Page 60 of Spin The Bottle
“Careful,” I hear a female voice somewhere around me. I feel a hand holding me upright, helping me to sit up. “You need to take it easy.”
Her concerned face looks down at me. I hear another voice, a distant buzz in my ears. I open my mouth to speak, but my throat feels dry and scratchy. The woman turns around, holding a plastic cup with water in front of me. “Here,” she says, “This might help.”
I grab the plastic cup, gulping the water down, trying to piece together what happened. I don’t remember anything except going to the basketball court and seeing—
I see Aiden standing above me, leaning over to cup my face in his hands. “Fuck, Leila.” His voice is thick and full of emotion.
I blink up at him, adjusting to the light coming through the giant windows. “What happened?” I ask him.
He rubs his thumbs over my cheeks, his brows drawn together, like he can’t bear to let go. “You don’t remember?” he asks.
“No?” I look back at the woman, watching as she takes off her blue gloves and gives me a sympathetic smile.
“You passed out,” Aiden says, making me look back at him. “You were stumbling over, talking absolute crap and then you fell in my arms.”
I gulp, clenching my fists together. “For how long?”
He shakes his head, blowing out a breath and shrugs. “I don’t know, like ten minutes? I brought you here as fast as I could.” He scans my face, running his hands all over me. “Are you ok?”
“It can happen,” the nurse says, both our heads turning to look at her. “If you haven’t eaten in a while, your blood sugar can drop.” She picks up a flashlight in her hands. “Just let me check your reflexes. Look directly in front,” she says, flashing the light in my eye. She moves the flashlight around, assessing me. “Good,” she says, turning the light off. “You’re going to be fine.” She smiles at me.
“So, she’ll be okay?” Aiden asks.
The nurse nods. “Her body just felt weak, that’s all,” she tells him, turning to face me. “Just make sure you don’t wait too long before eating. Your boyfriend was very worried about you.”
“Oh, we’re not—”
“Thank you,” he says to her instead. “Can we just have a moment?”
“Sure,” she says. “You’re all set. When you’re ready, you can leave.” She closes the door when she exits, leaving just the two of us in the room.
Aiden takes a step back, blowing out a harsh breath. “Are you feeling better?” he asks me.
I nod. “I’m fine. I’m sorry.”
His shoulders drop. “Don’t apologize for passing out, gorgeous.” I grab the plastic cup and sip some more water, watching how Aiden rubs his jaw, glancing at me. “What did she mean before?” he asks.
My head lifts. “About what?”
“About you not eating.”
My face drops, my blood cooling as he stares at me. “Aiden—”
“Have you been starving yourself?” he asks.
“Aiden, no.”
“I swear to god, Leila. If you’ve been malnourishing your body because you want to lose weight, I’m going to fucking lose it.”
“I didn’t—”
“Why would you do that?” he asks, throwing his arms up. “You need to eat. You need food,” he says, taking a step closer to me. “You’re hurting yourself by doing that.”
“I haven’t been starving myself.”
He stops, staring at me. “You haven’t?”
“No,” I say on a sigh.
