MIKAELA GASPS AND LEAPS TO her feet. “What happened?” she asks.
“Did the alien…,” says John Henry Knox, “… hurt you?”
I’ve got some questions too, but my heart’s beating too erratically and my throat’s too tight to possibly get a word out, much less a whole string of them. All I know is that I shouldn’t have ever let Dan get on that spaceship. I should’ve stopped him. I should’ve protected him. What kind of best friend am I?
Dan looks at us for a moment, his face as serious as it’s ever been.
Then he bursts out laughing.
I share a confused look with Mikaela and John Henry Knox.
“I’m fine,” Dan says once he stops laughing. Then he hooks a thumb over his shoulder. “I tripped on the stairs out front and banged my shin.”
Air comes rushing out of my lungs.
I guess I’d been holding my breath.
“Bem would never hurt me,” Dan tells us.
“Bem?” asks John Henry Knox.
“That’s his name?” Mikaela says.
Dan doesn’t answer. Instead he waves me over to his side and throws an arm around my shoulders when I get there.
“I need something to eat,” he says as I help him over to the table. “Also, like, ten thousand gallons of water. I’ve got a lot to tell you.”