Chapter 18

Shay

“Hold her straight!” yells a voice I’m not accustomed to.

Each a part of my physique feels battered and bruised. I don’t assume I’ve ever felt ache like this earlier than. A punch lands on my abdomen and I fall over right into a heap.

“You had been instructed to tough her up, bro. I feel she’s had sufficient.”

I’ve. I’ve had sufficient. Please, no extra, I yell in my head.

I don’t assume I’d have any vitality to scream out loud, and it could be pointless anyway, as a result of my voice is inaudible to everybody right here. I’m only a no person.

I cough and splutter, discovering it extraordinarily laborious to inhale air by means of the ache. Each breath looks like I’m making an attempt to breathe by means of an hermetic container; the one air out there is what I’ve exhaled, and each time I attempt to breathe it in, the oxygen will get much less and fewer. I gained’t have the ability to final for lengthy like this.

“Our job right here is completed. Allow them to get her to the hospital.”

The hospital sounds good, however I don’t know the place I’m, or if I’m even dreaming this complete factor. Absolutely they haven’t crushed me to inside an inch of my life to get me assist, proper?

My head is yanked off the bottom and his rancid breath makes me retract additional. The odor is sufficient to make me gag.

“Breathe a phrase of what has occurred right here, and this will probably be nothing in comparison with what you obtain subsequent time. What your loved ones will obtain.”

He pushes my head into the bottom laborious. I really feel like my mind is banging backwards and forwards inside my cranium. The ache is horrible and the darkness creeps over me once more, however this time, I relish the considered going beneath and by no means waking up once more. I can’t take this ache anymore.

I bounce ahead, holding my hand over my chest, respiration closely. My head is spinning, my sight is fuzzy, and my coronary heart is pounding in my chest. I really feel like I’m not getting sufficient oxygen in my physique.

“Hey.”

I hear Clay’s voice and I calm barely. I used to be simply dreaming.

I’m protected. I’m alive. It’s throughout with.

“It’s only a nightmare, babe. I’ve acquired you. I’ll let nothing ever occur to you once more.”

Clay sits on the aspect of my mattress and strokes my palms. He’s light with me, one thing I really like about Clay. It’s really easy to like him. He’s the alternative of most males that stroll this Earth.

“I really like you, Clay,” I blurt out.

I’ve waited so lengthy for him to listen to these three little phrases I’ve been whispering into the darkish abyss, that now I simply want him to listen to them from my very own mouth. I want him to know that I do love him.

I open my eyes and stare at Clay. He’s simply gazing me like I’ve grown horns in my sleep.

“Say that once more,” he croaks.

I smile. “I really like you, Clay. I’ve needed to inform you that for thus lengthy. I simply by no means thought it could occur.”

All of a sudden, I really feel shy and anxious. Is he going to say it again? Has he moved on with out me? I imply, I wouldn’t blame him if he had. I didn’t put him first all these years in the past. Why ought to he put me first now?

Clay locations his palms on my cheeks and makes me look him within the eye. “Cease overthinking my silence. I’ve liked you for the reason that first second I laid eyes on you. I really like your sass, your stubbornness, and your energy. I really like all the pieces about you, Shay. I by no means thought I’d hear you say these three phrases, however they imply the world to me.”

Tears roll down his cheeks, and in contrast to the Clay I do know, he doesn’t do something to cover his emotion from me. That is the actual him. That is what I’ve completed to him.

“I’ve stated them quite a bit currently. I used to be all the time hoping and praying that you just’d hear it. Loopy, I do know.”

“Now that I’ve heard them, I don’t need to go a day with out listening to you say it. Obtained it?”

“I’ve acquired it.”

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