Page 63 of Wrath

But not now.

Two

Ezra

September 7, 2017

I was wrong about this place.

Fuck me.

Help me.

Please-

Three

Josh

I’m gulping water from a straw, swallowing as fast as I can. I’m so fucking thirsty. When I feel like I’ve had enough, I open my eyes and see…Ezra.

Pretty Ezra.Sort of sunburned. His eyes on mine are intense. It makes me feel confused. I look around, noticing…I’m in his room? I don’t remember falling asleep in here.

“It’s okay if you don’t remember.” His low, soft voice comes to my ears like a surprise. I realize he’s crouched beside his bed, where I’m lying on my side.

I’m in his bed. Under his covers.

Something bad happened. I turn the dread over in my mind, seeking out what it was.

“We had…an argument.” Ezra takes a breath, as if to fortify himself before he adds, “After that, you got a shower. And in there, you had a seizure.”

My spine stiffens as my sense ofwhat the fuckcollides with what you might call memory. I don’t feel surprised to hear I hada seizure, but when I try to visualize what happened, I just…can’t.

My whole head feels sore and heavy. Like there’s a black hole drilled between my eyebrows.

“Do you remember anything about it?” he asks. “Your mom said you usually don’t.”

I don’t have seizures. Anymore. I lift my eyes open again, alarmed that I can’t get my mouth to say it.

“It’s okay if you’re out of it,” he says. “I’ll be here with you. So don’t be worried.”

I open my eyes again to golden sunlight. My eyeballs throb as I glance around the room. Ezra’s room. I had a seizure. I squint at the bathroom door…look over to the bedroom door. That one’s shut. Where is he?

Then I feel the mattress shift. I cut my eyes to my left and realize Ezra’s in bed beside me. He’s on his back, like me, and he’s holding a paperback above his face.

“What are you reading?” My voice is fucking rough and raspy. I feel him startle before lowering the book to his bare chest.

“Fuck.” His lips twitch in a small smile. “You snuck up on me.”

It’s such a stupid thing for him to say. Makes me smile as I close my eyes for a second. It’s a struggle to drag them back open.

“I’m awake now.” I get a deep breath, and he climbs over my legs to the bedside table, where he picks up a glass with a straw in it.

“Water,” he says, holding it to my lips.

I smirk, and I want to take it from his hand, but my whole body feels like I swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills.

I drink some of it, realizing as I do that Ezra saw me in a seizure. That thought makes my throat feel stuck, so I stopsucking from the straw. I shut my eyes and fight the painful sting that builds behind them.

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