Page 5 of Hot Touch
Instead, I shut and locked the door behind me and made my way back to my room. After cleaning up the mess my little hurricane of a sister had left, I slipped into bed with a book. It wasn’t the one I had planned on reading. The fae kings would have to wait. I picked up a fireman romance and got comfy.
TWO
ALEJANDRA
People usually don’t regret stayingin. They usually high five themselves for doing the right thing.
They regret going out drinking too much, spending too much, doing regrettable things with strangers in dark hidden corners and paying for it with a hangover from hell for the next two days. Not that I’d ever done anything as reckless as that.
But as I woke up slowly, my head felt heavy, and I coughed. Instant regret started to prickle at the back of my neck, but I didn’t know why. My thoughts felt hazy. Slow. Like I was trying to think, but everything was murky. Clouded. My eyes opened slowly, and I tried to blink, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to see my room clearly.
That’s when I was awake enough to realize what was happening.
Freaking Liz and her bad vibes manifesting the worst!I couldn’t believe it. My room was filled with thick smoke. But too bad Liz hadn’t manifested the hot fireman!
“Shit.” I coughed as I rolled out of bed, only to lean forward and feeling around my bed to find my phone. When I found it, I hurried to turn the flashlight on. My eyes and nose burned fromthe smoke that filled the small space. I rushed toward the door and cried out when I felt just how hot it was.
Shit!” I cried out, trying to calm my breathing. Having a panic attack in that moment wouldn’t help me.Piensa, Alé! Piensa!Think. I had to think of a way out.
I looked around my small room as I lifted the thin material of my sleep shirt right over my nose.You’re supposed to cover your face in a fire, right?For some reason, that little information tidbit felt like it was lodged inside my head.
What else had we learned in school about fires?
Drop, tuck, and roll… Shit, was that for fires or earthquakes?
My head spun, and I regretted not wearing a thicker top. It felt like all the smoky air was going right through my sleep camisole. My lungs burned, and my throat felt scratchy. God only knew what I was breathing in. But to be fair, it wasn’t like I knew I’d wake up to a fire or smoke or whatever the hell this was!
Regret swirled through me, holding me in a chokehold, and tears formed in my eyes. Was this it? Was this what…how I would… Sirens filled my ears, and when red and blue flashing lights caught my eyes, it felt like a lightbulb was going off in my head. My window.
That was the only way out! If my doorknob was hot, it meant the rest of the fire or whatever was going was worse behind that door. I remembered that much. My stomach tightened.
My window was the only way to safety.
If Liz thought the building was terrible, the old metal balconies and fire escapes were ten times worse. The thought of having to climb out onto the old rickety balcony made me want to throw up. Jackie had tried to go out there once, and the thing had groaned under her slight weight so much she had hurried back in. I wasn’t sure if it could hold me, but in that very moment, what other choice did I have?
It was the only way out.
I moved through my cloudy room and towards the window, ignoring everything I bumped into. Piles of my books. Pictures.My things. There wasn’t a lot, but it was mine. Most of them thrifted. But there was no time. I couldn’t stop to pick and choose things to take with me.
Not when the priority was to simply get outside.
I undid the slight security latch and tried to push it up, but the thing always got stuck when the temps started to drop. I’d told the landlord when I’d moved in, and he said it was something to do with the old wood frame expanding and to be patient and, worst case, buy a fan.
A fan that was behind me because I never did have enough patience to try to get a breeze through my apartment.
Now, not only did I regret not going out with my sisters, my beautiful, loving in-their-own-way sisters, but I regretted not having the patience to figure out how to finesse the thing wide open.
“Please, please, please,” I murmured and coughed as I pushed the edge of the windowsill.
Again.
And again.
And again.
But nothing.
It didn’t budge. Not even a little.
