Page 247 of Across His Line

Kylie laughs.

Rafe just stares at the TV.

Kylie and Nash leave.

Rafe and I watch the movie.

The movie ends an hour later. We let the credits run for the two minutes and then Netflix starts previewing other movies.

Rafe stands.

I look up at him. “Where are you going?”

“My room.”

“Oh.”

He looks down at me.

I don’t know why I expected something else. Of course he’s going to his room. It’s just three doors away.

He picks up his phone.

“You can stay,” I say quickly.

He stops.

It takes him a second to look at me.

“Yeah?”

The word does something stupid to me. Not because he wants to stay. Because he’s checking.

“Yeah.”

He looks toward the door. “I need my shit.”

“I think they’re in there.”

He nods. “It takes them twenty minutes tops.”

I giggle as he leaves.

I throw away the empty milkshake cups and put the blanket Kylie dragged off her bed back where it belongs. I change into the green pajamas and wash my face and move my notebook off the corner of my bed.

I’m putting my watch on the desk when somebody knocks once.

My hand stops.

For half a second, I’m back in October. My room is dark. My phone’s on my chest. The chain across the door. Then it’s gone.

I’m already smiling when I cross the room.

I open the door.

Rafe is standing there in sweats with his toothbrush in one hand, his charger wrapped around the other, and a clean T-shirt thrown over his shoulder.

He looks past me at the room.