Page 25 of For Three Seconds

I turned to the front to see if my mother was still trying to talk to me. In my dreams, she always begged me to get out of the car.

“Open your eyes, baby. Please!”

The plea sounded far away, yet it was right there in my essence into everything that I was. My lungs burned as if I had fire in them.

One second.

My eyes opened, and Gavin was in front of me. He was wet, treading water, and he was holding on to my body.

Two seconds.

His lips were on me, and he was breathing life into me.

Three seconds.

I started to cough the water I had swallowed.

“What the fuck were you doing?” he whispered against my forehead as he held me close to him.

I could hear the pain in his voice; it matched the pain inside my heart.

“I just wanted it to stop.” My words were below a whisper, but he heard them because his body became still. I was growing sleepy, my eyes closing again. “For three seconds at a time, you’ve made me forget.”

* * *

I wokeup in a dark room. I sat up on the bed I was lying in, gasping for air. My drunkenness was gone, but I remembered the taste of lake water as it suffocated me. My hair was still wet. My dress was nowhere in sight, not that I could see much since it was dark. I was wearing a white T-shirt and nothing more. The clock on the side table read almost three in the morning.

The blinds to the windows were closed, so I opened them to see outside. There were a few people gathered around the bonfire. Dylan was not among them, nor Audrey, but I saw Gavin at the exact same moment he looked up. I let go of the blinds and leaned back against the window. The night’s events started to catch up to me. I was walking, trying to get out of the room, about to leave and go home when the door opened.

Gavin stood there, the light casting a dark shadow over him, and instead of being scared, I found him beautiful. He was so handsome, and he made me feel. I always seemed to forget the feelings he evoked. He walked in and closed the door behind him. I wanted to open my mouth and tell him to leave, but for once, I didn’t want to be alone, even if that meant I would be alone with him.

“Why did you do it?” His voice sounded pained. He brought his hand up and took a sip of the vodka bottle he carried.

“Look, thank you for helping me, but you should go,” I said, trying to sidestep him.

“Helping you?” he gritted out as he stepped closer to me.

I found myself moving to the other side.

“I fucking saved you, Scar.” His chest was rising and falling, and even through the darkness, I could see his eyes glaring at me. “Everyone was too busy partying to notice you were busy dy—”

“I’m here. I’m fine,” I spat.

Gavin let a humorless laugh escape his lips. Somehow, he was now in front of me, and I kept backing up.

“Baby, you aren’t fine. No one seems to see that except for me, and you don’t let me in.”

I looked at the floor because I couldn’t look at him.

“Gigi.” I barely said her name when he cut me off.

“What about her? She never made me feel the way you do. We’re over.”

My breath hitched. I looked at him to see if he was telling the truth or if he was lying, but I think I was past caring.

“I want everything, Scar. I want to consume you inside and out like you have done to me all these years.” He pressed me against the wall, his breath mixed with nicotine and alcohol.

The tuxedo was long gone; he only had a black shirt on, the sleeves rolled up, and the top button was undone. His hair was a little messy, probably from jumping in the lake earlier.

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