My pulse roars in my ears as he closes his eyes, face tilting toward me.
Is this—? It can’t be, right?
My eyes catch a glimpse of us behind the mirror, and that’s when I see it.
The glow is back, soft light spilling over Colten’s exposed skin.
I didn’t notice it before because we were so close, but it’s impossible not to see the light outlining his shape in the mirror.
I’m so startled by the sudden glow that I almost don’t catch him in time when his knees buckle, his body dead weight as he slides down the counter.
“Whoa—Colten!” I grab him under the arms before he can hit the floor. His head lolls against my shoulder, completely unconscious.
“…I told you so,” I whisper, the earlier dizziness beginning to ease up.
As I attempt to better hold my drunk friend, I catch another glimpse of us in the mirror and freeze.
I couldn’t see it earlier given how close we were…but I’m glowing again, too.
Chapter 5
By the time I get Colten into Julian’s room at the Hagley house, I’m sweating like I just played ninety minutes in August.
Which is impressive, considering all I did was drag one extremely stubborn, very unconscious 5’6” guy up a staircase.
“Why are you so heavy?” I mutter, carefully moving through Julian’s mess of a room.
Colten does not respond, probably because he’s passed out. I drop him onto the bed, where he bounces against the mattress.
Colten groans faintly and rolls onto his side, immediately hugging a pillow to his chest like I didn’t just drag him up a staircase.
I grab an empty cup from the nightstand and refill it in the bathroom down the hall, then bring it back and set it next to him. I have to move a few textbooks on the nightstand to the floor so he’ll actually see the water, but Julian has so many textbooks I’m sure he won’t care if a few get mixed up.
Colten’s phone is in his pocket, half charged. I unlock it with his mother’s birthday and make sure his alarm is set for the usual time before finding Julian’s phone charger and placing the charging phone next to the glass of water.
“You’re welcome,” I tell Colten’s unconscious form. He snores quietly, shuffling closer to the pillow.
I stand there for a second longer than necessary, just looking at him.
His hair has come loose from the ponytail, dark strands spilling across the pillow. I can just barely see his roots, the slightly lighter brown starting to become more obvious. It’s been several weeks since I last helped him dye his hair black.
His face looks softer asleep. Less sharp, and less like he’s about to fight me or ignore me for whatever stupid reason.
My hand reaches out toward him, about to push the hair out of his face before I realize what I’m doing.
Hah, that’s weird.
I shake out my hand and take a step back, nearly tripping over one of Julian’s many piles of books.
Colten remains peacefully asleep, as he is likely to remain for the next eight hours.
There’s a strange tightness in my chest, one that started in the bathroom and hasn’t let go. It makes me feel keyed up, my skin buzzing like I could play a game right here and now.
The glowing disappeared from earlier almost right away, fading before I had any time to really process it.
Why were we glowing? What started it? Was it part of the reason I now feel so…weird?
And what was he trying to do earlier? It was almost as if he was going to…
