You'll Thank Me for This by Nina Siegal (top novels txt) 📗

rounded a bend in the path, but when they got there, there was no sign of either of them. Lotte was panting pretty hard just from that sprint—she was kind of overweight and didn’t do any sports—but they nodded at each other and kept running. Dirk and Margot had to be here somewhere. Karin thought maybe they’d somehow found a hiding place in the grass, but it was hard to imagine where.

After a while, they came to a large downed tree that was so dried out that it was the color of silver and looked like a kind of driftwood statue. They slowed, then stopped for a minute to catch their breath. “Huh,” said Lotte. “This is so weird.”

Just then, Dirk came screaming out of the bushes, lunging at their feet and toppling Lotte. Margot stepped out a couple of seconds later and stood pointing and laughing. “Ha, he got you! He really got you!”

Karin wanted to laugh so that she wouldn’t seem totally stiff, but she couldn’t make herself do it. That was just mean to Lotte, and mean wasn’t her kind of funny.

It took them all a minute to realize that Lotte, who was lying flat on her back on the sand, also wasn’t laughing, and wasn’t getting up. In fact, she seemed like she was having trouble breathing. She took tiny sips of air into her lungs, like she was winding up to cry. Her eyes, now directed at Karin, were wide and teary, but she wasn’t crying, she was stuck on the ground, kind of…choking.

“Aw, don’t be like that,” Dirk said, walking off, like he’d had nothing to do with it. “I didn’t hit you that hard. You’re exaggerating.”

“What’s happening?” said Margot. “Is she kidding?”

Karin knelt down over Lotte as the girl’s eyes, behind her glasses, started to look even more frantic. Karin put a hand on Lotte’s shoulder and put her face close to Lotte’s mouth to listen to her breathe.

“You knocked the wind out of her,” Karin said. “She can’t breathe.”

“Come on!” said Dirk, like Karin was making it up just to bother him. “I was playing around.”

Karin reserved the look of disdain she really wanted to shoot at him and instead sat down on the sand next to Lotte. “You’re okay,” she said gently, “but you’ve got to get breathing again. Here, let me help you sit up.” She dug a hand under Lotte’s back and pulled her up into a seated position, while Margot just gawped and Dirk literally walked off into the dunes, cursing. “You’ve got to try to take a few deeper breaths, maybe holding the air deep in your lungs.” Karin had learned all this playing hockey. She’d been on a team for a few years when she was younger, until her father died. She’d seen a bunch of girls lose their breath this way, and it had happened to her once too, so she knew how scary it could feel, and she was afraid for Lotte.

Lotte tried heaving her chest up, but that didn’t work. “Slower,” said Karin, and Lotte gazed at her like she was a life raft. She breathed slower, taking a sip of air this time. Then another. “Good,” said Karin. “Slow like that.” Little by little, Lotte got back to breathing normally. She was pretty upset, though. When she finally was ready to stand up, Karin gave her a hand and Margot came rushing over to try to help too, but it was too late. “Don’t come near me,” said Lotte, kind of croaking it out. “Your stupid boyfriend is a dick.” There, thought Karin, she’d said it.

Margot stepped backward, as if pushed. “Um, he’s not my boyfriend. And anyway, it’s not his fault you fell down.”

“What??” said Lotte, looking to Karin for confirmation.

Margot was a gymnast in school. Karin knew she did competitions and everything. During Scouts she was always doing cartwheels and handstands and sometimes even splits, out of nowhere. She showed off her perfect stomach with crop tops and low-rider jeans. They always had way too many rips, all the way from the top to the knees—the kind of pants Karin’s mom would never let her wear. If Karin was going to take bets, she was sure Margot could easily take Lotte, if it came to a girl fight. She really didn’t want that to happen.

“You’re the dick,” Margot said, but only kind of half committed to saying it.

Lotte blinked in a really obvious way and cocked her head to one side. “Um, not possible?” She pressed her glasses, which had been all tilted, back onto her nose.

“I don’t even believe you couldn’t breathe,” Margot added for no reason. “You were totally faking it.”

Lotte kind of coughed, and not even on purpose, just because she was still trying to get her breathing back on track. It was so obvious she wasn’t faking, thought Karin, it didn’t even make sense for Margot to be this mean.

“Uh, yeah…” said Lotte, turning her back on Margot. Karin was proud of her for doing that.

It was turning into two against two, which really wasn’t cool, Karin knew. It would take forever to get to the campsite if they were constantly fighting like this. Karin didn’t want to act like she was the schoolteacher in the group; she just wanted everyone to get back to the point. The trail, the trip, the campsite.

The three girls stood there for a minute and it was pretty tense. Karin had a lot she wanted to say, but she held it in. They all looked at one another, and for a split second Karin thought they were all going to start laughing.

Then there was this crazy howling noise coming from up the hill, and they all looked up to see Dirk kind of leaping into the air above them. He had a huge silver branch of that downed tree, which he was wielding above his head with both hands.

“I’m a samurai!” he cried, making a whooping noise as he swung