Page 20 of Fighter
But I sent another wave, called goodbye to Ava, and disappeared out the door as fast as my legs would carry me. Which, admittedly wasn't fast enough to avoid the silence that remained in my wake.
6
Benjamin
My hand hovered above the hotel door, ready to knock.
Behind me, a dim street light cast shadows on the balcony where I stood. They'd given Serafina a room on the second floor, which kept her above, but not away from, the bar patrons below. Drunken shouts already drifted out on the night air, which was still cool as the sun set.
I ran a hand through my hair, then forced myself to just knock already.
Seconds later, my knuckles wrapped on the door. Too late, it occurred to me that she might be sleeping. Maybe she had just gotten the pain under control and slept and I'd just woken her—
A chain jangled, then the door opened no more than an inch. Bleary eyes looked out at me from a tear-stained face.
“Sera?”
A moment of confusion registered next before she shut the door, slid the chain free, and opened it again.
“Benjamin?”
Below, a shout surfaced from a bar patron that stumbled into the parking lot at my back. Sera reached out, grabbed my arm, and pulled me inside. When she shut the door, she immediately flipped the lock on it. I stepped back to give her some space, and she beckoned me farther inside.
The hotel room wasn't as dingy as I'd expected. All the lights were turned on, and a television ran a black-and-white show in the background so quietly I couldn't hear much of it. Her phone lay on top of the only bed's duvet. Numbers ticked across it, and a woman's voice called out.
“Serafina, honey? You still okay?”
“Yeah, Mom.” Serafina slid past me and grabbed the phone, which was clearly on speakerphone. She carefully sat on the bed. “It's Benjamin, not Talmage.”
“Hi, Benjamin!”
Startled, I managed a broken, “H-hey.”
“I'll let you go, Sera,” she said with the dripping warm tones of a mother. “Call me later?”
“Yeah. Love you, Mom.”
“Love you more.”
The phone clicked away, which left us with an awkward silence. Sera crossed her arms over her chest and gazed up at me. She wore a pair of loose sweats and a black, fitted shirt that went all the way to her wrists.
“Sorry.” I tucked my hands into the front pockets of my jeans. “I won't stay, I just . . .”
The words stuck in my throat. I wasn't good at this. I could win the award for the most nervous tongue on the planet. It didn't make any sense at all that I was here. Sera and I weren't even friends. At least, not by definition. Which, at the moment, I couldn't actually define anyway.
“Where's Ava?” she asked, saving me from myself.
She sniffled, clearly trying to clean her face off without making it obvious. Her left cheek had become more bruised in the hour or so that had passed, and the tears made the skin an angry shade of red. By morning, she'd have something of a black eye.
“I took her to Mav's. She's going to stay the night there.”
“So you could come here?”
I nodded. She softened, then scooted back and motioned to the bed next to her. First, I reached just past her, grabbed a pillow, and tucked it under my left arm, like my arm was a wing.
“Splint your injured side like this when you have to cough or take a deep breath. I've had so many fractured ribs it's not even funny. It helps.”
She blinked. “Oh. Thanks.”
