FORTY-ONE
LILY
“Don’t strangle me, okay?” Elijah runs up the staircase in the bus from the first level.
His frantic body puts me on edge. Pushing away some of Stella’s work that I was grading, I give him my full attention.
“Hiding your body would be too difficult on the road, so you’re in the clear.”
His eyes widen, and he runs his hands through his hair, sending pieces everywhere. “I’m serious. You might kill me!”
“How will you know if you never tell me?” Sitting back in my seat, I send him a flirtatious smirk.
More like a little boy than a six-foot-something man, he hovers at the door in case he has to make a run for it. “Because I’m scared of you, woman.”
Pulling my work back and flipping to the page I was just at, I snap my pen open on the table. “I’ll be here, grading. Let me know when you stop being such a scaredy-cat.”
His hands rip away the work from right under me, throwing it behind him, and a gasp escapes my mouth.
“Elijah, what in the world are you doing? That’s my work!”
Just as I’m about to run and pick up the scattered papers, he rushes and puts his palm on my forehead, stopping me right in my tracks.
“Have you read the news?”
Is he testing me?
“I have not been online since my meltdown in that very bunk.” After I point over my shoulder to my bunk bed, I salute him, adding the extra dramatic effect.
His lips curve up, like he’s holding back a secret. “Good girl.”
My panties almost drop.
“I think you’re trying to kill me,” I exclaim, rising and jabbing my finger to my chest, and his eyes follow the movement.
Rocking back on his heels, he shrugs casually. “I’m just trying to prolong my life.”
“It’s not working.”
Holding my shoulders, he walks me backward until the back of my knees hit the couch, and I fall back. Crouching in front of where I now sit, still holding on to my legs, he takes a deep breath before rushing out words so fast that I almost don’t catch a single one.
“The internet seems to know about us.”
“What are you talking about?” I sit straighter with a mouth full of cotton.
He squeezes his eyes shut, wincing, as if pain overtakes his entire body. “That night we left the karaoke bar, we forgot paparazzi were even a thing because we were all over each other. There are thousands of photos of us running back to the hotel to fuck, which is very obvious in the pictures.”
I blink rapidly, watching his face scrunch up in despair, but a bunch of nothing comes to my brain. Is this my fight-or-flight reaction? Because now I know if I’m ever in a dangerous situation, I’ll freeze like a deer in headlights.
With a featherlight touch, his knuckle knocks on my temple. “Are you still there?”
“No, I’ve vanished into hell because I’m going to be living in my own version!” Rushing past him, I pace the moving bus. “What are they saying? What do we do? Is it bad?”
“Hey, hey, hey. Calm down, Sweet Cheeks.”
Elijah tries to grab me, but I wave him away, close to having a meltdown.
“This is serious! I never wanted to be in the spotlight. I’m not famous,” I stress, my stomach twisting in knots. “I’m not meant for this life, Elijah. What do we do now?”
