Page 5 of Drown in You

Ass.

Ten

Why do you want a disposable camera?

Sienna

Because it’s not about perfection or curating an aesthetic social media feed. It’s about capturing the moment, with all its beautiful imperfections.

Ten

You sure you want to be a nurse? Pretty sure poetry is your calling.

Sienna

I can have hobbies.

Ten

I thought your only hobby was reading smut.

Sienna

That’s just the main one.

Ten

How dirty is your book tonight?

Sienna

Absolutely filthy.

I grin. Sienna somehow manages to bring a smile to my face whenever I forget how to use the muscles that curl my lips up.

My phone chimes with another message.

Sienna

Why are you awake?

No one knows about the nightmares that have been plaguing me since Chloe died, not even Sienna—the memories twisted by my sleeping brain into funerals that are even more disturbing than the real one was.

Everyone around me knows what happened to Chloe, but nobody knows what happened to me after Chloe died. My brain isn’t wired right anymore. Not since I saw her body in that casket, looking like she wasn’t even dead. A sleeping beauty who merely needed a kiss to awaken.

But I’m no prince, and my kiss would never bring her back to life.

No one would understand why I still can’t shake Chloe’s death months later. She wasn’t even officially my girlfriend yet. We hadn’t gone any further than kissing. It’s the guilt that haunts me. The guilt that I could’ve done something to save her.

I tell Sienna everything, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about that night. Couldn’t stomach her thinking less of me because I didn’t protect my friend. Because I failed her.

Ten

Couldn’t sleep. You?

Sienna

Same. Normally you only text me at three in the morning when you’re drunk to tell me how much you love me.

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