The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

was strange, but my body liked it. A lot. Seth teased me about it the entire drive home and I kept waiting for it to crash into me, yet I still feel fine.
     
    Luke’s skin looks almost yellow beneath the lighting of the waiting room. I flip the page and then tilt my head to the side to try and make out what I’m looking at.
     
    “Don’t you hate doctor’s offices?” Luke says abruptly.
     
    I glance up and his brown eyes are huge as he stares at a man across from us, hacking into his hand. “I guess so.”
     
    He scratches agitatedly at his temple until there are red streaks on his skin. “It’s so fucking unsanitary.”
     
    I close the magazine and drop it on the table. “Maybe if you didn’t think about it so much, then you’d relax a little.”
     
    He pauses and his foot quits tapping. “I just really hate needles.”
     
    It makes no sense, since he’s probably had to take insulin shots for a while. The fear in his eyes makes me wonder if there’s more to his phobia than just the needles, though.
     
    “Okay, think of something else.” I scoop up a copy of Sports Illustrated from off the table beside me. “Read this. It’ll help take your mind off stuff.”
     
    His eyebrows furrow as he takes the magazine from me and studies the girl on the cover. “You know, I don’t remember you being this way in high school. You were really quiet and everyone…” He trails off, but I know what he was going to say; that everyone made fun of me, picked on me, teased and tortured me. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t bring that stuff up.”
     
    “It’s fine,” I assure him, but memories explode through my brain like shards of glass.
     
    “You know, you remind me of my sister, Amy,” he says. “I don’t know if you remember her. She was a couple of years older than us.”
     
    I shake my head. “I don’t. Sorry.”
     
    He opens the magazine and flips the page. “She was a lot like you. Quiet, nice, but sad.”
     
    I notice he said was . I press my lips together as the glass in my head multiplies as it shatters into more pieces. “Will you excuse me for a second?”
     
    I get up from my chair and scurry down the hall to the bathroom.  My shoulders start to hunch over as the ache in my stomach builds. Thankfully, the bathroom is empty, otherwise I would have done it in the hall and everyone would have known my little secret. The one thing that makes me feel better during the darkest times of my thoughts. The one thing that belongs to me and no one can take it away.
     
    ***
     
    “I think I should take you there as a thank you,” Luke says as we drive by a carnival set up in the fairgrounds. The sun is descending behind the mountains and the sky is grey with splashes of pink and orange. Neon lights and music take over the land.
     
    “I haven’t been to one since I was like eleven,” I admit. “I was never really into the rides, especially the ones that went high.”
     
    “Didn’t you ever go to our town fair?” he asks, pausing at a stoplight.
     
    I shake my head. “I stopped going when I turned twelve.”
     
    He looks at me, waiting for an explanation, but what would I say? That my childhood kind of ended at twelve when my innocence was stolen? That after it happened, cotton candy, balloons, games, and rides made me wish for a time I’d never have again?
     
    “Well, then I’m taking you,” he says as the light changes and a green glow reflects across his face. He releases the clutch and the truck rolls forward.
     
    “Oh, you don’t have to do that,” I tell him. “I was happy to help you, especially since you no longer look like you’re going to drop dead.”
     
    “Did I look that bad?”
     
    “You looked like shit.”
     
    He shakes his head with a small smile on his face. “Still, I think we should go hang out. It’s better than going back to the campus and sitting in the dorms. I’ve barely gotten out of my room since school started.” He pauses as he spins the wheel and makes a right into the dirt parking lot at the side of the white tents and the neon glow of the rides. “You can call Seth and invite him.” He considers something as he shuts off the engine. “I’ll call Kayden and see if he wants to come.”
     
    I pick at my fingernails as I try to stay calm and not get all giddy like a silly girl. “I guess we could do that.”
     
    I pull my cell phone out of the pocket of my jeans while he grabs his off the cracked dashboard.  While I call