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“Gray,” she replies quickly, as if the answer was already on the tip of her tongue.
I know I asked the question, but in reality, I don’t have a favorite color.“Why do you think that?”
“Gray is your color,” Riley says stubbornly, her voice soft and faint. “It’s emotionless and moody, like you. It’s something in between, because you neither fit in the color of white nor black. Gray is complicated…” she trails off.
My heart stutters.
“You think I’m moody?”
I don’t get an answer.
“Riley?”
Her silence fills me with worry, so I lift my head to look down at her face. Her eyes are closed, her tear-stained face looks peaceful, and her breathing evens out. Riley fell asleep, yet she still holds onto my wrist.
I hadn’t expected her to fall asleep this fast. But I guess once the panic fades and her mind grows hazy with calmness, she’d be lulled into unconsciousness.
Riley stays curled up against me all afternoon and well into the night. She barely even twitches in her sleep. Sometime during the night, her hand crawls up under my shirt, her palm resting against the hard muscles of my abdomen. Skin to skin.
I don’t sleep a wink. I can’t…
I stay up and listen to Riley’s breathing.
She stays like this until morning. My whole body’s sore because I didn’t move an inch during the night, too worried I’d wake her up.
The storm eventually passes, and when dawn arrives, Riley’s eyes flutter open at the first ray of sunlight. I watch as confusion plays across her sleepy features.
Her head lifts up, and she meets my gaze.
She blinks. And blinks again.
Her lips part in a silent gasp, and then she’s pushing away from. Riley sits up, raking her fingers through her disheveled hair. There we go, I had been waiting for this. Her reaction in the morning, once the fog of her panic attack clears in her mind.
“What?” Riley croaks and then coughs. Her chest rattles with a shaky exhale. “You— last night…I didn’t…” she trails off, blinking a few more times. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember much of what happened last night.”
I sit up too. “You slept all night.”
“I slept all night?”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
Shaking my head, I can’t help but grin at her confusion. “Are you going to repeat everything I say?”
“No,” she defends quickly. Riley rubs her forehead, averting her eyes. She can’t bring herself to look at me.
I guess…it’s time for me to go.
The storm has passed and the night has come to an end. I’m done here.
Climbing off the bed, I shove my feet into my shoes. “I’ll go now.”
“Okay,” she whispers softly.
My chest tightens. “Okay,” I tell her.
“Colton?” Her sleepy voice halts me.
