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“I am,” I say softly.
“Laura,” he repeats my name.
“What’s happening? Where am I?”
“You were…” He stops.
I frown, struggling to sit up. Suddenly, there are hands on me, and I startle when I realize it’s Alice and Jessi.
“What the hell?” I say in surprise, and then Alice throws her arms around me.
“You dumbass, why are you so bad at walking?” she weeps.
I hug her back, baffled. “I didn’t realize I was.”
“Alice, can you go get Lewis, please?” Jessi asks, gently pulling Alice out of my arms. My best friend sniffles and nods, giving me a huge scowl before she leaves the room?—
And I finally see the room.
“Hospital?” I question, brow furrowing.
Jessi sighs. From my other side, David has his head in his hands. His shoulders shake a little, and I look at Jessi quickly with alarm.
“You fell by the lake,” she says, her voice as soft and gentle as I’ve ever heard it. For a minute, I can really see how she’s such a good mom. “You tripped, and hit your head. You’ve been unconscious since yesterday.”
“Since yesterday?” I cry out in surprise. “That’s—a long time.”
“Laura,” David repeats.
Jessi and I exchange a glance. Squeezing my hand, she bends down and kisses my cheek. “Girlie, I am so glad you are okay. I’m going to go call your mom.”
“My mom?!”
But Jessi is already out of the room, and I have only just managed to actually sit up, so chasing after her isn’t an option.
David says my nameagain,and this time I turn to him.
He’s on the edge of the chair beside my bed, and when I look at him, I realize that he’s crying.
David hasn’t cried in front of me before. It hits me as something otherworldly. His eyes glisten with it, the tip of his nose and chin pink. He’s beautiful and sorrowful, like a painting.
I reach out for him, my fingertips brushing against the stubble on his cheek.
“Sorry, I fell?” I offer.
David lets out a wet laugh. Then he surges forward and kisses me.
It came out of nowhere—or maybe it didn’t. Maybe it was hours in the making, days, weeks—all I know is that one moment, David’s warm and tear-stained lips are on me, and the next, he’s halfway across the room.
He runs his hands down his face.
“I’m sorry,” he says, and his voice sounds too big for his body. “Jesus, I’m sorry, I’m?—”
“I’m not.” Suddenly, despite my headache and confusion and, weirdly enough, a voracious hunger, I remember my resolution before I apparently nose-dived for no reason. “David, I’m not sorry because I’m—I want you to kiss me.”
David lookswrecked.His eyes are still watering, his lips trembling, and his whole body seems to be curving towards me, like he’s stopping himself from running.
“David, I wanted to tell you?—”
