Page 42 of Meet Me at the Metro

“Oh, shit balls!”I hear Nora curse as the tumble of books and jewelry falling onto the hardwood floor sounds through the wall.

“Nora?” I call out to her, knocking against the wood standing between us. “You okay? You dressed?”

“Y-yeah, I’m dressed,” she calls back. “You can c-come in.”

As I open the door, Nora slumps against the edge of the mattress again, kicking—with her good foot—the remnants of the clumsy mess she’s made underneath her bed. An oversized t-shirt hangs against her body, barely covering the tops of her bare thighs. I do my absolute best to tear my eyes away from the tempting sight, pretending that the image of her soft skin isn’t making my mouth go dry right now. Her fingers weave through her wet hair as she gathers the brown strands together in a messy bun at the top of her head.

And just like this, how she is now, she looks so fucking pret—

I hand over the glass of water and pills to her before I allow myself to finish that thought. I crouch in front of her, examining her foot further in the golden light of her bedroom.

“Shit, Nora, this thing is swollen almost the size of a croquet ball.” I gently press the ice pack over the joint of her ankle, which immediately has her flinching in pain. She pulls her foot out of my grasp. “If you don’t get some ice on it, it will only get worse.”

“It’ll be fine. I’m sure it’s just swollen from the impact.” Her eyes meet mine, and for a second, I swear she’s about to say something else, but she just continues to stay quiet.

“Just keep an eye on it, will you? If the swelling doesn’t end up going down, you probably need to go get it checked out.”

“What the hell is this, Theo?”

“Huh?”The question catches me off guard. “What do you mean?”

“Why are you here right now? Why did you take me home tonight? Why are you goingout of your wayto care for me like this?”

“Because you got hurt,” I answer with a furrowed brow. “I wanted to help.”

“You don’t make any sense,” she tells me, shaking her head.

“I don’t make any sense?”

“No,” she huffs with vexation, her eyes pinned to the floor to avoid mine. “You don’t.”

“Nora, I’m sorry, but I seriously don’t know what the hell you’re on about.”

“I’m talking about the way you’re acting right now.Acting like you care. It doesn’t make sense. You’ve been an ass to me since the first day I met you, but then you’ll have these moments in between—like right now—where you’re a little less of an ass, and it’s confusing me.”

“I wasn’t about to let you fucking bleed out atGullie’s. You needed to get home and wash up.”

“Evie and Harvey could have taken me home tonight, Theo.”

“Evie was drinking with you, and Harvey was working.”

“Youwere working.”

“What do you want me to say? I just wanted to make sure you made it home safe.”

“Even though the last time I saw you, you were completely cold with me?” She locks her stare on me again and my pulse is suddenly beating faster. I’m not entirely sure if it’s those blue eyes of hers or the turn of the conversation that suddenly has my heart racing.“You didn’t seem to care so much about me then.”

“This conversation is silly,” I scoff. “You’re tired.”

“You know what? I am tired. I amso tiredof this bullshit going on between the two of us. This little game you keep playing with me is exhausting. You keep messing with my head—”

“Messing with your head? Is that what you think I’m doing?”

“It’s exactly what I think you’re doing! Sometimes it’s seemed like you’ve gone out of your way to hang out with me, just to get pissy with me by the end of the night and practically tell me to fuck off.”

“I’ve never told you to fuck off,” I wince, feeling ashamed that I’ve ever given off that harsh of an impression.

“Maybe not those exact words, but you get the point, Theo,” she sighs. “I just wish you’d make up your mind on how you want to treat me. Are you going to keep acting like I’m an inconvenience to you, or will you keep acting like you care?”

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