Page 1 of Brambles and Bellflowers
1
“He’s been gone almost a week,”I mumbled, picking at a loose thread on my sleeve. The words hung in the air of the nearly empty office, making the knot in my stomach tighten even more.
God, I sound pathetic. It shouldn’t hurt this much, right? Miles and I barely knew each other, if you wanted to be logical. It’d only been a few weeks since I met my quintet.
But still, saying it out loud made it feel… real.
I’d never been good at sitting still. Even when my adoptive mom had me on lockdown—school and Finn’s being my only escape—I always found ways to keep busy. Gardening, gaming, burying my nose in books… anything to stop my mind from spinning out of control.
But now? Damen’s greenhouse was a total disaster zone, and I couldn’t even care enough to fix it. That was how I knew that something was seriously wrong.
Why did Miles’s absence leave such a weird, achy feeling in my chest?
“Do you think I hurt his feelings?” I asked Dr. Kohler, frowning at the beige carpet. Who thought beige was a goodcolor scheme for a hospital? What about all the blood? I pushed the tips of my shoes into the plush fibers.
Okay, so it was a fancy carpet. Maybe it had some resilience in everyday use. Still a waste of… wait, did taxpayers fund hospitals? Or was it the insurance company’s responsibility?
“Bianca, Julian is almost finished with his shift,” Dr. Kohler said, interrupting my tangent. “If you want a therapy session, schedule an appointment with Do Yun. I believe he has availability today.”
I ignored her suggestion. “Should I have been nicer to him?”
Plus, how could she try to pawn me off to Dr. Nam? Here I was, opening up, mostly because I was bored, and Titus had abandoned me here while he took up some critical shifter business.
But the least she could do was listen. We were supposed to have an understanding.
Besides, I wasn’t sure why everyone acted like I needed a babysitter. It’d been days since I’d woken up from my tower adventure, and I was perfectly fine now.
So why did it seem like everyone was keeping me under constant surveillance?
Dr. Kohler sighed, laying her pen back on the desk. “Are you talking about Miles?”
“Yes…” I twisted a curl around my finger. I usually tried to tame my waist-length hair with a ribbon, a barrette, or a simple braid. But this morning, I hadn’t been driven to do more than brush it.
And it must have looked terrible because Titus couldn’t stop staring at me all morning or throughout our lunch.
“Do you think I did something wrong?” I asked. The guilt I’d been suppressing washed over me. “Do you think that’s why he left?”
She didn’t respond at first—instead, she just watched me in uncomfortable silence. Her full lips were pursed, and she touched her red-framed glasses, pushing them high until they rested among the thick curls haloing her head.
She seemed torn, her brows furrowing, before she finally seemed to come to a decision. “What are you talking about?” she asked, tilting her head and linking her fingers over the manilla folder she had been working on while I’d waited. “What would you have done?”
“Well…” I tapped my fingers together, cringing. “I don’t know, really. Maybe he’s jealous that Julian and I bonded?”
Dr. Kohler’s eyebrow raised. “Ifthat is the case, which I doubt, then Miles’s emotions are still his to work through. They are not your problem. You shouldn’t feel guilty.”
But still, he had looked sad. “But—”
“Besides,” she continued, “you’re reading too much into it. I know Miles. He isn’t going to run away over hurt feelings. Headoresyou and is not that selfless, though he pretends to be. You have to realize that this is what he does.”
My breath hitched in anticipation as some of the tightness in my chest alleviated. It wasn’t my fault? “What do you mean?”
“Miles is an extreme introvert,” she explained. “He also doesn’t like to burden other people with his business. He’ll internalize everything until he can’t anymore. At that point, it’s not unheard of for Tu to seek solace to sort out his thoughts and priorities. He needs to escape to recharge.”
Tu? I was talking aboutMiles.
As my dumbfounded silence continued, she tilted her head sympathetically. “Didn’t Miles tell you he has an apartment?”
I blinked at her, still not understanding how this was related. But I’d play along. “Yes. But he said it was so that he could be closer to campus. For studying.”
