She turns to me, key already in the lock of our front door. With raised brows, she levels me with a stare that almost makes me afraid of having asked, until she breaks into a grin. “Damn, Lind, relax.”
“God, you’re scary,” I breathe, following her inside. “So…so does—”
“No, you didn’t interrupt us. I drove her home before picking you up.”
I nod, rubbing my aching neck. “Good. I’m sorry that—”
“Oh for—Linden. It’s not your fault. I’m glad we went and got that idiot out of trouble.” Sasha grabs my shoulder with one hand, flipping her hair over her shoulder with the other. “One more question before I go and collapse.”
I take a deep breath, not quite ready to just accept her brash words, but my eyes are also stinging from the lack of sleep. “Are…you’re okay with—”
“An easy question, please?”
“I just—are you happy? With, uhm…your situation?”
“Good question.” Sasha snorts, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “Yeah, I am. Night, Lind.”
“Good night.”
I grab a glass of water to gather up the strength for climbing the stairs. At the top, I sway for a moment, then take a deep breath and turn to Olli’s room to check on Tibia. After making sure her dishes are filled and giving her little fuzzy head a few pets, I firmly shut the door, then finally turn toward the bathroom.
Sand trickles off of me when I pull my clothes off and throw them into a corner. I’ll worry about cleaning up tomorrow. Stepping under the water, even before it has warmed up, never felt this good.
For several minutes, I just stand there and let it run over my head and down my body until I can muster up the strength to lift the soap.
I’m rubbing shampoo into my hair in slow motion when there’s a soft knock against the door. It opens before I can say anything, but only a small crack.
“Linden?”
Hearing Micah’s careful question makes me smile. “Yeah, come in.” I sigh, raising a hand to run it through my hair to wash out the suds.
“Sorry, I didn’t wanna interrupt. I just…are you okay?”
“One sec,” I tell him. Anyone else, I’d have asked to wait outside, but I’m glad when I can hear the door close and then a slow exhale as Micah settles in to wait.
I feel almost like myself again when I turn off the water and grab the towel. I have only just wrapped it around my waist when Micah pulls back the shower curtain.
His dark hair is standing up on one side, and he’s wearing only a T-shirt and boxers, no socks; he must have already been asleep.
My smile drops. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you—”
“I don’t even care about that right now.” His voice cracks, and he reaches out to pull me into a hug with both arms. I bury my face against his shoulder, blinking when he suddenly leans back, holding me at arm’s length while his mismatched eyes dart all over my face, then the rest of me, assessing. I might be almost naked, but I can feel the intent: he’s checking if I’m hurt.
“Are you okay? Vince told me about Olli.”
I don’t even want to know what I look like right now—probably exhausted and like a wet rat. Oh, and my eyes must be red and puffy from crying, which might be why Micah’s looking at me like I’m about to break apart. But at least I no longer smell like bonfire smoke and lake water, and I’m sand-free.
“Hey.” He lowers his voice to a whisper, cupping my cheek with one hand. “Do you wanna talk about it?”
“I…yeah?” Although I’m tired, the whole night sits like a stone in my chest, heavy and pushing down on my heart. I take a deep breath, leaning into Micah’s hand to leech warmth and strength through the contact before I carefully step out of the shower, sitting down on the closed lid of the toilet.
Micah pulls the shower curtain the rest of the way open and sits down on the lip of the bathtub.
“I really wanted to just stay home, believe me. But I had a bad feeling about Olli going to that party.”
“Yeah, he was there, alright.” Micah’s face darkens, his brows drawing low over his eyes, making the brown one look almost black. “Caused this huge scene because—” he breaks off, biting his lip.
“Because he and Davenport broke up? Yeah, I know.” I sigh, shaking my head. When I look at Micah, he’s staring at me.
