Page 94 of Inflict

“I like to tell myself differently.”

“That’s called lying, Connor.”

“It has helped, to a degree.”

Evelyn sighed, still keeping a hold on both his hands as she stared at him, forcing him to meet her gaze. “Why, though?”

He didn’t have a good answer for that.

Not entirely.

“I’m not sure.”

“That’s a lie, too.”

Connor tugged his hands from her grasp, and scrubbed his uninjured one down his face. “Because it all gets to be too much, and I don’t like who I see staring back at me. I wanted it to go away. It’s easier than dealing with it.”

Evelyn tipped her head to the side. “Is it, though?”

No.

But the lie was easy to tell. Maybe he was just made to be crazy. So why was it that Evelyn looked at him like he was completely normal?

“You know I’m here, right?” she asked.

Connor blinked, confused at what she meant. “Of course you’re here, lass.”

She shook her head, a sad smile playing at the edges of her lips. “You’re not listening.”

“The water is pretty loud.”

“Cute.”

Connor managed a smirk. “I try.”

“I’m here.” Evelyn lifted her hands, pointing her index fingers at his temples. “When this gets too much …” She pointed down to his chest, right over the spot where his heart beat, adding, “And when it hurts in here, too.” She grabbed his hands, flipping them over, forcing him to look at his chaos and his lies all over again. “You don’t need to do this when I’m here, Connor.”

“You don’t—”

“Understand? I know that it gets dark in your head, because I see it when you don’t think I’m watching. I know it gets tight in your chest and hard to breathe. When you just want to think about anything other than what’s up there, but all you can do is feel. So, you have to feel something else, right? Is that me not understanding to you?”

“It’s not the same as being inside my head,” Connor said, sounding rather lame.

“Then maybe you should let me see inside sometime.”

“It’s not a very nice place.”

Evelyn smiled. “I think I can handle it, Connor.”

He didn’t think so at all.

Unwilling to argue about it, and not wanting her to worry, Connor grabbed Evelyn’s cheeks with his hands, ignoring the pain in his injured palm, and kissed her hard. His move took her by surprise, making her gasp into his mouth, which only aided him on in deepening the kiss, his tongue seeking out the familiar sweet warmth of hers. He didn’t pull away until his lungs started to burn, struggling for a proper breath, because all things were lost when it was just Connor and Evelyn.

Him and her.

Evelyn pulled him closer, tugging him out of the spray of water, and nearer to the glass doors. He hit the valve to shut the water off just before he kissed her again, the force sending them both out of the shower altogether. He didn’t feel the coldness of the room wrapping his body, and she didn’t seem to mind all that much when he started pulling off her sopping wet clothes, either.

Connor wanted out of the bathroom, away from his issues.