Letting My Brother's Best Friend Take My V-Card

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JESS

The night was still, the sky stretched wide above me, thick with stars. It should have been peaceful, but my heart was

hammering so hard I could barely hear anything else.

My hands clenched around my phone as I paced on top of this goddamn hill, willing for better reception.

Static crackled in my ear, followed by Luke's voice-choppy but urgent.

"Something happened... Germany... this morning-well, their morning, our evening, or whatever..." He was talking fast, words breaking apart, stitched together by interference.

I stopped moving. "Luke, what? I can barely hear you."

A rush of static, then-

"Her heart stopped, Jess."

The words punched through me, ripping the air from my lungs.

It felt like something had slammed into my chest. I staggered, my knees giving out, and I dropped onto the cold, damp grass.

No.

No, no, no.

My mind reeled, scrambling, trying to make sense of what that

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13:27

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meant.

Her heart stopped.

That meant...

That meant-

to sign the DNR papers. They'd told him this would

my mouth, barely suppressing the sob clawing its way

She was gone.

Laura was gone.

voice cut through the silence again, breaking apart,

had to attempt-resuscitation-Josh

hard, my breath hitching. "What?" I croaked. "Babe. What

I shot to my feet, my pulse a drum in my ears

on, come on, come

day, Luke's voice

"She woke up, Jess."

13:270

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Everything stopped.

around me blurred, the night sky stretching,

No. That wasn't possible.

almost breathless, like

"Babe, she woke up."

locked up, my breath coming in

couldn't get ahold of Josh, and he never signed," Luke said, voice rough. "They had no choice but to resuscitate her. The professor said a lot of things that could have happened to have her wake up, but I couldn't understand it." I felt something inside me

Laura wasn't gone.

She was alive.

didn't think. I

under my boots, and for a