I swallowed.
Nothing else mattered right now apart from getting relief.
“Are you taking drugs in here right now?” Rafael spluttered, grabbing me by the shoulder and swinging me around to face him. I moaned under my breath, just slightly; the pain in the motion of my arm was offset now by the rapidly growing relief of the pills taking root in my system.
“I’m not taking drugs,” I said. “They’re painkillers.”
Rafael stared at me. His eyes were wide behind his glasses, his expression almost blank with how amazed he was. “You’re… you’re poppingpainkillerslike candy? Is that supposed to be better than if they were a different kind of drug?”
“It’s just a painkiller,” I sighed. I was exhausted, the pain had been so intense I felt weak, and the relief now flooding my system wasn’t exactly making it easier for me to pay attention.“Please, Raf. Give me a break, right now. Isn’t there something more important for you to focus on?”
I wanted him to go away and leave me alone. To go check on Luca and defend him like the white knight he so obviously wanted to be. I wanted to just go fucking home.
“My name,” he said through gritted teeth. “IsRafael.”
“Okay, okay,” I said. “Rafael. Whatever.”
“Not whatever.” He held out a hand. “Give me the pills.”
“Why?” I frowned.
“So I can see what they are.”
“You’re not going to be able to see what they are,” I said. “Unless you were once struck by lightning in a drugstore and now you have the ability to identify any type of medication through sight alone.”
Rafael glared at me. “Because they’re in a bag, not a bottle? That’s what I saw, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s the bottle?”
“I don’t have it with me. I bag them at home.”
Rafael shook his head. “Why the hell would you bag them?” he asked, raising his hands and then pushing his glasses up his nose as if he was dealing with the most illogical person in the world.
“The bottle rattles,” I said.
“… So you take the pills and put them into a bag in order to avoid being caught taking them?”
I took a breath. That hadn’t been what I wanted to convey. I mean, he was fucking right, but not for the reasons he thought he was. “I…”
“Do you have a prescription for these?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Can I see the proof?”
I shrugged. “It’s on the bottle.”
“Which is where?”
“At home,” I said exasperatedly.
“So, I can’t see the proof?”
I groaned with frustration and put a hand against my forehead. It was a good job I’d taken the pills already, or Rafael would have been giving me a headache.
“Just because you’re upset about Luca being yelled at doesn’t mean you can take it out on me,” I said. “Or whatever it was that you were mad about earlier that had you slamming the pans around whenever Grey came into the kitchen.”
