Page 50 of Wish

Last night in the bathroom.Nothing about you will ever disgust me.

He was a liar. He lied. Lied right to my face. And I believed him. I lay over there in that bed soaking up every scrap of sympathy he offered.

“Wes.” His worried voice filled my ears, and my skin sang when his forearm slid along my back to curve around my waist.

Gasping, I jolted back and stumbled a little before righting myself. He reached for me again, and I held out one of the crutches like I could ward him off. “Don’t touch me.”

Something flickered in his bottomless stare, something that twisted in my gut like a knife, but I turned away from it. I couldn’t care about that right now. About him.

Turning my head, I stared into the bathroom, recalling last night, recalling just moments ago.

Embarrassment burned in the base of my spine, spreading upward, lighting me on fire until I felt my cheeks sting. He acted like nothing happened. He came to the hospital and made me…feel.Stirred up that stupid hope until I was nothing but a body of muddy water that couldn’t see anything at all.

And I let him. After he’d had to drown out those minutes with me buried in a strange woman’s body in the bathroom of a greasy diner.

A strangled sound tried to claw its way out of my throat, but I denied it, letting it rip me up inside instead.

“Bro, you good?” Ryan asked.

“Is it something I said?” Veronica worried, the handle of the bag she held crinkling a bit under her grip.

I did my best to smile, hoping it didn’t look too much like a grimace. “No. I just, ah… remembered some stuff from last night,” I said. Ignoring the way Max shifted a few feet away, I reached up to tap the side of my head. “Hit my head, lost a couple memories. But you helped me get them back.”

Veronica’s blue eyes widened. “Really?”

I smiled. “Yeah.”

“You must be in a lot of pain,” she said, moving across the room, cutting the space between me and Max to stand right in front of me.

I was taller than her, so I glanced down.

“What’s in that bag there?” I asked, gesturing with my chin. In truth, the last thing I wanted was food, but I’d be damned if I stood here and embarrassed myself any more. I’d done enough of that.

He just let me cling to him. Let me sleep in his lap. He must pity me. He probably wishes Win was here.

“Waffles. Eggs. Bacon. All the stuff you usually order.”

“Thanks for thinking of me,” I told her.

“I always think of you,” she whispered.

“We should go. You need to lie down,” Max said, his voice ominous.

“You can go.” I flicked a brief glance at him. “I’ll catch a ride with Ryan back to the dorms.”

Max made a rude sound. “You aren’t staying at your dorm.”

“Yes, I am. I live there.”

“No,” Max said like it was taking everything in him to be patient.

Spoiler alert: Dude was about to bust a vein.

Shame.

“You do not live in that fucking dorm. You know where your home is.”

“I can’t go home. It’s too far of a drive from campus every day.”

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