Page 30 of Haunt Me

“I’m just on a diet,” she says quietly, and I go feral.

“You are skin and bones,” I say through clenched teeth, and immediately I know it was the wrong thing to say. “You are beautiful,” I add quickly, because she is and I’m an idiot.

I just… I couldn’t say it to her before. It kind of hurts me to say the words to her right now, because they are so little. ‘Beautiful’. She is not beautiful, she is so gorgeous it’s unreal. I don’t think she knows just how exquisite she is. But she is definitely too thin.

“Thanks? I guess?” she purses her lips. I made her mad.

I smile. Mad is good. Mad is alive, for one thing. And for another, it’s doing a good job of erasing the image of her looking pale and lifeless on the forest floor from my mind.

“What time is it?” she asks, her eyelids suddenly drooping.

I have seen this before: she must be crashing, after going through all that. Her energy levels are dropping fast. I think she will be asleep in less than a minute.

“Just after seven,” I tell her. “Don’t even think of getting up right now.”

“I need to go home,” she says, her voice trembling a little. “I’m already so late.”

“I’ll call your dad,” I reply, “I’ll tell him that you’re here with me. That you’re safe. But you’re not going anywhere yet. If you want, I can drive you home in twenty minutes, once you’ve gotten some color back into your face.”

I expected her to get fidgety and anxious, to start climbing off the bed, but she doesn’t. She just stays put, all the blankets still on her. Dark purple shadows begin to stand out under her eyes. I can’t help myself. I fold my arms around her and push her face into my chest, and I just hold her for a second, feeling her breathe against me.

Making sure that this is what I will remember from today. This.

Her breath against the crook of my neck. The feel of her body pressed to mine. Her warmth.

“It was so dark, Eden,” I murmur against the sharp curve of her shoulder. “And I was already halfway back to campus. If I hadn’t run back to you… If I hadn’t seen you… If it was misty like yesterday… You would still be lying on that floor.”

She gently pushes me away and I realize I was crushing her. But she doesn’t move away from my arms, and I keep them there, around her shoulders.

“But you did find me,” she says.

“I did. And I saved you.” This last bit is important to remember. This is different. This is not Dad.This one was saved. This one I saved.

“Dramatic much?” she says softly.

“Excuse me?”

“People faint by themselves all the time, Isaiah,” she says dismissively. “I would have woken up eventually.”

You weren’t breathing!I want to shout at her, but I keep my mouth closed.

“I am used to it happening,” she goes on. Wait, shewhat? “Sometimes I faint by herself, and I deal with it. Dad said it was perfectly normal.”

The sudden urge to murder this man overtakes me.

“Well, your… dad is a wonderful person, I’m sure, but what he said,” I shake my head. “It’s not supported by science.”

“It’s not?”

“To put it mildly. Also, this ‘diet’ of yours should be illegal. You’re supposed to eat every few hours. In your…” I clear my throat. The rage is still boiling inside me, so hot it’s hard to speak. “In your place, I would eat every two hours. At least.”

“I can’t do that when I’m…”

“When you’re what?” She turns away and I grab her elbow. “Eden, when you’re what? Please talk to me.”

“It’s fine, I’ll figure it out.”

This feels like banging my head against a wall.

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