Read Soul Fire for Free Online

sure of herself, so confident. She succeeded at most everything—aced exams, won swimming and skating competitions, and had a wall full of medals to show for it. She had always breezed through life without a care—the girl everyone liked. Miss Popularity.
    Was it Justin Ledger or the accident that had caused this nervous insecurity and outright panic ?
    I peeked around the doorframe. She had made it to the foot of his elevated bed and stopped, her eyes riveted on his face. Justin was still on his cell, seemingly unaware of her.
    “Psst.” I tried to get her attention. I was out of his line of sight, but Ashla could see me. Trancelike, she turned to look at me. I motioned her to walk closer to him. She shook her head violently, her eyes so wide with fear that I wondered if the brown contacts would pop out. Then I heard him speak to her, and she whipped her head back to look at him.

Justin

CHAPTER SEVEN
    I was weary of hospital food and was trying to talk my best buddy into bringing up a pizza. “I don’t care what they think, Mole, one more tasteless roast beef dinner and I’ll call it in myself. Hold on, someone’s here.” I put the cell down and looked at the slim girl who had bolted into the room. She was attractive in a strange sort of way. The uniform told me she must be a nurse, so I said, “Help you?”
    “Uh, it’s okay. Finish your call.”
    I put the phone back to my ear, “Hey, Mole, what time will you be here? Okay. Remember the pizza. Great. See ya in a few.” I gave her my full attention. “You were saying?”
    “Uh, well, nothing. I mean…I meant to say…I’m a volunteer, here at the hospital, and I wondered if you’d like some…magazines.”
    “Sure, leave them on the tray.” The girl was standing stone still at the end of the bed holding the magazines. “Is there something else?”
    “Oh, no,” she said, walking over to the side tray, her eyes fixed on my casts. “Do your legs hurt a lot?”
    “Only when I’m not drugged.”
    Her eyes grew wider. “That bad?”
    “Worse than that,” I told her. “They itch.”
    “Itch?”
    “Oh yeah. Something fierce. And you can’t scratch either.” She looked horrified, so I couldn’t resist adding, “Drives me crazy. Sometimes, I think I can feel all the steel they stuck in my bones.”
    “Steel?” Her bloodshot brown eyes widened.
    “I’m going to set off all the security alarms at the airport for sure.” There was something about this girl’s voice.
    “Will you be in the casts long?”
    I was starting to enjoy myself—a first since the accident. “Once the swelling goes down and the stitches come out, they’re going to take these off and put on full leg casts. I’ll be in plaster at least six more weeks after that.”
    Her dark eyes traveled over my legs. “I’m so sorry.”
    “Don’t be. Wasn’t your fault.”
    Her head flew up and her eyes caught mine. I’d scared her somehow. “Hey, it’s not as bad as it looks. Least, I don’t think it is. My doctors say I should be able to walk again. The operations have gone well.” I didn’t add how much I missed hockey and the overwhelming emptiness I felt every time I thought about it. Deep down inside I held onto the hope that I would play again.
    “Do you stay in bed all the time?” she asked timidly.
    “Yeah, it’s a bummer.” What was it about her soft voice? “Her name badge read ‘VOLUNTEER’. “ You look kind of young to volunteer in a hospital.”
    “Just do it the odd Saturday. Take magazines around to the patients or help out in the therapy pool.”
    “Really? The therapy pool? They tell me that I’ll be going there when the casts finally come off. Got any sports magazines?”
    She found one and handed it to me. Our fingers touched momentarily and a tingling sensation shot up my arm. Our eyes met, and I wondered if she had felt it too, but then she glanced away. She was an unusual girl, I thought, volunteering at the hospital. Not many do that.