“If it wasn’t true?” I finished.

“No, if —”

“Listen, Eric. You were right. Is that what you want to hear? Because you were. He’s up there right now about to give some other girl a private tutorial and I’m pretty sure that involves getting in his Jetta tonight or finding some hot tub, and I’m the fool, once again. So there! You were right. I was wrong. Are you happy now?”

His mouth was hanging open a little. “No. No, I’m not happy,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make you feel —”

But there was no time for him to finish. We were already at the top of the slope. We both lifted our skis and let go, coasting forward and then plowing to a stop, right next to the signs for the different trails.

I turned toward Devil’s Canyon. I knew it was supposed to be one of the hardest trails, but I didn’t care. I needed some speed. Some wind in my face. I needed to get away. Eric grabbed my arm.

“Wait, Sam. Hey, I’m really sorry that happened to you. I didn’t tell you about Drew because I wanted you to — just, I’m sorry he did that to you.”

“Well, don’t worry about it. It’s over now,” I said, and without waiting a breath, I shoved off as hard as I could. I was flying, pulling through turns, hopping over dips, careening down the mountainside, bending my knees low and pushing into the wind.

I screamed. I bellowed. I didn’t care who heard me. I didn’t care what anybody thought of me. I was free! I was going to forget the whole world and I was going to conquer this slope. I tore through the snow, slipping and dipping and sliding and racing. Snaking through a patch of trees, swerving around a small hill, and then a mound of powdery-looking snow.

“Saaaam! Hold on!” I heard Eric calling behind me, but I ignored him. I didn’t need him. I didn’t need him or Drew or anyone. All I needed was me and the sky. I lifted both poles high in the air and stood up tall. I wanted to feel every inch of my body touch the air.

“Yoweeeeeeee!” I yelled.

And then something shifted. The ground was coming toward me. The trees were leaning sideways and my skis were going forward but the rest of my body wasn’t catching up to them. I tried to plow to a stop but my left leg was sliding out and my right one was going in the opposite direction, and then the next thing I knew I was slipping backward. The trees came toward me, the sky came toward me, the yellow yolk of sun was falling on me, and then I hit earth. Hard. I felt my teeth knock together and all the air escape from my chest and then everything went dark.

“Sam! Sam! Can you hear me?”

I opened my eyes, and the sky was green. A deep jade with little flecks of yellow. No, wait. A thin nose poked out in between. It was …?

“Hey,” Eric said softly. His ears were bright red from the cold.

“Your ears are cold,” I heard myself saying, and he started to laugh. His eyes were still wide and worried, though.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“I’m gonna call ski patrol,” he said.

“No, no! Please don’t.” I didn’t feel like getting poked and prodded by those guys in bright orange snowsuits I had seen flying by. I could wiggle all my fingers and toes. Nothing felt broken. I just needed time to lie there for a minute or two.

“Does anything hurt?”

“I don’t think so. Just my head.” My tongue was thick and fuzzy. It felt like someone was squeezing my brain.

“What about if I just —”

“Whoa!” said Drew, flying in next to me, his skis shaving off snow right into my face. “That was a doozy, huh?”

“I’m okay.” I wasn’t quite sure of that, but I really wanted him to go away.

Drew looked me up and down. “Well, let me see,” he said.

“I was gonna call the ski patrol …” Eric started.

Drew ignored him. “Does this hurt?” he said, taking one of my legs and giving it a little shake. I couldn’t look at him. It was too weird having him touch me like this. I remembered how gentle his hands were before. Now I felt like a head of iceberg lettuce in the produce aisle.

“Sam?” Drew said.

“No, it’s fine,” I said.

“This?” He shook the other.

“Nope.”

“Uh, okay, how many fingers am I holding up?” He put up three. This was ridiculous.

“You don’t have to do this,” I said, rolling my eyes. Ow, that hurt.

“Okay, well then, can you get up? Because we really should get out of the middle of the trail.”

“Yeah, okay. Fine.” Anything to get him out of here.

He started pulling me up by the arm. I tried to follow, but it felt like my legs were made of lead. I couldn’t get my feet to plant themselves. The ground started tilting back and forth, and everything turned bright pink. My stomach lurched forward and my head felt like it was on backward, and before I knew it, I was crumpling down to my knees, and my lunch was coming out all over the snow.

“Ew! Nasty!” said Drew, backing away.

“All right, just give her a sec,” came another voice. The pink slowly started separating, the trees were turning green again, the snow, white. And now I felt someone gently easing me back down to the ground.

“Thanks,” I whispered.

“Sure,” said Eric. “You want to just sit here for a bit?”

It was too late. The orange men were here.

“Hey, how’s it going? You take a spill?”

“What hurts?”

“Anything hurt?”

“You know what year it is?”

“Who’s the president?”

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

The two of them talked so fast over each other that I felt dizzier than before.

“That’s okay, really, I’m fine,” I said, when they both paused for a breath.

“Okay.”

“All right.”

“You sure?”

“She said she was fine.”

“All right. But if you need anything, just give a holler.” And they sped off.

Whew. Now all I needed was for Drew and Eric to follow them.

“Hey, guys? Thanks for stopping by, but really, I think I’m okay,” I said.

“You sure?” said Drew, still staring at the spot where I had thrown up in the snow.

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Feel better!” I heard him call before he took off. Jerk.

Eric squatted back down next to me.

“Sorry, I know I’m not your favorite person, but I’m not leaving so fast,” he said.

“Really, I’m fine.”

“I promise I’ll leave you alone once we get down the mountain, but first let’s just stay here for a little bit, okay?”

I didn’t really have the energy to argue. Plus I wasn’t quite sure what would come out of my mouth if I opened it again.

So we sat. The cool air felt good now. I was mostly just spacing out, trying to make the trees calm down and stand straight. A couple of times I heard the whoosh and whir of skis coming down the slope behind us, but Eric always stood up and waved his hands, directing people out of the way before they got near us. I guess most of the people who tried Devil’s Canyon were more experienced skiers.

I don’t know how long we were there, but at some point I realized that my butt was getting really soggy and cold.

“Hey, I think I’m ready to get going,” I said.

“You sure?” asked Eric.

“Yup. Yeah.”

“Okay, well, we could either call to get you a stretcher, or we can walk down the rest of the way,” he said.

I shuddered. Stretchers terrify me.

“It’s not that far from here, but I don’t know how steady you feel.”

“I’ll walk,” I said.

“Okay, let’s just take it slow.” He wrapped one arm around my shoulders and rested the other on my waist, pulling me up slowly, carefully.

“Is that okay?” he said quietly.

“Yeah.” I really meant to say, “No, thanks,” but at that moment I was so grateful to have him there. He was strong, too.