“What happened to the guy? Did he press charges against James for assault?” Will slowly leaned his head back.
I grazed his shoulder with my fingertips. My touch was as light as a feather, trying to caress his fragility.
“No, June.”
“Why not? It seems so absurd that . . . he ended up in the hospital, didn’t he?”
“Yeah.”
“And is that how it ended?”
“No. That’s how it all started.”
I shivered.
There was a long silence, but I could hear the sound of his thoughts.
“I can’t imagine how you must feel. I’ve never witnessed an assault, and—”
“It’s like my brain erased that moment. There was blood on the ground. James was holding that metal thing, and his fingers were dirty with blood.”
Another wave of chills went down my spine.
“Did he mean to kill him?”
I said it quietly, but I was still shocked by my question, which was at this point more than legitimate.
“I think so. And if he’d done it—” I saw him purse his trembling lips, as if to trap a small tear marking his face.
“Will, it’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything. You only witnessed it. Right?”
I brushed my thumb against his cheekbone to wipe away a tear.
A sudden thud startled me.
“Oh, sorry!”
Tiffany interrupted, holding a bottle, a tanned girl clinging to her body. They were leaning against the door making out, completely uninterested in what was going on around them.
I got up from the bed furiously.
“Out!”
“Stay calm, sweetheart.” She smiled at me, glanced from me to Will, then drifted back to me.
I pulled back when she tried to graze her fingers against my hair. She kept giggling with the other girl, then they left.
“Everyone’s having fun and I’m making you stay here,” complained William, whispering.
“No, don’t say that. Besides, you call that fun?” I pointed at the door.
“I wanna stay here with you,” he said, shooting me a dull smile. “Because I would go down too. I mean, I’d like to, it’s just that I always avoid that part of the house.”
“Take your time. Why should you want to go down there?”
“The last time that I got close to a pool was at Poppy’s when I talked to you. I was so wrapped up in apologizing that I completely forgot everything.”
“Yeah, but Will, you shouldn’t force yourself to—”
