26. Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kat
Iblinked. I was wet. I felt rain hitting my legs, but not my face.
I was shaking, but I wasn’t cold. I was actually warm. I KNEW that wasn’t right. My body and brain must’ve been duking it out, still.
But then I moved. But I didn’t move myself. I didn’t move. I was moved.
I thought maybe I’d been in the rain, and I was still in the rain. That tracked.
But I couldn’t feel cold hard concrete beneath me. That was wrong.
And then I heard it. And it all snapped into place.
“Please wake up. Please wake up. Please, Firecat. Please,” I heard being whispered like a prayer into my ear.
The ear that wasn’t pressed to his pounding heart.
I was tucked in tight to his chest, and he was wrapped around me, warming me and blocking the rain from my face.
He was terrified. I could feel him shaking. Hear and feel his heart.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of it. My parents, Andrew, my own decisions that hurt you. Just please wake up,” he continued. I shifted, trying to get my free arm to his cheek. I didn’t want to scare him. I had just had a panic attack and passed out. Unfortunately, that was the usual lately.
“Kat?” he said quietly, tentatively. I tried to speak but found my mouth and throat too dry to function. I swallowed, then tried again.
“I’m okay, Henry,” I started. I needed a second before saying more.
He must’ve grabbed me immediately once I’d passed out.
I was still breathing quickly and my heart rate was still sky high.
Which also meant he’d been following me this whole time.
I didn’t know what to do to get this man to leave me alone and save himself all this heartache.
He kept whispering. I wasn’t sure he’d heard me. I tried again, louder this time. A sharp pang went through me that thanks to me, this was how he was spending his birthday.
“Henry. Henry, I’m awake. I’m okay,” I said again, louder this time.
He pulled back a little this time to look into my face.
He was in a complete panic, even still. I slipped my arm up and around his neck, hugging him to me.
I buried my face in his neck, but not before noticing his white button-down was completely soaked through.
And his jacket was wrapped tightly around me.
I’d be lying if I hadn’t thought that this all had to have taken a toll on him mentally, too.
I knew it had.
But he just seemed to be doing so much better than me. Handling it better. Not as weak, maybe.
But in this moment, I realized everything else didn’t really matter right now. The future didn’t need to be solved, right now.
Other people’s opinions, right or wrong, didn’t matter right now.
What mattered is that nothing had been resolved. And then he’d found me unconscious on the ground in an alley in the pouring rain, on his birthday.
And it seemed to have snapped something inside him.
Trauma was a bitch.