Page 128 of No Safe Place
Andrew Levey wasn’t their perpetrator. He was the third victim.
Chapter 91
P:I’m so tired.
Pause
P:I want a break, just one day where I don’t have it. Thisdisorder.
Pause
P:I want to wake up normal. I want to worry about whether my hair looks nice, not whether touching my hair will make my hands greasy because it’s been two weeks since I last had the energy to wash my fucking hair.
I’m so tired.
I can’t do it anymore.
I can’t get up tomorrow morning unless you take this away. Give it to someone else.
Pause
P:Give it to anyone. I don’t deserve it. I haven’t done anything wrong.
D:No. You haven’t done anything wrong.
Chapter 92
Sunday | Evening
Callum
A shiver ran down his spine, as the sweat on Lily’s skin cooled against his.
The cracked leather sofa was clammy and uncomfortable, and the scratchy blanket they’d thrown down tickled his thighs, but Lil hadn’t been in his bedroom since the break-up, and Scott’s stuff was still scattered around Lily’s.
Callum drew soft circles on her shoulder blade.
She was breathing normally, but he could feel her heart was still thumping.
‘Are you okay, Lil?’
She turned her head so she could see him. ‘I don’t know.’
He shifted, and they spent a few awkward moments trying to get comfortable, the sofa not wide enough for them both to move easily. Callum settled back down with his hands behind his head, and Lily lay on his chest, her hand over his heart. He noticed how thin her wrists were.
Lily closed her eyes. ‘I think, maybe, when I thought I was better, maybe I wasn’t.’
Callum made a noise in his throat.
‘Like, maybe all this time, when I thought I was keeping my head healthy, I was kidding myself.’
He twisted a lock of her hair around one finger, going cross-eyed as he considered it. ‘Or are you overthinking it now? Are you trying to find evidence that you haven’t been okay all this time, when you have?’
‘I mean, that does sound like me, sure,’ Lily said, with a smile. Her smile – the one that could cut to the core of him. ‘But I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it for a while.’
The sun passed behind a cloud, and the room was suddenly greyscale.
She sighed. ‘I’m just tired.’
