Chapter 2 #2
Until I nearly tripped going down the stairs toward the parking lot, making my heart start racing like it was trying to hurl its way out of my chest. By the time I got to my car, everything felt like it was shutting down.
My vision had narrowed, the edges sort of a grayish fuzz, and my ears were ringing.
This didn’t happen a lot, but it had happened before. The only thing that made it go away was rest, and there wasn’t a chance in hell I was driving in city traffic with my head foggy and my vision compromised, so I needed a different way to get home.
Fumbling with my phone, I scrolled past my brother’s name because the last thing I needed was for him to turn into a hulking grizzly, attempting to command me better with the sheer force of his will.
I landed on Nash a few swipes later, then said a little prayer he was home because his schedule could be very random, and I hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it yet.
“Forest? You okay?”
He always answered the phone like that, but it was only ever with me. I didn’t know what that meant. “Hey, yeah. Well, actually…no. Um.” I stopped. My ears were ringing, and there was a weird smell happening. Like…like ammonia? And there was a weird, waving flashing light in my periphery.
That was not normal.
“What’s going on? Where are you?”
“Campus,” I said. My voice sounded a little hollow and his voice was muffled by the ringing in my ears. God, what was happening to me? “I don’t feel very well. Any chance you can pick me up?”
“Actually, yeah. I’m not too far from you. I had to drop off a couple of things Bean forgot in the attic. What parking lot are you at?”
“I can send you a pin.” My hands were still shaking and kind of floppy, but I could work the screen for that. “Sorry for being an inconvenience—”
“Don’t you dare,” he ordered. My mouth snapped shut like I was trained to do whatever he said. Interesting. “Send me that pin. I’ll be there in two shakes.”
The line went dead, so I sent him my location, then lay my head back and closed my eyes. Resting and steady breathing also helped. Not that I could do that often when I was late and rushing to class—especially since I was chronically late all the time.
But I had all summer to sit at home or sit in my office and rest my body from everything I’d put myself through. So that was good…right?
I attempted to swallow as saliva pooled in my mouth, but everything began to feel a little funny. I was struggling to keep hold of my thoughts, and the ringing in my ears got worse. My eyes were open, but everything was a dim fog, and then black started to creep around the edges.
Trying to take a deep breath, I felt like my lungs were fighting me. God…what was happening?
What—
“…Forest. Hey? Shit, do I need to call 911?”
“Mmph.” I meant to say no, but the only thing that came out was garbled consonants.
Seconds ticked by, and as they did, things started to clear up.
I could see better, I could move my arms, I could breathe all the way.
I unstuck my tongue from the roof of my mouth and looked over to see Nash crouched beside me, my car door wide open.
I licked my lips, and god, my mouth was dry. “Hello.”
“Hello?” He let out a high, tense laugh. “Are you serious right now?”
Sitting up a little, I shifted toward him. “When did you get here?”
“Maybe a minute ago.”
Had I fallen asleep? “How long was I dozing?”
“Dozing? Forest…” He stood and passed a hand down his face with a small groan. “You weren’t sleeping, bud. Your eyes were open.”
That wasn’t good. “Oh.”
He grimaced, then crouched again and reached up. For a moment, I thought he was going to cradle my face, but instead, he pressed two fingers to my neck, feeling for my pulse. “A little fast, but steady. Do you know what happened?”
“Just a—ah.” I had no words because, no, I didn’t know. That was new. “I think I let stress get to me.”
He looked unconvinced. “Can you walk? I think I should take you to get checked out. I can take you to the ER near the house—”
“No!” He blinked in surprise at the strength of my protest. “Sorry, but no. I can’t afford that right now.”
“Your insurance kicked in, didn’t it?”
Yeah, it had, but I wasn’t about to have an ER bill.
I’d made the mistake of going once the year before, and I had only just gotten done paying the twenty grand it had cost me after all was said and done.
And all the tests had come back normal, so it had been pointless.
I was not in the mood to go bankrupt over this.
“Look, can we just go home? If I feel worse, or if it happens again, I promise I’ll get checked out.”
He gave me a dubious look, then extended both hands toward me and helped me step out of the car. I was still a little wobbly and off balance, and it took a moment to convince my feet to start moving, but once we were going, I felt a little better.
Well, apart from being exhausted, of course. And the fact that I still had an aura in my periphery, which meant a migraine was incoming. Oh, and the weird smell in my nose was still there. And my ears were still ringing. So yeah, maybe I wasn’t much better.
I said none of this aloud as I got in the car and lay my head back on the seat.
“Forest,” Nash said softly after starting the car.
“Mm?”
“Look, I know I haven’t been doing this job a long time, but I’ve been at it a while, and I’m not convinced this is stress.”
I turned my head to the side to look at him, and his brows were furrowed. He was worried. Reaching out, I traced a touch over the left one. They were thick and gorgeous. “You’re really good-looking,” I said. Oh crap, where did that come from?
He chuckled softly. “Thank you, honey. But I’m being serious. What happened back there looked a bit like a seizure. Have you ever had one before?”
I felt a cold sensation washing over me. Panic. “Nuh-uh,” I told him. “I don’t know what happened, but isn’t a seizure a lot of, you know, seizing?”
He snorted and shook his head. “Not always. I’ve seen ’em a couple of ways. I want you to promise me you’ll get checked out, okay? For my peace of mind, if not yours.”
I’d only known this man a short time, but it was already impossible for me to tell him no. I let out a sigh and shrugged. “You’re worse than Creek.”
“Where do you think he learned it all?”
That wasn’t true, of course. Creek had always been insufferable when he was worried.
But I couldn’t help a tiny grin anyway as he finally put the car in reverse and backed out of his spot.
“He’s been like that since I was a kid. You two are two peas in a pod.
I’m surprised you weren’t his bi-awakening.
” Oh my god, did I seriously just say that aloud?
Nash chuckled again as he pulled out onto the main road, stopping immediately because afternoon traffic was always hell. “Oh, honey, he’s not my type at all. I love him to death, but he’s better off with Heath than an old man like me.”
“Mm, not old. Not even close,” I said. The fatigue of all this was weighing even harder on me now, and it was starting to feel a little too easy to sink into it. Sleep was clawing at me, and I wanted to give in. “Mind if I doze off?”
He glanced at me, then reached out and brushed a few strands of hair off my forehead. “Close them pretty peepers. I’ll wake you when we get home.”
“Peepers,” I said with a laugh. “Never mind, you are old.”
He winked. “Told you.” Nash’s smile faded a bit as he stared at me, then he brushed a touch down my jaw. “Seriously. We’ll talk about all this later. You just get some rest right now. I’m right here if you need me.”
“Thanks,” I said.
I think I said. It was hard to tell. Sleep was an impossible force, and it was taking me out like the high tide took the sand.