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Zac and Mia Excerpt (Zac & Mia) by A.J. Bett
Zac and Mia Excerpt (Zac & Mia) by A.J. Bett
betts
• • •
66 —
zac & mia
I don’t know these people and I don’t want them to die, but
they make my odds look better. I have to believe in the math.
Mum is snoring beside me for the thirty-second night in a row,
and even though she can irritate the hell out of me, I can’t let
her down. She needs me to beat this.
I read the blogs of parents with children too young to type
for themselves. I read panicked letters on forums from people
who found out too late and don’t even get the chance of chemo
or a transplant. Again I feel lucky. Then I feel guilty.
Then I see her at the bottom of my screen. She’s nothing but
a small green dot peering up at me: a glow-in-the-dark planet.
As if she’s been watching.
I’m not the only one not sleeping.
The green dot means go. Should I go? She’s been so quiet
these past two days.
But she writes first.
Mia: Helga?
Zac: it’s zac
Mia: U awake?
Zac: What do you reckon?
Mia: True.
I cant sleep.
Zac: Its the 3 am curse.
Mia: curse? What drugs u on?
Zac: just isolation. Enough to make you crazy
Mia: Helga I feel like shit.
Zac: Ur supposed to. Chemo does that.
It’s Zac . . . by the way
It gets better
— 67
a . j . betts
Mia: sure
Zac: for sure
Mia: Will u?
Like a dart, her question finds me. She has good aim.
The “d” word jumps off the screen. Everyone else here
avoids it.
Zac: No
Mia: Good.
68 —
zac & mia
— 69
a . j . betts
She must know, mustn’t she? That females her age with
osteosarcoma have an eighty percent survival rate, but hers
is above ninety because of the location. If all the cancer gets
zapped and the tumor’s cut out, it’ll be over ninety-five. Doesn’t
she realize how good ninety-five percent is?
Instead, I type:
70 —
Copyright © 2014 by A. J. Betts
www.hmhco.com
z ac
writing or teaching, she cycles, bakes, and
note, it turns into a friendship that
occasionally communes with the sea lions Friend request: Mia Phillips
surprises them both. Does Mia need
that live near her home. She lives in Perth, 0 mutual friends
zac
Zac? Does Zac need Mia? Or do they
Western Australia. It’s a name I don’t recognize, with a face I think I’ve both need each other, always?
mia
seen. I stare into the photo to be sure. She has a low-cut Told in alternating perspectives,
e
She’s asking me to be her friend and it’s caught me mid- bu y do
t th n
breath, mid-moan, mid-everything. ey ’t ha
ha v
ve e th
My finger hovers over “Confirm,” but I’m confused. ea e o
ch d
How does she know who I am? oth ds, cover petals © 2013 by w. h. chong
er.
ISBN: 978-0-544-33164-8
1583629
houghton mifflin harcourt
www.hmhco.com