Page 139 of Love Sick

Everyone but me.

Chen takes off his coat and holds it out for all to see, dozens of condoms sutured into it. “I don’t know how I didn’t notice when I put it on.”

Asher splutters, but manages to get some words out. “Me, either.”

“You sewed all those in?” I ask.

Eyes gleaming, Asher nods. “What else did you think I was gonna do with all those condoms on my fridge?”

I chuckle, unsure how this douche managed to pull a laugh from my shattered, depressed mood.

Thanks, Asher. You’re good for something, after all.

The levity is short-lived. When the amusement dies down and Chen leaves, Asher turns toward Grace. He whispers somethingwaytoo close to her ear, and she smiles at him. I fantasize about stabbing a scalpel into his chest.

Kai leans closer. “She looks fine, but she’s messed up, too.”

A shot of adrenaline wakes my pulse.

Yeah? If it hurts, why did she do it?

My body disobeys my mind and swivels toward her, gaze landing squarely on those hazel eyes. The connection between us yanks. She turns in my direction.

The chatter around us falls away. Asher’s words near her ear go unheeded as her lips part, and she mouths my name.

Fuck this.

I don’t care if I’ll be punished for jetting early. I swipe up my things and thrust them into my bag, leaving the room without a word. I’m at the middle landing in the back stairway when the door opens and she calls my name.

I face her. The signs of strain finally shine at me—the sharpness of her cheekbones, the circles beneath her eyes.

She holds her hand up. “Wait.”

“Why?”

She says nothing. The silence sucks away all the air between us, and this is the first time I see it…

She’s cold.

Unfeeling.

Cruel.

I take three steps up while she takes three steps down—still standing on her pedestal.

Why did I put her up there? I would have given her everything.

“Are you—” She swallows. “Are you okay?”

A pinch of wrath stirs into the icy misery inside me. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Julian—”

“I have a knife in my throat. I can’t fucking breathe. Why are you here? To twist it?”

She presses her lips into a flat line.

“Nothing to say?” I stretch my arms to either side. “Do you like standing up there, watching me drown?”

---