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actually thought that Beth might fall over. She looked truly and utterly
terrible and it was alarming.
Hadn’t June just asked her a few days ago if she thought something was
off with Beth? If the stress was getting to her? Yes, yes, she had. Arabella
knew June had booked a time to speak with Beth soon. She’d been so busy
lately, but she was writing her an email. Yes, she certainly remembered June
telling her that she was writing something, and she was going to meet with
Beth in person after she’d had time to digest what she’d written and make
sure everything was okay.
Beth extended a hand that looked like a claw. She grasped for the arm of
the chair and pulled herself into it, not so much sitting down as collapsing.
Arabella watched her, her skin so milky white that the vein throbbing in her
forehead was nearly visible. The pulse pounded at her neck, leaping in time
to the amount of times that Beth swallowed.
Arabella’s first instinct was that Beth had just found out she was sick,
and it was something terrible
and terminal and she’d come in because she
needed someone to talk to. She didn’t look well at all. Arabella clenched
her teeth against the outpouring of questions she wanted to ask. She told
herself to be patient and wait for Beth to talk to her. She didn’t want to
stand over her, so she forced herself to sit back down in her chair. She
nearly missed it and gave an anxious little laugh when it skittered out
behind her, and she caught it at the last second before she fell on the floor.
Beth stared at Arabella. Arabella tried to maintain eye contact, but it was
getting unnerving. Beth hadn’t blinked once, she swore it. She stared,
silently willing Beth’s eyelashes to flutter. She even blinked a few times
herself, dramatically, hoping that Beth would follow suit, but she didn’t.
“I-I did…”
Arabella leaned forward. She tried to smile softly, calmingly,
encouragingly, but that sentence started with I did, not I am. Not, “I’m
