He hadn’t moved. While I was spiraling, he was just standing there, watching me.
“Are you all right?” I watched his mouth move and heard the question, but my lips felt oddly numb, so I just nodded instead of trying to speak.
Before I could shake myself out of this feeling, his hand gripped my elbow, steady and warm. In something of a daze, I let him guide me down the sidewalk and through a heavy wooden door.
The scent of fried food and grill smoke hit me immediately, snapping me back to the present. The faint clang of dishes, the low hum of conversation was…familiar.
Grounding.
Noah didn’t say anything as he found us a booth, and after I sat down on one side, he took the opposite seat, so he was facing me.
Silence.
He met my eyes for a second. “You all right?”
I nodded, wondering why this silence was so comfortable, until a lanky guy with his hair in a ponytail and a tie-dye T-shirt dropped two single-page menus in front of us.
“Welcome to The Rusty Pint. Name’s Bodie. Can I grab you guys a drink real quick?” He sounded super mellow, like he could sleep through a rock concert. Or like he was always just a little bit high.
“Two waters,” Noah ordered for us both while casually sliding his arms out of his coat.
Was it high-handedness or chivalry? Obviously, I didn’t even try arguing this time, still struggling to regain my footing as our waiter dude disappeared.
I stared at the menu, the words blurring together, not really seeing them.
If he didn’t think I was a nutcase before, I couldn’t blame him for thinking that now…
“Sorry about that.” My voice was little more than a whisper.
Noah leaned back against the booth, and I felt his gaze flicking over me, assessing.
“Does that happen often?”
I blinked up at him, the movement of my eyelids slow, still not quite completely unfrozen. “What?”
“Outside.” He gestured vaguely and then crossed his arms. “Your breathing changed, and you just…froze up. It wasn't the cold, though, was it?”
I winced a little, but before I could answer, our waiter rematerialized with two glasses of ice water. “Be back in a shake to take your orders.” As quickly as he’d appeared, Bodie drifted away again.
“Drink,” Noah ordered.
I narrowed my eyes jokingly, even though my insides were still shaking. “You sound like Tay.”
“You'd be surprised how many people ignore the symptoms of altitude sickness until they're sitting in an ER.”
Of course. The doctor thing.
I scrubbed a shaky hand down my face, hating that my arms felt so heavy. “I’m okay. Really.” I shook my head. “I just had…a moment.”
“A moment?”
His gaze didn’t waver, and it was unsettling, being looked at like that.
The last thing I wanted was to fall apart on this trip. I mean, I was one of the only two young people on this group, and up until a few weeks ago, I’d thought I had my shit together.
Yeah, no. Not anymore.
“It’s just a…recent thing. I’m not sick or anything.”
