Despite the glare Holly currently had leveled on me, she was still the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. I remained silent, waiting for an answer from her.

"You can't be serious?"

Despite the anger on her face, I couldn't help the smile that formed. "Deadly and coming from me that says a lot." The poke she gave my ribs wiped the smile from my face as pain shot through my body. I narrowed my eyes on her. She knew better than to poke at me, but right now she didn't appear the least bit contrite about what she'd done.

"You can't leave, you can barely walk on your own! What's going to happen if you get worse? And don't you narrow those baby blues at me either, you deserved that poke."

I certainly didn't want to think about what would happen when things got worse. Right now all I wanted to dwell on was leaving the hospital. To get free of the depressive cloud that seemed to permeate the place. It hung in the air like moisture before a storm and it clung to you in the same manner. Death roamed these halls, it lurked hidden beneath the ever-present smell of disinfectant and the false, happy smiles of the staff. All I'd thought about since the idea popped into my head two weeks ago was leaving this place.

"I can worry about that when it happens. All I want is to be free of this place. Can't you understand that? I've been stuck here for six months. Months I should have been in school. I've missed out on most of my senior year. I've missed ... everything." The thought of how much I'd missed out on was depressing. Hell, I hadn't even looked into colleges because I felt it was a wasted effort. It didn't bear dwelling on, I was going to die so why bother? What I wanted to dwell on was the possibility of getting out of here and doing what I could with the time I had left.

Her hand lifted and she rubbed her eyes before dragging a hand through the auburn waves of her hair. "I understand, I do. You can't just decide to check yourself out of the hospital. Not in the condition you're in."

"I can do whatever I want, I'm eighteen. It isn't as if my parents will give a crap. They probably won't even know I'm gone unless the hospital tells them," I replied with a snort. "Besides, I wasn't planning on checking out. Not officially anyway. My plan involved more of a covert escape. I wasn't exactly going to announce my intentions."

"That is a crappy plan." She sighed and tugged at a lock of hair. "Your parents care, you know that."

"They don't, it's the truth and we both know it."

"It isn't. I've seen them with the doctors, Laz. They care. I think they're just at a loss and don't know how to handle this."

I stared at her. My parents didn't come to visit me. Not regularly. They'd come for holidays, my eighteenth birthday, but that was it. Hearing her tell me there had been here, speaking with the doctors made my heart ache. They could have stopped by my room, even for a few minutes, but they hadn't. It hurt worse than I thought possible.

"Great for them. Do you think I know how to handle this? I need them."

She sighed. "I shouldn't have told you. I'm sorry."

I would have shrugged but arguing with her exhausted me and the pain seemed to have gotten worse. My eyes slipped shut and I blew out a breath. "I'm leaving, you can either assist or stay out of my way." She made no reply. "I want you to know that if you rat me out then don't bother coming back. Ever."

The room remained quiet and I finally opened my eyes believing she'd left. But I found her sitting in the chair beside the bed watching me.

"Where do you want to go?" she asked ina curious voice.

I didn't have a particular destination in mind, I simply wanted out of here. "I honestly don't know."

A nod as she rose, tucking her book beneath her arm. "Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon?"

"No."

"All right, we'll start there and decide what else you want to see as we go. "Get some rest, Laz, we'll talk again tomorrow. Goodbye."

I was so stunned byher response that a nod was my only answer before she turned and left the room.It took my brain several more minutes to kick back into gear. She agreed tohelp me. I was going to get out of this hell. Finally, I was going to be free.