19 Chapter 19

Ah geez. “Look, stop by the gym one day and I’ll figure out how you can make it up to me, if that’ll make you feel better.”

His voice trembled slightly when he said, “Okay.”

“Wheeler,” another voice whispered in my ear. “Are you all right?”

Of course I’m not all right, my snarky inner voice said. I opened my eyes this time and looked into the lovely brown peepers of Gregory Wang. “Everything hurts,” I replied, “but I’m pretty sure nothing’s broken. I’ll just be really sore for a few days.”

I sat up slowly with Gregory’s help, and the crowd gave us a little more room. The cops had also turned up, and were taking charge of traffic. Gregory’s touch on my body made me want to pretend to be hurt worse than I was—would a limp be too much?—but that would be over the top. Right? “Is the kid okay?” I asked, looking around to see if I could spot him.