Page 10 of Sunshine

“I wasn’t aware my dead boyfriend was the only thing keeping our friendship alive, but point taken.” I slide my empty glass back toward Kasey. “May I have another, please?”

“Of course,” he says, watching me carefully as he pours me a second shot.

I refuse to look at him, but I feel Wells’s gaze stuck on me as I tip this one back, too. I try not to react to the burn as it erupts in my throat—a welcomed pain to distract from the daggers Wells is throwing at me.

Something abruptly crashes behind us, and I turn to find a blonde-haired woman at the bar’s entrance. She’s sobbing, thick tracks of mascara running down her face, and she looks . . . disoriented. I try to place her, try to figure out who she is. Saddlebrook Falls is a small town, after all, and even though it’s been a year and a half since I left for college, I’m still pretty sure I know everyone here. Plus, she looks to be about my age—so I should definitely know who she is.

Her eyes sweep the room until they land just behind me. And then her knees almost buckle. “Wells!” she howls as shebegins to run toward us. I turn back to face him, surprised to find that his eyes are full of what looks a lot like . . . fear.

“I’m so sorry, Layla,” he whispers, just as the woman collides into him.

Her crying turns into wails, loud and raking through my ears as she buries her face in his chest. Everyone else in the bar is quiet as they watch her fall apart, and I don’t have to look at any of them to know they’re just as confused as I am.

After a long moment of hesitation—his eyes still firmly planted on mine—Wells lifts his arms up and wraps them softly around the girl. “Hey, Emma,” he soothes.

So, Wells has a girlfriend then? I mean, I’m not exactly surprised. If there’s one thing I know about Wells—one thing the whole town knows—it’s that there’s always a girl within his reach. None of them last very long, but that’s the way Wells prefers things. He’s non-committal. Or rather: he chews up and spits out women for sport.

Why would he apologize to me about this one?

It doesn’t make sense.

“I-I don’t know what to do.” The woman—Emma—continues sobbing into his black long-sleeve shirt. “Wh-what am I supposed to do without him?”

In a single, rapid second, my heart jumps up into my throat. I look at the girl, at the side of her face, still trying to connect the dots that I feel are right in front of me. My gaze jumps back to Wells, who’s looking at me like I’m a bomb. Like he’s waiting for me to detonate. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, my voice lost somewhere in the confusion. “Who is this?”

His brows bunch together, all evidence of his earlier hostility gone. He looks on the verge of breaking. “This is Emma,” he says, carefully.

I nod. “I gathered that already, thank you.” I can hear the venom seeping into my voice. “Who is she, Wells?”

He doesn’t answer. Instead, he expels a long breath as he simply stares at me. Eventually, Emma pulls her face out of his neck, wiping her eyes. She sniffs, sucking strings of snot back into her nose as she finally looks at me. Genuine curiosity flares in her eyes. “Who are you?”

Everything tilts. My vision nearly blacks as it tunnels on the two of them standing there, and the only thing I’m conscious of is the lungful of air that Wells pulls into his stupid fucking lungs. “Wells, who the fuck is she?”

Emma’s eyes narrow in offense as she pulls herself back into a standing position, disentangling from him. “I’m Jay’s girlfriend. Who the fuck are you?”

My eyes bounce between them. My chest begins to heave as acid bubbles inside my stomach, and the edges of my vision blur enough to make me feel dizzy. I can’t stop what comes next as I lean over and vomit all over Emma’s white shoes.

She looks at me, shock radiating from her face. I straighten and swipe the back of my hand across my mouth, looking back to Wells and finding his features twisted in pain.

Everything in my body feels like it’s disintegrating. Like I might be melting right into this dirty bar floor. I turn around, begging my legs to cooperate with me as I break through the crowd.

But when I push through the doors and step out into the cold, I still can’t find air, can’t for the life of me catch a breath. I make it only four steps down the sidewalk before I fall to my knees, the concrete cutting into my skin.

“Layla, wait!” I hear Wells boom from somewhere behind me as the bar door slams open. “Fuck,” he says when he findsme on the ground. “Layla.” He shakes my shoulders. “Layla, fucking breathe.”

I don’t even realize that I’m on my side until he wraps two strong hands around my arms and effortlessly pulls me back up into a sitting position. “Layla, look at me. You have to breathe.” I hear his words but they don’t register. Nothing is registering. Nothing makes sense—I’ve been shoved into an alternate reality, thrown inside some big cosmic joke.

Jason has a girlfriend?

ButI’mhis girlfriend.

“Layla, goddamn it, look at me!” The bite of his words pierces through the fog, and my eyes snap to his. The only thing I can get myself to focus on is the panic lancing them. “Take a breath,” he commands. “Come on—like this.” And then his chest fills as he pulls in a deep breath through his nose before he pushes it out through his mouth.

I try to mimic him, but instead I choke out a sob. He gently places a hand on the back of my head as his thumb sweeps along my ear. “Come on, sunshine. Try again.” Again, he demonstrates. And though the sobs are still ripping through me, I’m finally able to suck down a solid breath. “That’s it,” he whispers, his eyes softening. “Breathe.”

We sit there for what feels like hours, though I’m sure it’s only minutes. He continues to move his thumb along the side of my face, and I hang on to that touch like it’s a lifeline. Because without it, I might just slip into the darkness and disappear forever.

“How long?” I finally ask. His body stills, but he doesn’t answer me. I look at him, really look at him, and press again. “How long, Wells?”

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