Page 24 of Leave

He nodded toward the shifter.

Numbly, I did as I was told.

And then…

Then I was wrapped up in the strong arms of my stoic roommate. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t tell me to man up when my emotions started to shake me apart. He didn’t feed me any platitudes about doing the right thing. He just held me, and holy shit, I had never been more grateful for anything in my life.

When I could finally speak again, I mumbled into his shoulder, “I can’t decide if I’m surprised, or if this is exactly how I thought it would go.”

“Doesn’t matter if you’re expecting it or not.” God, his hand felt nice as he stroked over the back of my head. “Even if you’re expecting to get punched in the mouth, it still fucking hurts.”

I coughed a dry laugh as I started to draw back. “Yeah. I guess that’s true.” I swiped at my eyes. “I’m glad it’s done. But it sucks.”

He nodded. “Of course it does. They’re your parents.”

They were. And now they were gone.

I was suddenly exhausted. As if all the jetlag from crossing the Date Line had caught up to me at once, leaving my internal clock blinking 12:00 while I swayed and staggered in a zombielike daze.

Nolan peered at me with those sharp blue eyes. “Let me drive.” It wasn’t an order, but it also didn’t leave room for negotiation.

Or maybe it did, and I was just so far into this fucked up state that I couldn’t argue. Nodding numbly, I unbuckled my seat belt.

We switched sides, and I pressed back into the passenger seat. “Don’t take it personally if I fall asleep on you.”

He grunted. “Don’t worry about it.”

My eyelids had fluttered shut, but a single clear thought floated to the surface in the slurry that was my garbled thoughts. Forcing my eyes open, I asked, “Do you need me to direct you back to the hotel?”

“No.” He was thumbing something into his phone. “I put it in the GPS.”

Then he set the GPS on the dashboard in front of the tachometer, and the robotic voice told him to continue up the street.

Good enough.

I didn’t stay awake long enough to hear the next instruction.

I slept for a few hours at the hotel. I didn’t know if it really was the jetlag coming back to haunt me, or if I was just that drained from the confrontation with my family. Either way, I barely made it back to the room on my own power, and I faceplanted in bed, clothes and all.

When I was finally awake and had taken a shower to bring myself completely back to life, I texted Nolan to see what he was doing. Watching a movie, apparently; I didn’t realize I could hear the sound through the wall until it abruptly shut off.

A moment later, he was at my door, and I let him in. He regarded me curiously, concern pulling his eyebrows together. “You all right? I knocked a couple of times, but you didn’t answer.”

“I was asleep.” I scratched the back of my neck as I shut the door. “Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s fine. Just… wanted to make sure you were okay.”

I grunted and shrugged. “I don’t know if ‘okay is the word, but…”

He nodded and left it at that. I appreciated that; he always seemed to know when to leave things alone.

I sat on the couch and Nolan joined me, but he left some space. Almost the entire middle cushion.

Maybe it was because I felt a million miles away from my family right now, but the distance between Nolan and me was uncomfortable.

Hoping like hell he didn’t pull away, I slid closer, still leaving a small gap. He glanced down at the narrow strip of upholstery between his thigh and mine, then met my eyes, questions visible in his.

I exhaled. “It’s been a shit day. I probably shouldn’t be in the mood for anything, but…”

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