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-

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

barely suppressing the sob clawing its

She was gone.

Laura was gone.

voice cut through the silence again,

to

hitching. "What?" I croaked. "Babe. What

my pulse a drum in my ears as I climbed higher up the

on, come

day, Luke's voice finally

"She woke up, Jess."

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Everything stopped.

me blurred, the night sky stretching, spinning, folding

No. That wasn't possible.

talking, his words almost breathless, like even he couldn't believe what he was

"Babe, she woke up."

breath coming in short,

voice rough. "They had no choice but to resuscitate her. The professor said a

Laura wasn't gone.

She was alive.

think.

feet barely touched the ground as I bolted down the hill, gravity pulling me faster than I could control. Rocks and dirt slipped under my boots, and for a second, I was sure I was going