held it up like a prize he’d won. “Plus I was texting people. The time went by. Mostly I was just worried about you.”
    A strange warmth spread through Amber. She had liked Ben from the very first time they’d met, appreciated his sweetness and sincerity, but there had never been a spark between them, at least not for her. She had told herself he was too sweet, and too earnest. But now she looked at him and thought she saw, just for a moment, the man he was evolving into. She thought about the guys she usually ended up hanging out with when she partied with Tami, and she felt like she had just stumbled upon a universal truth—none of those guys were going to evolve into the kind of man she envisioned as part of her future.
    Maybe sweet could be sexy.
    “Thank you so much for waiting,” she said, and kissed Ben on the cheek. His clothes were rumpled and his hair its usual mess after hours in the waiting room, but that disarray—his Ben-ness—suddenly seemed more than cute.
    Amber laughed, ending a moment she knew they both had felt go on too long.
    “What’s funny?” Ben asked.
    “Me,” she said, forcing herself not to look him in the eye. “I must have hit my head pretty hard.”
    As soon as she said it, she realized he would understand. Of course he would. Ben wasn’t stupid. He must have sensed something between them in that moment. How could he take that comment as anything but an insult? A dismissal?
    She looked up and saw the hurt in his eyes before he smiled to mask it.
    “You banged it a bunch of times,” he said. “Did the doctor say if you have a concussion?”
    Amber almost apologized—the words were on her lips—but then she would have had to explain aloud what she was apologizing for, and it would just get incredibly awkward. If Ben was willing to let it go, she wouldn’t argue.
    “Actually, he said it was amazing I don’t have one,” she said, smiling and putting a hand to her temple. “I do feel kind of weird, though. Not myself, y’know?”
    Would that work? Would he understand what she was trying to say? Amber did like Ben, and maybe—despite Tami’s teasing—she had felt a spark here today, after all the time they’d known each other. But it had already been a