Page 50 of UNAwere

Love you.

I put my phone on charge and lie down amongst the pillows and blankets. I’m exhausted, but I feel like the last thing my body wants right now is sleep.

‘Do you have any cigarettes?’ I murmur at the roof.

‘What?’ Briggs sounds annoyed, as if me asking such a question is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.

‘You know those things you light and suck? The ones that give you cancer? They have tobacco and rat poison and heck knows what else in them?’ I sit up and meet his gaze.

He’s glowering. ‘I know what a cigarette is.’

‘Cool. Do you have any?’

‘No.’

‘Can I trouble you to get me some?’

‘No.’

‘No, as in it won’t trouble you to get me some, or no, as in you won’t get me some?’

‘I won’t get you some.’

I groan. ‘Why not?’

‘Smoking is a bad habit.’

‘I just want one.’

‘Well, I’m not buying a whole pack just for you to smoke one.’

‘Have one with me?’

He lifts his gaze to me. ‘Go to sleep.’

‘I can’t sleep. That’s why I want a cigarette.’

He lets out a long breath from his nose. ‘Just lie down and close your eyes.’

I get up and step into my sneakers.

Briggs launches to his feet. ‘Where are you going?’

‘To get a cigarette.’

‘I told you no.’

‘And I told you I want one.’

‘Since when do you smoke?’ He snatches my hand before I can reach for the doorknob.

I reach with the other, and he snatches that, too.

I grunt, struggling against him.

‘I used to in my early twenties. It was a whole thing. But it helped, and now I’m craving one, because I think it’ll help again.’

Briggs watches me squirm, hardly moving as I try to free my hands from his.