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  DRAWN APART

  Book 3, The Desert Series

  LISETTE BRODEY

  To Dody Cox

  For her indefatigable support, cheerleading, and friendship.

  Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.

  Emily Dickinson

  Published by:

  Saberlee Books

  Los Angeles, CA

  United States of America

  Copyright @2015, Lisette Brodey

  Published: November 2015

  All rights reserved, which includes the right to

  Reproduce this book or portions thereof

  in any form whatsoever except as

  provided by U.S. Copyright Law.

  Copy Editing: Laura J. Daly

  Cover design: Lisa McCallum

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  ISBN-13: 978-0-9909606-2-1 (e-book)

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9909606-3-8 (paperback)

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9909606-4-5 (The Desert Series – e-book)

  DRAWN APART

  Chapter 1

  Avalon Martelli sat nervously in Principal Hal Dreighton’s office. She knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. But everything in her gut told her something terrible had happened, especially when Principal Dreighton’s secretary, who had pulled her out of third-period Spanish class, was overly kind and gentle as she escorted Avalon down the hall.

  After waiting only five minutes on the principal’s couch, Avalon felt all sense of time disappear as she tried to prepare herself for whatever bad news awaited. As she stared straight ahead, she noticed that the paintings on the wall looked warped and misshapen, but in that moment, distortion was real and logical.

  When her English teacher, Eve Carrow, and the principal entered the room with sad, sympathetic looks on their faces, Avalon felt herself pulled back to reality. The pictures appeared to straighten themselves as the jolt to her senses rattled her. Heartache squeezed the room.

  Principal Dreighton took a seat at his desk, and Eve sat next to Avalon on the couch.

  Sheer terror gripped Avalon. “Did something happen to someone in my family? My dad? Isabella? Erik? Carrie Lynn? Oh, no, not my niece!”

  Eve reached for Avalon’s hands and clasped her own hands on top of them. “Your family is fine. Little Mikaela is fine.”

  Avalon looked at the principal, who was silently prompting Eve to do the talking. “Just tell me the bad news you have for me! I can see it. I can feel it. Please … just tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Honey … ”

  “What, Ms. Carrow? What?”

  “Avalon, I heard you in the hallway earlier asking your sister if she’d seen Stephanie. I know you’ve been worried because she didn’t come to school today or respond to your texts.”

  Avalon’s hands flew out from under the protective dome Eve had created with hers. “Oh, no! She was in a car accident, wasn’t she?”

  Eve looked stunned. “How in the world did you know that?”

  “Is she dead? What happened? Is my best friend dead?”

  “Last night Stephanie was headed back to Mystekal from Desert Cove. The police originally thought she might have been texting and driving because she drifted over the line and collided head on with a car traveling in the opposite direction. But they don’t—”

  “Is she—”

  “She’s unconscious, honey. At Desert Cove Hospital. Her mom called early this morning to tell us the news. She specifically asked that I tell you personally, and she wanted me to make sure that you get a ride to the hospital and don’t try to get there on your own.”

  “Will she be conscious soon?”

  Eve looked at her boss, who had no answers. “I have no idea. She’s not responding to any stimuli. I think it’s pretty bad. From what Valerie Lambert said, the two people from the other car were injured, but they’re expected to fully recover. We just have to hope and pray that Stephanie will be all right, too.”

  Principal Dreighton looked compassionately at Avalon. “Your brother is coming to pick you up and take you to Desert Cove. We didn’t want to tell you until we could reach him. He should be here soon. I’m very sorry, Avalon. But like Ms. Carrow said, we have no way of knowing what will happen. We’re going to break the news to your senior classmates after lunch and then to the rest of the school.”

  “Freakin’ A!” Avalon winced as she tugged on a strand of her long green-and-blue hair stuck inside the door of her locker.

  “Hey, are you okay?” Seeing Avalon’s awkward position, the stranger standing beside her realized what had happened and put her backpack on the floor. “Oh, no; you closed your locker on your hair!”

  With her head cocked awkwardly to the left, Avalon looked at the girl she had never seen before. “Am I a dummy or what? Yeah, this is what I get for having long hair and not paying attention. Not exactly the coolest thing to do. I just don’t want anyone to see me like this. It doesn’t take much to give some people a reason to mess with you, you know?”

  The girl smiled and moved closer, holding the ends of her own long hair in her hands. “See this hair? I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been traumatized a few times. One time, about three years ago, it got stuck in the car door, and I didn’t realize it until we were at an intersection, and some guy started honking and pointing to my hair while he and his friends were cracking up. That was fun—not. My mom was driving and even she was in stitches. Nice, huh?”

  Avalon laughed. “That’s a funny story. At least you could drive away and never see them again, right? These kids will just stay put and torture you.”

  The girl glanced down the hall at the other students. “No worries. I’m going to stand right here and block their view. Just open the locker and pull your hair out. I promise, it’ll be our secret forever.”

  Avalon quickly turned her combination lock, successfully getting her hair released from the locker’s grip. “You’re okay. Thanks. Are you new here? Are you a junior, too?”

  “Yes and yes. I’m Stephanie Lambert, and you are so not from California with that accent.”

  “Nope. I’m Avalon Martelli, and you’re so right. And you’re not from California, either.”

  Stephanie giggled and scratched her head with a smile. “Hmm. I’m guessing New York.”

  “Pretty much so. Jersey City. Right across the Hudson. And you?”

  “South Jersey. Cherry Hill.”

  Avalon leaned against her locker. “Nice to meet you, South. So, what brings you to Mystekal? This is a weird place to move to. You’ve got to have a story, right?”

  “Sure do, North. Wish it were a nicer one.”

  “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “You’re not. I don’t mind telling you. Maybe it’s because I feel like I know you. Anyway, the short and not-so-sweet story goes like this: my dad went to Paris on a business trip and never came home. Met some young French chick who loved on his … well, you get my drift, turned into a prick, and with one big kick … left my mom and me at the curb. Then he put up a sign, ‘Do not disturb.’”

  “That sucks, but you’re funny. Do you always talk so poetically?”

  “Only when I feel comfortable with the person I’m talking to. I really love poetry, but I don’t tell many people that. And just for the record, I don’t consider what I just spit out to be poetry; it was plain old rhyming. I have better taste than that and way more respect for poets.” She paused and looked curiously at Avalon. “I gotta tell you, it’s just weird, but I really do feel like I know you.”

  Avalon played with the end of her beaded necklace. “I’m kind of feeling that
, too. So how did all that mess with your dad translate into you coming out here?”

  “The short version is that my mom’s cousin owns a house in Mystekal. She got a job in the Philadelphia area, but she didn’t want to sell her home here until she knew how things would work out. That’s when my mom and her cousin decided to trade homes. My mom didn’t want to stay in Jersey because so many of their mutual friends knew my dad first, and that made everything awkward. People didn’t know what to say to her, so some of them just avoided her.” Stephanie paused to remember. “Some of their kids even avoided me. Nice, huh? It hurt really bad to see the way people can turn on you … not for something you did, but for something someone did to you.”

  “That’s crazy!” Avalon looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping.

  “No kidding. It totally is. That’s why we decided to move away. My mom really dug the idea of a quieter lifestyle. She’s a mountain freak. It didn’t matter that Mystekal was some desert town she’d never heard of before. Just having a cool view and no snow to shovel was enough to persuade her to head west. She works as an online tutor, so it doesn’t really matter where we live. How about you?”

  “Long story, but near the beginning of my sophomore year, my mom tricked us all into moving to LA and then dumped my dad the minute we got there. It was all about being with some sleazy boyfriend.”

  “That sucks! Do you have brothers and sisters?”

  “Yeah, my sister, Isabella, is in the ninth grade. My brother, Erik, is twenty. He’s married to Carrie Lynn, and they have a baby girl, Mikaela. After high school, he moved back to Jersey City. He’s gonna stay there for a year and then bring his family out here. My dad will be heading up this big vintage restoration project, and Erik will be his apprentice. I can’t wait! I hate being separated from my family. And I want to watch my baby niece grow up.”

  Stephanie opened her locker. “Where’s your mom?”

  “Oh, she’s still in LA. The creep she was dating got carted off to prison for kidnapping my friend River’s mom last January—another long story. But she went and found another Hollywood sleaze. A much wealthier one. She attached herself to him like a barnacle to a rock. Do you know what a barnacle is?”

  “Heck, yeah.” Stephanie grabbed a book from her locker and stuffed it into her backpack “Got them all over the place down the shore.”

  Avalon laughed. “Now I know you’re from South Jersey for sure.”

  “Yeah, ‘down the shore’ is a dead giveaway. So … what were you saying about the kids who go to school here? Do you think I’m in for trouble being new and all?”

  “Most of them are pretty nice. But you know how it is. There are always bullies. You can imagine how they took to a girl with blue-and-green hair who dresses in vintage clothing. Some real mean shit went down. But I made two real good friends. They were both senior boys. River Dalworth and Larsen Davis. They’re both in different schools in LA now. I really miss them, but they’ll be back for holidays and some weekends. And probably the summers, too. Forget it with the girls. I haven’t made one real girlfriend here. I’m solid with my friends back east and my family, so I just stick with them.”

  Stephanie smiled brightly as she picked up her backpack. “Well, you’ve just made your first real girlfriend here, North. And for the record, I’ll never call you that when anyone is around. It will be our secret.”

  “Very cool. That’s all we need is to give people ammunition to mess with us. North and South. A secret club of two. I’m in.”

  “You’ve got to wake up, baby! You’re the best part of me. I love you so much. Please, Stephanie, just open your eyes and look at me.” Valerie Lambert, sitting on a chair by her daughter’s hospital bed, was sobbing as Avalon walked into the room. “Just move a finger. Just do something to tell me that you can hear me. Come on, baby girl, you can do it.”

  Avalon, standing in the doorway of the hospital room, felt lightheaded as she saw her friend lying lifelessly on the bed across the room. She could barely see even one strand of Stephanie’s long brown hair—only wires and tubes hooked up to monitors and machines on rolling carts that sat on either side of the bed.

  Trying to calm herself, Avalon quietly crossed the shiny gray-and-blue speckled linoleum floor toward the bed.

  From a closer vantage point, she could see several seemingly minor bruises on Stephanie’s face, but her expression was vacant, even for someone sleeping. Up close, the tubes and wires seemed even more intimidating and confusing. Avalon didn’t know what to say as Valerie continued to plead with her daughter to wake up, but she felt sure that her soggy words were in vain … at least for the time being.

  Not wanting to startle her, Avalon coughed lightly as she stood behind Valerie’s chair.

  “Oh, Avalon. You’re here!” Jumping up from her chair, Valerie threw her arms around the girl she called “my second daughter.”

  Avalon let go of the emotion she had tried to keep inside. Her voice trembled as the words spilled out. “What happened? Steph’s gonna get better, right? Tell me she’s gonna wake up. She has to get better!”

  Wobbly on her feet, Valerie sat down again, looking at her daughter, then at Avalon. A fresh set of tears slid down her cheeks as she spoke. “They’ve done every test on her, Avalon. They have no idea why she blacked out or why she’s unconscious. They’re calling it an idiosyncratic coma. They didn’t keep her in ICU because she’s stable and breathing on her own.”

  “This makes no sense at all. What did they tell you when she was admitted?” Avalon looked at her friend. “Oh, Steph!”

  Valerie paused to collect her breath. ”Last night, before they ran the tests, they said there was a partially composed text on Stephanie’s phone, to me, saying she was on her way home, and from that they were surmising that she was texting while driving. Well, they surmised wrong! Apparently, she blacked out and that caused the accident, not texting. Stephanie didn’t even sustain any real injuries from the accident. They also told me there was no sign of alcohol or drugs found in her blood.” Valerie sighed. “Hell, I could have told them that.” She paused to calm herself. “I hear myself saying these words, but they make no sense. Tell me I’m having the worst dream of my life.”

  Avalon put a hand on Valerie’s shoulder. “I wish I could. When’s the last time you heard from Steph?”

  Valerie looked over at Stephanie, then up at Avalon. “She called me after the poetry reading to say she was staying in Desert Cove for a little bit to talk to someone she’d met and would be home by eleven at the latest. I guess she started to text me later to let me know she was on her way, but now we know she didn’t do it from the car. Not unless it was parked somewhere. Stephanie always has her mind in so many places at once. She probably started a text to me at some point and just got distracted and forgot to send it. But it’s all a moot point now, isn’t it? That text had nothing to do with any of this.”

  Avalon held back the tears. “No, it didn’t. Steph was really against texting and driving. And you’re right about her being distracted. Once she got on my case for not answering an important text, and then, when she discovered she’d never even finished it or sent it, she tried to hide that from me. But I busted her, and we laughed about that for days. So that part makes sense. But seeing Steph lying here like this makes no sense at all.”

  “No, Avalon. It doesn’t. Nothing will ever make sense again if she doesn’t wake up. She’s completely unresponsive. Why don’t they know the reason?”

  Avalon felt faint. The hospital room looked warped like the principal’s office had. “I never even heard of something like this happening.”

  Valerie took a tissue from her pocket and blew her nose. “The people in the other car along with witnesses said that Stephanie’s car veered into the other lane. Look at her and those tiny, deceiving scratches on her face.” Valerie reached over and gently ran her fingers over Stephanie’s forehead. Looking at Avalon, she spoke softly. “The doctors don’t know if she’s coming b
ack to us, but she is. I know she is. And you know she is, right? I mean, she’s breathing without a ventilator. That has to be a good sign, doesn’t it?”

  Avalon felt uncertain how to respond. “For sure.” She paused to think. “When Steph texted me last night before she left, she was so excited to meet that poet. She said it was going to be one of the best days of her entire life.”

  “She told me that, too. I should have insisted on going with her. I should have done something. Maybe I could have prevented this whole thing!”

  “I don’t think so.” Avalon felt her heart race and her palms grow sweaty. She moved closer to the bed, hoping to make some kind of contact with Stephanie. Since the day they met, nearly two years ago, their bond was immediate. With each passing day, their connection became stronger and more finely tuned. Even at Mystekal High, Avalon could always feel when Stephanie had walked up behind her.

  Leaning over the bed rail, Avalon felt the same kind of aura she usually experienced when she would stand in the desert and gaze into the distance, seeing only wind turbines, cactuses, mountains, and sagebrush. Tuning out the small beeps from the machines, Avalon closed her eyes and tried to connect with Stephanie. But there was nothing. Trying to communicate with her was like calling a phone that just kept ringing and never went to voicemail so she couldn’t even leave a message.

  As Avalon stood there, Valerie went to the other side of the room to drag a second chair to her daughter’s bedside and then sat down on it. She didn’t even bother to stop the tears flowing as she watched Avalon, hoping for the encouraging words she desperately needed to hear.

  After several minutes, without a word, Avalon sat down in the empty chair beside her. “I can’t reach Steph. I don’t know where she is.”

  “She’ll come around; you’ll see. Avalon, you’re not only her best friend, you’re the best friend she’s ever had. You have to keep talking to her, okay? Talk to her just like you normally would. Can you do that? For her? For me? Please.”