It takes three days before I see him again, and I gave up on knocking on his door yesterday. I’m sitting with Aubrey and Calvin, the warmth of the morning sun filtering in through the window. Grey strides up to Aubrey and Calvin, embracing them both in a hug and his unexpected arrival takes me aback. His aura wraps around me in a cocoon, and I must keep my mouth shut to avoid saying something foolish.
Grey sits across from me, and tension grows between us, though his eyes only linger on me for a moment. A feeling of unease remains between Grey and me, a reminder of the times I was in his room, and the people around the breakfast table can clearly tell something is off. There is no sound of conversation in the air, everyone is simply eating their food or poking around the plate aimlessly, something I’m also doing. While the institute around us–with all the other patients–lives on in its own little bubbles of contentment, it’s as if someone poked a hole in our bubble with the sharpest needle they could find.
Aubrey, their dark hair tightly swept back in a bun that emphasizes their face characteristics, flicks their gaze between the two of us multiple times. Thankfully, Jaqueline isn’t here today either, as she is still sick. From across the table, Calvin and Aubrey look over at us as I absentmindedly stab at my food with a plastic fork, and Grey rests his head on his palms.
“What did the food do to you?” Calvin asks with irony, offering me a smile.
With a loud clatter, I drop the fork to the side of the plate and sigh, avoiding their gaze. It’s been a little over a week since Aubrey started offering me their food, and I’ve had weird memories and nightmares since then when I passed out in the hallway. This morning I woke up with a gasp, my throat raw from a scream as the same nightmare of that memory I experienced when I first arrived here kept playing in my head.
The name Lily Blight.
A court full of people.
A five-year prison sentence without parole.
That same nightmare and memory, then nothing more, but the headache has lingered ever since.
When neither of us says anything for several seconds, Aubrey’s voice fills the room with joy.
“Come on guys, what’s up?”
Grey lifts his head and stares at me with his deep, blue eyes, and I can’t help but roll my eyes in response to his audacity. I’m still so angry about the events that unfolded between us that I can’t bring myself to accept that he was right, so I’m lashing out at him. Despite this, I’m still concerned about him. He appears to be more exhausted than usual, and no one has seen him in days.
“Okay,” Calvin says, dragging out the ‘O’ as he takes Aubrey’s hand. “We will leave you two lovebirds to it.”
My gaze darts toward them immediately, and Grey follows suit. Aubrey chuckles before leaving me with the rest of their food and exiting the cafeteria.
As soon as the two leave, I’m left alone with Grey. His gaze is like a caress, the warmth sending shivers down my spine, and I do my best to look away, needing to avoid his stare. As a matter of fact, I seem to ignore him in one way or another all the time. Anything to avoid confrontation with my feelings.
I look around, noticing that some patients still eat, but most have gone along with Calvin and Aubrey.
There is still no sign of Rebecca.
My chin rests on my palms for a moment before I look up into Grey’s blue eyes, which have not stopped watching me for quite some time.
“I won’t apologize, you know.”
His voice is raspy, and it grates like sandpaper over each syllable. It sounds like he hasn’t spoken yet today, and considering it’s breakfast time, and he hasn’t spoken at all during the entire meal, that’s probably the case.
When my tongue darts to wet my lips, his gaze quickly shifts to my mouth before returning to my eyes. His look is subtle, almost unnoticeable, but when our eyes meet, I feel the electricity between us, which tells me he’s just as attracted to me as I am to him.
Fuck, I’m so screwed.
When I don’t utter a word, he continues speaking. “I know you are upset about a few days ago, and I won’t apologize for my actions because you know as well as I do that I’m right. No need to be embarrassed about it.”
His boyish grin is warm and mischievous, making it hard to tell if he’s innocent or sly.
Arrogant prick.The words are at the tip of my tongue, but before I have the time to say anything, the scraping sound of his chair is heard as he pulls it out. And before I have the time to stop him, he already has his back turned against me, walking out of the cafeteria with purpose.
Even though I have no appetite, I know I must eat something to prevent the guards from critically gazing at me. Jokes on them; I’m not even eating the food they feed me.
I snatch the plastic fork and devour my scrambled eggs, which look reasonably tasty in my desolation. This is how it’s supposed to be, me eating alone with no one to talk to. These past few months, I’ve fooled myself, for which I’m sorry, pretending to be someone I’m not and getting to know people when I know it will only end up in a complete fucking tragedy if I do so.
I’m heading toward my room when a wave of nausea and a horrible headache overwhelms me, sending me staggering forward. As I make my way through the hallway, my legs quiver with each step, and I feel like I’m walking on slippery, slimy ground. Patients shuffle past me, their gazes lingering, but none of them seem to recognize how much pain I’m in, and if they do notice, they don’t bother helping me. A deep groan escapes my mouth as my hand instinctively moves to my temple, trying to relieve the pain.
It doesn’t work.
This ache is so intense that I can barely see through the black cloud of dots imbuing my vision, which leads me to collapse against the wall, barely able to take more steps. As I walk through the clinical hallway, I feel the eyes of the patients on me, though no one speaks, and the brightness of the fluorescent lighting only intensifies my discomfort. My limbs are unsteady, my whole body trembling as I approach my room and step inside, quickly locking it behind me. It’s an effort to find the bed, but once I do, I sit down on it and plant my feet on the cold floor.
