Page 262 of Ominous: Part 1
He grunts something, permission to continue, I guess.
I swallow down my nerves. “Are you okay?”
The quiet between us is sharp.Loudin the way heavy quiet can be.
“What do you mean?” His tone tells me he knows exactly what I mean, but he has no idea how to talk to me about it, just like words fail me, too.
“Why do you always come home?” I could have started anywhere with Sebastian. Asking him about getting another job, or going back to school, or… avoiding parties. But I know all of those things would come off as a lecture, and he’d tune me out and get up and walk back to his room.
Besides, I really want to know. Why not stay out? Why notmoveout?
I risk a glance at him, only to find smoke curling around his side profile, his eyes fixed on the woods. His shoulders are relaxed, which surprises me, but after a second, I see his grip on his cigarette is tight enough to snap it in half.
The cherry dies out.
The stick is barely held together by a thread as tobacco spills out through the white paper.
“I feel safe here,” he finally says. “High or not, I don’t feel good anywhere else.”
I think of Reece’s mask of indifference, Mom tiptoeing around the subject of her stepson’s demise. Me, noticing all of it but doing and saying nothing.
I feel safe here.
It’s a mix of emotions in my chest, a physical pang of guilt with a touch of something like love. Fondness, at least.
I kind of want to hug him, but I don’t think either of us would really appreciate the reality of the gesture.
I stay where I am, and he does, too.
“I’m glad you come back,” I tell him, and I mean it.
He turns to face me, and his mouth is lifted in a smile, but his eyes are sad. “Really?”
I nod once, dropping my eyes to my phone. “Really.”
43
Eli
I stayunder far longer than I should.
Eden is above the surface, on the coast again, where she was just yesterday with her mom, whom she lied to in order to stay here. Fall break is this week, and I think it helped Janelle picked her up and took her to my house before we started driving.
She’s up above the water, sitting beside Dominic. Luna and Jasper and Janelle must have bonded on the drive because they’re past the gate of Dad’s beach house, down at the ocean, forgoing the pool. Naked, probably.
Eden isn’t.
She better not be.
I need to go up, my lungs aching and the urge tobreatheclawing at my mind. But that’s all it is. Psychological panic. I could stay under a little longer.
I splay my fingers along the pool wall, smooth beneath my palm.
We really shouldn’t be out here at all.
Thunder and lightning have been our constant companions since we arrived, retreating to our rooms to drop off our things, Eden in mine, Dom and Jasper beside us.
We watched the rain fall in sheets for a long, long time along the balcony. But eventually, we all did what we came here to do.
