Page 30 of Embrace

“How would you know?”

“I watch you.”

We both freeze.

“I mean—” He clears his throat. “You…I’ve seen you. You go somewhere in your head.”

“Just thinking,” I say as my cop-out answer. It would be weird to admit that I daydream about the what-ifs. What if I didn’t testify against Victor? What if my mom never found my stepdad?

We spend the next two hours studying, and when I read over his assignment, it’s not bad but nowhere near good enough for Dr. Dunn.

When I take out a red pen and point out the errors in his work, he groans. It’s a repeat of that for the next hour, and when I tell him that’s all the time I have, he jumps up in a haste to exit. He tosses the takeout and gathers his things as he heads toward the door.

“In an hour—”

“Read over it. I know, I know,” he says. “Same time Thursday?”

I nod, and when he leaves, I catch myself smiling. But just as quickly as he left, he comes rushing back.

“Did you forget something?” I ask.

Kian nods once and before I can ask another question his arms wrap around me.

“What—?”

“Six seconds.”

So we stand there, and his hug soothes a craving I didn’t realize had gotten so sharp.

•••

“Where is it?”I mutter to myself as I rummage through my room at my parents’ house the next morning.

Spending time at the dorm and at their house means I’m bound to lose an assignment or two. I could have sworn I left the paper on my bookshelf.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I slide a finger across the screen to answer it.

“I found your assignment,” Sierra says. I jerk out from beneath my bed, smacking my head on the wooden frame.

I rub a hand over the sore spot. “Seriously? Where was it?”

“Under a candle on the one barstool we have. Terrible spot, Scar.”

“Can you leave it on my bed? I’ll grab it before my class.”

“Yup. How are your parents?”

I look in the mirror to check if there’s a bump on my head. “Living like empty nesters. I found a dumbbell in my room. My dad texted me that you’re skating really well. He’s been talking to Lidia too.”

“Oh,” she takes a long pause, clearly uncomfortable with the praise. “I’m getting there.”

“You’re there, Si. You’re chasing after something you already have.”

She snorts. “You wouldn’t say that if you saw me today.”

I’m immediately on high alert. “Why? What happened?”

Ever since we’ve been on campus, her panic attacks have been more frequent. I’ve been able to catch a few and help her through them, but I hate that I can’t always be there.