Page 28 of Love Triangle
“I never hated you. I never could. Why do you think I took this job? It’s no coincidence that I came back here. As much as I wanted to be away from you, I couldn’t. Not really.” I hiss as pain shoots through me again. “Call the ambulance. Promise me you’ll protect Crystal somehow. Then we’ll…we’ll figure out where life begins after this.”
I rub my eyes to push away the darkness that keeps insisting on leaking into the corners of my vision.
“Okay. Okay, I will.” Trig calls the emergency number and gives them directions.
It’s fairly easy to tell them how to get here once they know where Crystal’s house is, but it will still be at least ten minutes for them to arrive. I just have to stay awake that long. It seems a monumental task.
“Stay with me, Cliff. Who will finish setting up the benitoite display if you don’t?” Trig wraps his arm around my shoulders and sits next to me.
“No one could do it as well as I, and you know it,” I reply. And it’s true, damn it.
“See? Stay awake.” Trig smiles
“It’s very difficult.” I find myself slurring my words a bit and begin to worry.
“Shit. Um.” Trig holds me tighter as I begin to slacken in his arm. Then he wraps his other arm around me and holds me to his chest. “Okay so how about this?”
He kisses me.
I wake the fuck up.
His arms are wrapped tightly around me, supporting me, and I can’t move my own arms to stroke his soft hair like I want to. But I can feel his face, his skin just very barely rough with the day’s stubble, against mine. His lips are warm and supple. When he lightly licks my own lips I open them for him, too stunned to return much more movement than that. He kisses me passionately regardless. He’s careful, sweet, everything I knew he’d be. If I had enough energy of my own, I’d eat him alive. For now, I accept his offering and return it in kind.
Using the only energy I have left, I lean forward until the back of his head is pressed against the pyramid. I pull my arms from Trig’s grasp and press them to the stone on either side of his face.
Then I lurch forward as the stone disappears.
Chapter Twenty-Six – Trig
Crystal has been asleep for weeks. As soon as Cliff and I both touched her in her pyramid form she poofed, right back into her regular form. Since then, she’s been unresponsive. The doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with her, she’s apparently just exhausted. I took her back to her house once the hospital released her and have been taking care of her and Plato.
Cliff had to stay in the hospital for a while because of his messed-up leg and the shock. He hasn’t wanted to see me. That hurts pretty bad. I thought things would be different after what happened between us.
Today, he calls unexpectedly and tells me to meet him at Crystal’s house. Obviously, I’m going. I even take my car to make sure I get there on time.
When I pull up, I see Cliff is waiting there with his crutches, his lower leg in a cast. He’s healed really well and really quickly so far. I swear he’s good at everything.
“Hi Cliff! How’s it going?” I wave as I exit my car.
“I’m out in the hot sun, standing on crutches. That’s how it’s going. Let’s get in already.”
What a grump. Gotta love him.
“Okey dokey!” Jogging up to the front door, I open it with the keys I snagged from Crystal before the ambulance took both of them away that night. I try to help him up the stairs but he pulls away and makes it up himself without any trouble.
When we get inside, he makes a wobbly beeline for Crystal’s room and I follow after him. I’d follow him anywhere. He stops in the doorway and looks around the room with a stern look on his handsome face.
“You kept everything tidy.”
“Yeah. I tried,” I reply nervously. I really did try.
“Good.” He hobbles over to the chair next to Crystal’s bed, unaware that I’m bursting inside with joy at his praise.
“She still hasn’t said anything?” The only time we’ve spoken has been his texts asking me if she’s said anything. He hasn’t been able to move around well enough to visit her on his own until now I guess, so he’s needed me to keep him up to date. If I asked him anything else, though, he just didn’t reply.
“Nope. She’s looking healthier, though, and she’s moving around a little more in her sleep.” She looked a little gray at first but now she’s got her lovely pink cheeks back.
“Well that’s good at least.” He watches her as she snores softly on her pink pillows, a hint of sunlight coming in through the thin curtains leaving golden strips on her skin. “I love her.”
