Page 12 of Fall for Me

Chelsea

Eli leaped off the ground, his jaw hanging open. “Chelsea, what the hell?” He strode over to me, anger etched on his face. “They couldn’t have discharged you already.”

I ignored his words, focused only on taking in the scene—and trying to ignore the pain ripping through my body. It was clear exactly what had happened.

And it was exactly what I’d hoped to circumvent. Eli had stormed over here after seeing my messed-up face and knocked his best friend out.

But I was too late.

Heat burned in my chest, so hot and flame-filled I could barely see straight. I hung onto that anger—it was a rock in my flailing pain. Something to grasp onto. I pointed my finger at my stupid, hothead brother, poking a finger in his chest. “What the hell are you doing, Eli? Why is Seamus bleeding?”

Seamus stood up, looking chagrinned. Like this was somehow his fault, and not my brother’s.

“It’s fine,” he said. His voice reminded me of rolling gravel. I wondered, absurdly, if it always sounded like this. I’d only ever heard him say a few words here and there. Would that low thrum be sustained through a whole conversation?

Then I registered what he’d said.

And I turned my anger on him. I strode toward him, trying not to wince at the pain shooting up my leg from the wound on the edge of my foot.

I stopped only a few feet away from him, my nerve slipping as I had to adjust the angle of my face upward to meet his eyes. “It’s not fine, Seamus. You can’t just let Eli blow his top at you.”

“Chels, I apologized,” Eli said behind me.

I whirled on him, this time unable to stop the grimace as a jab of pain shot through my skull.

“I shouldn’t have hit him,” he said.

I was surprised by this. But not as surprised as I was at the words that came spilling out of me next. “You’re right, you shouldn’t have hit him. But you know what else your little outburst told me?”

Eli frowned as if confused.

My throat burned with the truth of it—the pain under my anger. “It told me you’re so devastated about the way I look that you’re willing to throw blame to whoever will take it.”

His eyes went wide. “Chelsea, God, I didn’t… that wasn’t why. I was upset about the crash. About you being in danger.”

“So why didn’t you come over here earlier, huh? Or when Seamus was in the hospital?”

Seamus looked away, sliding his hand across his chest and over the back of his neck. The move threw me back to the hospital, when I’d seen him do that and known it was him.

Did he have something to say? Or had he said something similar to Eli already? The thought that he might have quieted me for a moment.

But only for a moment.

Eli had come over to me and taken my hand. “Chelsea, I was just pissed, okay?”

I shook my head. “You only got this upset when you saw how hideous I am,” I said quietly.

Seamus stiffened.

Eli looked pained. “Chelsea, don’t,” he whispered.

But he was looking up, to the sky. He wouldn’t look me in the eye.

Heat burned in my chest.

“Okay, dudes,” Jude said. I’d forgotten he was there. He was right behind me, light on his stupid tennis-star feet. When I looked at him, I could see the sadness in his eyes. “Everyone just needs to chill out.” He looked at Eli. “Chelsea doesn’t need any of your macho protective bullshit.”

“It’s not macho bullshit,” Eli said, gritting his teeth at Jude. He was happy to turn his feelings on Jude. Those two had a way of getting at each other’s throats.

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