Without waiting for my reply, he swiftly stepped around me and marched on down the sidewalk. I stood there, blinking in confusion. He’d left me with more questions than answers. Why wouldn’t he talk to me like a normal person?
He stopped at the red light blaring over the crosswalk. I caught up to him in a few strides.
“Sagitta, wait, you got it all wrong. I’m not, like, mad at you. I just want us to be...”
“Friends?” he offered, too snarky to be serious.
That stung.
“Uh, yeah, actually,” I replied, echoing his nasty tone. “Since you’re apparently my roommate now. Probably better if we got along.”
He whipped his head away from me. His body language was stiff and spiky, like a porcupine flashing his quills in warning. But since we were stuck at the red light, he couldn’t get away. Why was he avoiding me, anyway? We were going to the same damn destination.
“I think he’s spiralling for reasons unrelated to you, darling,” Faust mentioned offhandedly.
I frowned. Spiralling for what? It was only a conversation. What was Sagitta so sensitive about?
Lowering my voice, I said, “Listen, if you’re upset about the two exorcisms going wrong, it’s not a big—”
“Yes, it is,” Sagitta snapped.
His voice was ice—freezing-cold but brittle. I heard the fear lurking beneath his outburst.
Sagitta heard it, too. He panicked.
“Let’s go,” he muttered. He twisted around, ready to bolt to the other side of the crosswalk.
The opposite light was yellow, about to stop. But the light was still red for us.
An aggressive SUV hurtled towards the intersection, determined to blast through the yellow.
Sagitta lurched onto the crosswalk without looking.
Fear surged through my body. I dropped the boxes and seized his arm, yanking him towards me as the vehicle roared by. Terror caused me to put my whole strength into it. Sagitta lost his breath as he slammed into my chest.
Fuck.
His body was lithe. And warm.
And he just scared the absolute shit out of me.
“What the hell were you doing?” I blurted. Fear hardened my voice into something more aggressive than intended.
Sagitta stared ahead, dazed. He blinked a few times as he came back to himself.
“I... I apologize,” he murmured. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“Fuck, dude, you really weren’t,” I barked. My heart was still pounding. The adrenaline made me feel like I could run a marathon. Or vomit. Or both.
Slowly, Sagitta’s cheeks flushed in shame. He shrank into himself like he wanted to disappear.
Sympathy washed over me. I knew I’d feel like shit in his shoes. We all had those moments where we did self-destructive crap and felt stupid afterwards.
In the seconds since I’d pulled him into me, Sagitta remained braced against my chest. It was only now that I could breathe properly that I realized how close we were—and how intimate of a position we were in.
How I could smell the lingering smoky incense and earthy shampoo on his hair. How I could feel the weight of his slender body against mine.
How deeply it intoxicated me.
