The phone is just out of reach.
Just a few more inches.
I can’t breathe.
It feels like there’s a fist around my heart, squeezing until I swear it’s going to tear into two. I try to scream, but no sound comes out. My arms shake as I reach forward again, draggingmy body toward the counter. My vision tunnels, the edges going black and blurry.
I think of Cam. Of Leo. Of Mia. Of Frankie, who pretends he doesn’t care but still texts me dumb memes at midnight. Of Liv and Sophia, who dragged me out of the house just to make me laugh.
Of my mom.
God, Mom.
I don’t want to go.
I don’t want this to be the end.
I was just starting to feel like I could live again, like I could want things. That maybe I wasn’t so broken.
Alex.
His name hits me like a whisper in the chaos.
He should be here.
He should’ve stayed.
Tears spill from my eyes, hot and silent, as I crumple against the cold tile floor of the kitchen.
I wonder if he’ll find out. If someone will call him. If he’ll care. If he’ll be sorry he left me alone.
Everything goes numb. The pain dulls, swallowed by darkness creeping in around me.
I try to hold on, to stay awake, but the cold spreads.
The last thing I see is the light above the stove.
The last thing I feel is nothing at all.
21
ALEX
Emma is still asleep when I wake up, her body curled against mine like she belongs there.
Her face is peaceful in a way I rarely see. It’s soft and relaxed, her lips parted slightly as she breathes steadily. Her hair is a mess, fanned across my arm and tangled from sleep. I swear, I’ve never seen her more beautiful than at this moment.
I don’t do anything but watch her.
The morning sun barely peeks in through the blinds, casting soft golden stripes across her bare shoulder. I still remember how her skin felt under my palms, how she whispered my name in that broken, breathless way that damn near undid me every time. I think about how she looked up at me, like I was the only person in the world who had ever made her feel like that, made her feel alive, like she ismine.
I swallow hard, then exhale slowly.
Fuck.
These past couple days have changed everything, or, at least I want to believe they did.
I’ve wanted her for so long and now that I’ve had her—touched her, felt her, made her fall apart for me—I know I can’t lose her again.
