Page 57 of Ghost
“I can make it quick,” I offered. But now that he mentioned it, I knew he was right. There was no promising that ‘quick’ would be quick enough to prevent another attack. Perhaps this was a bad idea. I could always just shoot by the dorm showers tomorrow.
“But I am the most professional of our group,” Julian continued, his voice tight. “I’m not going to lie. I have noticed the way that you’ve been moving throughout the evening. You’re still hurting from the other night. And Damen told me that he fell on top of you. I’ve been remiss in checking to see if you were alright. So, on top of preventing you from gaining further injury, you do need to soak in this,” he said, brandishing a small jar.
“Why didn’t you say somethingbeforeI turned the shower on?” I growled, eyeing the mixture. And how had they seen through my excellent acting skills?
Julian shrugged. “I wanted to see how long it’d take you to notice.”
I see. He was testing my observational skills. I could respect that. Surely he would have warned me before I actually took my clothes off.
I grabbed the container and turned away, first shutting off the shower and turning the tub on instead. “I still don’t know why you have to bein this room.”
“It’s very foamy, and it will help with your bruises,” he said. “Your modesty is safe. But I can’t stand the thought of you getting hurt again.”
Something about his tone caused me to recall his words from the other night. He said that seeing Finn hurting me brought up bad memories. Was it too much to conclude Julian might have been abused in his past?
Perhaps that was why he decided to become a doctor. Because he didn’t like the idea of anyone suffering the way he had. Or maybe… He seemed upset about his abilities. Perhaps he went to medical school to learn how to keep people alive.
No matter what his reasons, he clearly was upset about me being hurt. And it seemed to bother him more that I wasn’t honest about it.
I wasn’t familiar with this sort of attention. Where I was from, you avoided notice. After I was adopted things weren’t much different. Outside of rare occasions, Finn was oblivious. And my parents basically ignored me. I wasn’t sure how to react.
Even knowing Juliancared, my first impulse was to downplay his concerns. To ask him to leave regardless of his intentions.
But wouldn’t that hurt his feelings?
“I’m sorry…” I wasn’t sure how this might work, but embarrassment no longer was a priority. “You can stay.”
His head snapped up, blue eyes meeting mine. Despite this being what he wanted, he seemed surprised at my submission.
I wasn’t certain why though.
“Shit…” Julian let out a slow breath. “That’s not what I meant.”
“What?” My hands began to touch nervously. Why was he unhappy? “You said that you wanted to be here.”
Julian moved closer, grasping onto my hands. His face was sad. “I don’t want you to agree because you don’t want to hurt my feelings. I want you to let me stay because you feel that you are worth protecting. I want you to let me take care of you because you’ve realized how important you’ve become to us over the last few days.”
That didn’t make any sense. The result was still the same. “But why are you sad?”
“Nevermind,” he sighed, releasing my hand. “You’ll understand someday.”
I doubted it. “But you can stay…”
Julian only smiled sadly before he walked to the opposite end of the room. “Don’t mind me,” he said, pulling out his blue-cased cellphone. “I’ll just be doing some reading.”
Knowing what I did now, the color had taken on a new meaning. I side-eyed him.
He clearly hadn’t stopped watching me yet, because he chuckled under his breath.
“Yes, Bianca.” He didn’t even glance in my direction as he spoke. “Blue is my favorite color. Damen’s favorite color is red. Miles’ is brown, and Titus’ is white.”
I stared at his unfazed form, incredulous. “Who in theworldhas favorite colors of white and brown? White isn’t even a color! I bet those are the colors attributed to those elements. Could you be any more stereotypical? Finn’s favorite color is red too, you know.”
There was a hint of a smirk on his lips, but he responded with the same matter-of-fact tone as he continued to watch his phone. “Didn’t you say that your favorite color was pink?”
“I didnot.” I didn’t even realize he remembered that conversation. “I said that pink is mysecondfavorite color. My favorite color is green.”
Julian smirked, glancing at me. “How… stereotypical.”
