I don’t wait for anything else to be said.
I bolt down the hall, heart hammering, bare feet slapping softly against the floor. I shove into my room and slam the door, leaning against it as if my legs might give out.
My hands are shaking.
My mouth still tingles.
My body is buzzing with heat that has nowhere to go.
What did I just do?
I slide down to the floor, knees pulled to my chest, arms wrapped around myself like I can physically contain the mess I’ve made.
Tears sting my eyes, sharp with embarrassment and frustration and something that feels dangerously like longing.
I never do this.
I never lose control.
I never let myself get caught in moments that can’t be explained away.
And now Marshall has seen me like that. Flushed, breathless, tangled up with Jesse in a hallway like I’ve lost my damn mind.
I press my bee pendant into my palm
Get it together, Abilene.
You don’t do messy. You don’t do reckless.
You don’t do men who make you forget who you are.
But my body doesn’t listen. My heart doesn’t listen.
Because even as I sit there, cheeks burning, emotions spilling over, one truth is impossible to ignore:
Whatever just happened out there wasn’t a mistake.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Marshall
Wednesday
Oh shit.
I know immediately this isn’t real.
The hallway is wrong. Stretched, dimmer than it should be, the light buzzing too loudly, as if it’s coming through water.
The carpet under my bare feet is cold in a way that doesn’t make sense, and when I look down, my toes don’t quite line up with the rest of me.
But I don’t wake up.
Jesse has Abilene pinned against the wall, his hands all over her, and the sight of it hits me straight in the gut. I’ve walked in on something I shouldn’t be seeing.
Except I’m not walking. I’m stuck. Rooted.
Fuck.
