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Not with them.

They're good people. Amazing, actually. I like them, and I know how much it means to Nora that we're here.

But I have nothing left.

I need quiet so badly I can almost feel it in my bones.

Usually, when this happens at my parents' place, I leave. Midnight Rodeo gets too crowded, I go home. Someone wants to keep talking when I've reached my limit, I find a way out.

Simple.

I find somewhere nobody is and breathe until I can separate my thoughts again. Until I can hear myself think and my head belongs to me.

Except I can't exactly stand up in the middle of this dinner and announce that thirty Sicilians have broken my fucking brain.

I stare at the table, trying to figure out how to excuse myself without offending anyone.

Even that feels like too much work.

I look across the table.

Dex is in the middle of three conversations at once, somehow following all of them. His knee hasn't stopped bouncing beneath the table for the last hour, and he's talking with his hands while someone beside him laughs at whatever he just said.

Then his eyes meet mine.

His knee stops.

He knows.

Same fucked-up brain.

Different way of dealing with it.

One of his eyebrows lifts.

You good?

I give him the smallest shake of my head.

His chair shifts as he starts to get up.

Then a hand settles on my shoulder.

I tense before I look up.

Nora stands beside me.

There's a small smile on her face, but her brown eyes are filled with concern.

She doesn't ask what's wrong. Doesn't make me explain myself in front of everyone or try to pull me into another conversation.

She just holds out her hand.

“Come with me.”

I look at it.

Then at her.