Page 32 of Veiled

Annalise

“Mattey. Psst Mattey. Mattey, WAKE UP!”

UGH, my morning running alarm went off two minutes ago, but I can't turn it off because I am currently trapped in the arms and legs of my ogre of a best friend. Did I mention he sleeps like the dead?

I try—again—to free my arms. If I could just get one loose, I could reach my phone to at least turn the alarm off, but his grip is like a steel vise. My life is apparently destined to end in a cuddle-related accident with my best friend.

Out of options, I carefully headbutt him in the chest like a giraffe.

“It's too early to get up, Lee,” he whines. “Don't let the terrorists win.”

“Oh my gods, you’re the terrorist!” I laugh. “My phone is screaming at me, and I’m going to lose my running streak because you’re a human straitjacket!”

He snorts into my hair. “You’re welcome. Premium comfort package. No refunds.”

“Mattey, I swear—if you don’t let me go in the next ten seconds, I’m biting you.”

One of his eyes cracks open. “Kinky threats before coffee? Dangerous game, Lee.”

I let out an exaggerated groan. “Grooossss. I hate you.”

“Nah, you love me,” he mutters before finally rolling over and letting me up.

I grab my phone and turn off the alarm, four missed snoozes, and glare at him while I pull my hair into a ponytail and walk into the bathroom to change.

“Want me to come with you this morning?” He calls out.

“Thanks, but I think I need a solo run, if that’s ok?”

If he responded, I don’t hear it over the running water, and by the time I come out, he’s quiet again. For a second, I think he’s fallen back asleep, but then his voice comes, low and serious this time.

“Hey, Lee?”

I pause, hand on the doorknob. “Yeah?”

“Don’t let what happened last night mess with your head, okay? You’re incredible, and anyone who doesn’t take the time to see that doesn’t deserve you.”

The words hit harder than I expected. I swallow the lump in my throat and turn so he can’t see my face.

“Yeah,” I say, forcing a light laugh. “You’re only saying sweet things, so I don’t kick you out of my bed.”

“Obviously,” he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice. “Go on, my little badass. Run it all out. I’ll text Sasha, and we’ll pick up breakfast and coffee and meet you back here.”

“Deal.”

I shut the door behind me, the chill of the hallway wrapping around me like a reminder that the world outside this room isn’t as safe as it feels when I’m with him.

But that’s the thing about Mattey, he’s always made me feel like I can take on anything in my path, even when I’m not sure I want to.

The brisk morning air bites at my skin and shocks my lungs the second I step outside. The sky’s already turning that soft gray-blue of almost-dawn since I got out a little later than normal, but the courtyard lamps still hum faintly behind me as I turn on my running headlamp and decide to take the path I did last week in reverse so I can avoid running through the courtyard when everyone else is headed to breakfast.

The first few steps are rougher than normal—my body’s awake, but my head isn’t in it yet. The rhythm of my shoes against the pavement fills the silence, and for a while, it’s just that. My heartbeat. My breath.

But it doesn’t take long for my brain to go into overdrive.

Lucas. Aiden.

Their names slip in like poison. I can almost hear the whispering and the laughter from last night. And that makes me remember my dad’s cruel laugh when he’d finally break me and make me cry.