NovelUSAChapter 155
Intense-1
The next day, I'm tidying up my room after a shower and before dinner. | grab a sweater | have on my bedside
table and in the process, my phone falls on the floor.
It flashes on and the numbers from the corner of the screen stare back at me.
My heart goes into overdrive.
They're small, unassuming, but they define my entire life at this point.
February 14th.
I've been avoiding my phone all day for this exact reason. | didn't want to be reminded. And now I'm here, in the
suffocating quiet, trying not to drown in it.
Burning rubber and gasoline.
The crunch of metal folding in on itself.
Flashing lights. Red, white, blue, like a strobe in the middle of the nightmare.
The images and memories bombard me, and | struggle to breathe.
| wrap myself tighter in the blanket | stole off the bed, dragging it withlike a shield as
| step onto the balcony of my room. The cold air bites at my face, but | welcit.
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It's sharp, cold... completely opposite to that day as | watched the first responders check my family for signs of
life.
| was hot that day, burning from the inside out.
The panic was too much.
| sit on the chair, knees pulled up to my chest, staring out into nothing. It's so dark and without lights coming
from a large city, | can see the stars and the moon perfectly. It's
beautiful.
The tears cquietly at first, slipping down my cheeks without much fuss. But it's the guilt that gets me. The
tight, gnawing weight in my chest that never really leaves, just burrows deeper on days like this.
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| press my face into the blanket, trying to silence the sound that escapes me. It's pathetic.
I'm pathetic.
| don't hear the door open at first. It's the soft creak of the floorboards that makeslift my head, wiping at my
face quickly, hoping I don't look as wrecked as | feel.
"Alina?" Zaid's voice is low, careful.
Relief floodsas soon as | see him. My body exhales without permission. Anyone else | might have faked a
smile for. Lied. But Zaid? | don't have the energy. And something
about him makesthink | don't need to.
His eyes soften when he steps out onto the balcony, barefoot despite the cold.
He knows. It feels like he always knows what I'm feeling just by looking at me.
| don't say anything; | don't trust my voice yet.
Without a word, he crouches down and scoopsup, blanket and all. He settles into the
chair withcurled in his lap, his arms solid and warm as they fold around me.
| bury my face in his chest, letting myself melt into him, breathing in the faint scent
of
his cologne. It smells like something safe.
"You wanna talk about it?" he asks after a moment, his fingers moving slowly against my back.
| shake my head. He nods and just holds me.
We sit like that for an hour and then | hear him breathe, as if wanting to say something. | feel his body tense
under me. Not in a way that makespull away, but enough that | notice. Enough that I lift my head, peering
up at him.
"What's wrong?" | ask, wiping at my face.
His jaw tightens as his gaze searches mine. He swallows hard.
"I don't know if it's my place to have this conversation with you," he says finally.
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| frown. "What do you mean?"
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He shifts, sitting up straighter, bringingwith him. His hand curls around my thigh. His eyes meet mine, and |
swear | stop breathing.
| blink. His eyes, god, his eyes. They're always intense, always burning with something intense, but now? It's
different.
He's looking atlike I'm the only thing that's ever mattered. Like I'm the only thing that will ever matter. Like if
| stopped breathing, he'd stop too. That if | disappeared, he'd burn the whole world down just to findagain.
It's not just want, or lust...it's need.
It's devotion.
It's this raw, almost feral kind of love that feels like it could crushif | let it. Chapter Comments
Visitor
am | the only one who feel like Zaid is the only one who really cares about her?
Visitor
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Honestly she's kidding herself Zaid is right. She jumped on a stranger just to feel. She doesn't even take tto
get to know anyone without jumping them because she just wants to be lost...
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