My neck whipped around to her. She hadn’t moved an inch. She was still standing on the platform at the entrance to the roof. There was a line of people forming behind her, clearly frustrated. I moved in the opposite direction of the line so we could exit faster. “C’mere, it’s okay.” I ushered her to follow me.
“No, we can't go that way.” Her panicked eyes had a way of hitting me right in the chest, making my protective instincts kick into gear.
“Yes, we can,” I said slowly. “We don’t have to see anything else. That way is an exit.”
“We can’t go that way,” she repeated, her body frozen in fear.
“Yes, we can,” I said calmly. “You can follow me.”
She shook her head, staring at me with wide, scared brown eyes. Her hands hadn’t budged from the walls beside her.
I offered her my hand. “Trust me?”
She hesitated. Her brown eyes seared into me. A second later, she finally grasped onto my hand and squeezed it. Knowing she trusted me—even if just for a moment—had my heart swelling in my chest.
“Take firm steps. You have solid ground beneath you. You’re okay,” I said, trying to talk her through it. “One foot in front of the other. We just need to make it to the door.”
We moved at a snail’s pace around the top of the castle to the exit. At one point, her gaze went out to take in the view, but then her body froze up again.
“We’re almost there,” I pushed.
When we finally reached the stairwell to go back down, she scrambled down the steps and almost slipped again.
I grabbed her hips to keep her from falling.
“Let’s pause for a minute, yeah?” I asked, not letting go of her.
“Yeah,” she squeaked. Her hands went on top of mine on her hips, as if she didn’t want me to let her go either.
“Here, I’ll go down first. If you fall, you’ll fall into me, and I’m not goin’ down, okay?”
“Okay,” she squeaked out. She held a fistful of my shirt as we made our way down.
10.ALI – I REALLY DO
My legs felt a little wobbly for the next five minutes as I stared at the ground and chugged from a water bottle JP somehow produced.
“You’re okay, you’re on the ground,” JP said, rubbing my back and shoulders with his large hands. “Solid ground.”
“I’m sorry,” I sputtered between sips of water.
His face cracked in confusion. “Why?”
“I completely ruined it for you,” I said with a snort, not daring to look up at him.
“Hey, no, don’t say that. You didn’t.” He pulled me in for a hug, but I had a hard time reciprocating. “We had a good time. You should be proud we made it to the top.”
“Ugh, I’m sorry,” I grumbled against him, feeling a huge dose of self-loathing.My total freak out was replaying on a loop in my brain, making me feel more embarrassed by the second.
He rubbed my back while his body let out a low rumble of a chuckle. “Stop apologizing, Ali. You have nothing to be sorry for. C’mon, let’s get going.”
We shuffled toward the car in awkward silence. I didn’t know what else to say to fix this day.
“Need more water?” he asked.
I shook my head.
He gave me a gentle grin. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
