Page 249 of Hide and Keep

“Oh.” She drops her arms and tilts her head at me. “You’re up.”

I groan at the churning in my stomach.

“Kind of,” she mutters before pulling me back into her embrace. I go with her because she’s warm and soft and makes the queasiness subside significantly.

Fully relaxed against her front again, I hear her ask softly, “How do you feel?”

“Like shit.”

“Yeah. That happens when you purposely give yourself food poisoning.”

Last night comes back to me in bits and pieces. I ate the spoiled ceviche. Everybody did. Except Ever. If I hadn’t gotten her out of there in time, she’d be in her own bathroom.

Why is she in mine?

“What are you doing in here?” I croak.

“You were so weak you couldn’t hold yourself over the toilet. I was scared you were gonna choke on your own puke, so…”

“So what?” I look down at our bodies. She has one arm over my chest, holding me to her. “You held me upright?”

“Yeah,” she says with a shrug like I’m not almost a hundred pounds heavier than her.

“All night?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“By reciting all the cheers I’ve ever learned.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I only did what you would’ve.”

“I don’t know any cheers,” I say after a minute. She’s right. I would’ve taken care of her, but I like to do that kind of shit. Ever barely knows how to take care of herself, let alone another person. What’d she do? Watch a fucking tutorial?

I glance at the garbage next to us. It seems to be just a bag but stretched over something.

She just might’ve.

“I wouldn’t be too sure. You may have picked up some subliminally.”

“What’s that?” I point at the garbage bag thing.

“Your laundry basket. Less splashage, easy cleanup, and it helps with the smell.”

Splashage. Cleanup. Smell.

I groan again. Jesus Christ. I’ve been puking my guts up in front of Ever Munreaux, the girl that has a maid clean her bedroom and bathroom for her. She doesn’t even take out her own garbage. She leaves it out in the hall for Edwin.

“You need to leave,” I grumble as I try to sit up, this time much slower because fuck, my body hurts. I don’t know if it’s from the food poisoning or sitting on a bathroom floor…or both.

Ever just giggles. “No, I don’t.”

“You weren’t supposed to see any of this.”

“Okay…but I did.”

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