Chapter 40 (Caroline)

“No! I’ve been practicing! How did you beat me again?” Nick whined. I laughed and shrugged. We were at the Porter house waiting on dinner. I’d already made my portions and had them set out on the table.

To pass the time, I decided to whoop the guys at videogames. They never stood a chance. It was a few days after Keegan marked me. Four days to be exact. It was also Thanksgiving. We’d decided to have dinner at the Porter’s house since they had more room and Danny had never met them before. He was coming over for dinner a little later with Preston. The bite mark was starting to heal and the skin around the bite was finally green. It’d left a nasty bruise at first. And being as it was Thanksgiving break; there was no school or volleyball practice to worry about. I just had to keep Danny from finding out; which was surprising easy.

I played Gregg on Fifa next. Looks like he’d been practicing too, but he just wasn’t as good as me. As I was playing the game, I started to feel uncomfortable. It started to feel hot. I shed my light sweater, leaving me in my tank top but it didn’t help. I’d had a hot flash before two days ago. I was hoping this would pass like the last one. By the time I finished playing, Gregg won. I was sweating bullets and feeling a little out of it. The room was tilting.

“Are you okay?” Gregg asked as he turned to look at me as he was sitting on the floor and I was sitting on the couch. Keegan was down visiting with his dad. My heart hammered as I panted. I leaned over and groaned. It was too hot.

“What happened?” I heard Keegan’s voice. I was too weak to even look at him.

“I don’t know. We were playing and she just… I don’t know,” Gregg tried to explain. I leaned over so I was lying on my side with my feet curled up. I felt Keegan’s hand on my forehead as he pushed my very damp hair out of my face.

“Caroline… Caroline, open your eyes please,” he whispered. I did as he asked. I opened my eyes into slits. I couldn’t remember anything beyond Gregg winning and me getting very hot. It was still hot in here. I took a deep breath and sat up as Keegan handed me a bottle of water. I drank it gratefully, almost finishing the entire thing. I sighed and handed it back to him. I still felt hot, but it was a little better.

“I’m fine,” I tried to assure them. They were all looking at me worried. There was a moment of silence before the doorbell broke through it.

“I’ll get it,” Trevor muttered.

“Wow, nice place,” I heard my brother’s voice. I smiled and looked towards the door. I stood and started making my way over to him. Before I got to him though, black dots swam in my vision. I saw everything go sideways before I completely blacked out.