Chapter 24
I couldn’t afford to get caught. If he saw me, it would be over. I’d have to explain myself, and I wasn’t sure I could come up with a good excuse.
Then, just as I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, I saw him move. He glanced around, his eyes scanning the hallway. I held my breath, praying he wouldn’t look in my direction. He didn’t. He didn’t see me. After a long, agonizing moment, he turned back around and continued walking down the hallway.
I exhaled in relief, my heart still racing in my chest. I waited for what felt like an eternity, watching the space where he had been, making sure he wasn’t coming back. When I was certain it was safe, I pushed myself off the wall and began moving again, this time even more discreetly. I kept my steps light, my eyes locked on the back of his figure as he moved ahead.
But then, as I rounded the next corner, everything came crashing down.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
There, standing at the corner, staring directly at me, was Kyle.
1 froze. Literally froze. It was like time stopped, and I was caught in the headlights of Kyle.
For a moment, I was just standing there, staring at him, probably looking like a deer who’d accidentally wandered into a lion’s den. I had no plan. No clever Jexcuse. Nothing.
Finally, my brain kicked into gear–barely.
“Hi, Kyle…” I said, wincing at how awkward it sounded, but I wasn’t about to turn and sprint down the hallway like a complete lunatic. Well, I was already a lunatic for following him this far, so what’s one more awkward moment?
“I was just… uh…” I fumbled, my mind racing. What the hell am I even saying?
“I wanted to thank you for last night,” I blurted,
Wow, that was smooth. Good job, Ashley.
Kyle’s gaze remained steady.
“Uh,” I continued, trying to recover, “you know, for driving me home, and for the, uh, tea.” Yeah, that sounded better, right? Totally. “The herbal… hangover….
tea…?”
I cleared my throat, mentally kicking myself. This was why I shouldn’t be here. Why I shouldn’t have followed him. Why I should’ve stayed in the waiting room with Violet and pretending nothing was going on.
But here I was. Trying to cover up a ridiculous situation with more ridiculous words.
He finally spoke, his voice low.
“Are you following me?”
Shit.
“Not following!” I said a little too quickly. “I just… wanted to thank you. I saw you come out of the car and figured this was the right moment to say thank you, and yeah…”
God, I was rambling.
Kyle’s gaze stayed on me and I felt the weight of it in my chest. Then, he asked, his tone slightly more pointed:
“So, you’ve been following him from the park?”
Iblinked, thrown off by the question, and nodded, “Yeah, I guess so.”
There was a brief pause before he asked, “Oh. So, how are you feeling now?”
I exhaled sharply, the tension in my chest easing just a little. “Better now,” I replied.
The silence between us stretched, thick and awkward.
1/2
Chapter 24
I de su es
Then, without thinking, 1 blurted out, “What are you doing here?”
The question slipped from my mouth before I could stop it, and I immediately regretted it. What business is it of mine? But at that point, I had already followed him this far, so I figured I might as well know why I was trailing him like a creep.
Kyle’s jaw tightened as if he was debating whether or not to answer. For a moment, I thought he might just walk away without saying another word. But then he did speak, his voice guarded.
“Therapy,” he said simply.
Therapy?
The word hit me harder than I expected, like a punch to the gut. Kyle? Therapy? What could be wrong? What had happened to him
As much as I hated him–everything he’d done, everything he’d put me through–there was a small, unexpected wave of pity that washed over me. But I quickly shut that down. There was no connection between us anymore. No reason for me to care and I wasn’t about to ask him what kind of therapy, or why, or what had led him here.
“Oh, I see,” I murmured, nodding even though I wasn’t entirely sure I did. “I should probably leave now.”
I turned away before he could say anything else, before he could look at me with that infuriatingly calm expression that made me question everything I thought I knew about him.
So I walked away, each step feeling heavier than the last, the awkwardness of the moment following me like a shadow.
What the hell was I even doing?
