𝓢𝓮𝓮 𝓜𝓮

Chapter 58

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𝔼𝕞𝕞𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕚𝕝𝕒 𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕣
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I blinked my eyes open slowly, the world around me swimming in and out of focus as if I were underwater. My body felt weightless, like I was floating, and my head... my head was even lighter. Empty, almost. Like someone had scooped everything out and left just... nothing. I blinked sluggishly, trying to piece together something—anything—but my thoughts drifted away the second I tried to hold on to them. It was like chasing smoke.

My eyelids fluttered shut again, and for a moment, I thought I was going to slip back into that nothingness. My limbs felt heavy and strange as I shifted slightly, and I wondered if I'd been lying here forever. I might've. Maybe I hadn't even moved at all. Had I fallen asleep? I wasn't sure. I took a deep breath, feeling the faint stirrings of energy creeping back into my limbs. My arms moved sluggishly as I rubbed my eyes, willing the fog in my mind to clear just enough so I could see.

I tried to focus, to find something solid in the haze, but it was hard. My mind was slow, fuzzy... like a broken TV stuck on static. Or a radio station just out of range, the signal weak and crackling with nothing but noise. I took a deep breath, my chest rising and falling in a rhythm that felt detached—like it belonged to someone else.

When I finally opened them again, the first thing I noticed was a weight on the mattress beside me, a slight dip that I wasn't causing. I turned my head slowly, blinking against the light and saw a figure seated beside me. A boy, slumped forward in a chair, his head resting on the edge of the bed near my leg.

His hand was on top of mine.

I froze, breath catching in my throat. My gaze dropped to where his fingers brushed against my own, and then traveled up the length of his arm to his shoulder, to the soft curve of his neck, and finally... finally to his face.

Who... Kai.

I remembered. He said his name was Kai.

My heart skipped a beat, and I quickly pulled my hand away from his, shrinking into myself. Why was he still here? I blinked again, slowly, trying to hold on to something. Trying to remember. Hadn't I told him... told him something? To leave? No, I didn't... think so. I might've said... something else. But what?

I stared at him, breathing unevenly as fragments of memory flickered back to life. I'd said he could stay, hadn't I? Stay... That's right. I had... let him stay. Why? Why would I do that?

Boyfriend.

The word floated up, slow and syrupy, sticking to my thoughts. Boyfriend. He was... supposed to be my boyfriend. Wasn't he? That's what Mum had said. He loved me. He said that. He told me he loved me.

My eyes widened slightly, and I glanced back at him, unease twisting low in my stomach. He loved me. That's what he'd said. I tried to remember the way he looked when he'd said it, tried to see it in my mind's eye, but it was hazy. Blurred, like a half-forgotten dream.