Page 49 of The Edge of Never

Our best bet was to stay put and wait out the weather until things improved, then make a plan for what we would do next. I couldn’t walk yet anyway, so we weren’t getting anywhere fast. And as Kit said, they weren’t going to leave me here alone.

I was still wrapping my head around their determination to keep me safe. Was I mistaken in their dislike for me? I hadn’t exactly been great company, nor had I given them any reason to be kind to me. And yet they were. I mean, fuck, they’d held me when I told them I didn’t want to die. They didn’t need to comfort me, but Kit had. They fucking had, and it made me… grateful. I wasn’t used to having someone be there for me after two years alone without Jenna. That it was a stranger doing it was even more surprising.

“You know, I’m not that upset about being stuck here on my birthday.”

Kit’s voice filled the tent, bringing me out of my thoughts.

“I’m not big on the whole celebrating another turn around the sun thing. Maybe it’s because I don’t like being the centre of attention. I just don’t get what the big deal is. Like sure, I came on this trip, but that was my gift to myself. I don’t care about gifts from other people or having a party to be like look at me, I’m thirty. And now I’m rambling…”

“Ye can ramble if ye want.”

They blinked, looking up at me with a shy smile.

“Oh yeah? You like hearing about my weird view of the world?”

“It’s no weird.”

Kit’s eyebrows shot up.

“My friend said it is. Kind of made me feel bad for seeing things differently.”

Whatever made me reach out and cup their shoulder with my hand, I didn’t know. Their body heat seeped into my palm. And I couldn’t pull away.

“Cannae be a guid friend if they’re making ye feel bad aboot yerself.”

Kit stared at my hand.

“No, I guess not.”

Their voice shook on the words.

I squeezed their shoulder. I hadn’t been singing Kit’s praises to their face. In fact, I’d been downright disdainful. However, they still deserved people who supported them, not someone who would put them down for being a wee bit different. Everyone did.

“They’re not a good friend at all,” they whispered a moment later.

“Are they why ye’re here?”

The way Kit shuddered at my words made me wish I hadn’t said them. Hadn’t asked. So much for not wanting to ruin Kit’s birthday. Then again, they had just told me they didn’t really celebrate it.

Their eyes closed and their nose did that wrinkling thing I liked so much.

“I wouldn’t have pegged you as the perceptive type.”

“Hard no tae notice ye dinnae like talking aboot yer friend.”

Kit let out a puff of air.

“Neither would you if she’d thrown twenty-five years back in your face like it meant nothing to her.”

My fingers tightened around them again.

“What did she dae tae ye?”

Kit opened their eyes and scoffed.

“What didn’t she do.”

They rubbed their face with one hand.

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