Page 83 of A Lab Rat's Guide to Fated Love
Dragging her floor-cushion a little further back, Nori leaned against the couch to now watch the brothers bicker over movie selection, her eyelids growing heavier by the second. It didn’t matter what they were going to watch. She was going to pass out within the first few minutes, anyway.
“Adi, we need to go.” Anita reappeared a moment later, visibly distressed. “Maddy had an accident. Lana just called from the emergency room. She’s pretty shaken up.”
Adi swore under his breath, lurching to his feet. “No, you stay.” He waved a hand towards Vir as he started getting up, too.
“Besides…” Anita threw a concerned glance at Nori when she rose and immediately began swaying on her feet. “She really needs some sleep.”
Nori opened her mouth to protest, but her words turned into a yawn instead.
After the two drove off, she helped Vir wrap the snacks and put them in the fridge before retiring for the night.
As she crawled into bed, she waited for him to pull her into his arms like always. But he just lay there, staring at her quietly.
“Nori…” he said after a while, his dark eyes full of concern.
“Hmm?”
“Did something happen earlier?”
She thought back to the afternoon’s events. “Anita did a card reading for me,” she said. “It was just supposed to be for fun, but I… I grew so inconsolably sad. I’ve never felt that way before. At least I don’t think I have.”
“It felt like you were—”
“—grieving,” she finished his sentence. “Yes. But I still don’t understand what happened.”
“What do you need?” Vir asked, placing his palm against her cheek. He gently stroked it with his thumb before his hand moved up to smooth her hair. “How can I help make you feel better?”
“You already did.” She leaned into his touch, and her eyes fell closed.
Vir sighed. “Come here.”
He pulled her into the cocoon of his arms, and any remaining tension melted off her almost instantly.
“I love you,” he whispered against her temple.
I love you.She wanted to tell him, too. She wanted to tell him a hundred times over. But the words wouldn’t form.
Because she was elsewhere, drifting, floating through a dense white fog. Her toes dipped into the water below. Water that wasn’t wet. And it made perfect sense that the water wasn’t wet, because she was dreaming, clearly.
But even in her dream, Nori’s fingers stretched out in front of her, searching. She was afraid she was going to lose him again. She had to protect him. She’d promised. But how was she supposed to do that if she couldn’t even find him?
She called his name, but there was no sound.
A hand brushed against her outstretched one, before soft, slender fingers wove themselves through hers. Warm grass tickled her feet right before they met solid ground, and his face slowly came into view as the fog lifted.
It was him, standing with her in a meadow full of bluebells as far as she could see. He’d found her.
Hehad foundher.
“You found me,” she whispered.
He smiled in her direction. “I’m sorry it took so long.” His hands reached for her face.
“I’ve missed you.”
“Not more than I’ve missed you.” He kept staring straight ahead, while his fingertips grazed her features, as if memorizing all the dips and contours.
Why won’t he look at me?
