Will hovered in the corridor while Charlotte wrestled open the door of the apartment. Fussing over my cuts, she made me promise her for the hundredth time that I'd call her from the airport.
My headache had been replaced by the irresistible urge to fall asleep where I was standing, making me zone in and out while Charlotte lectured me, again, for being an irresponsible and reckless asshole. Attention waning, my eyes drifted across the hallway where I was surprised to see some other close friends sitting by the door.
"My sneakers!" Charlotte had brought my beloved Chuck Taylors all the way from Arenosa with her.
"I knew you'd miss them. When Guillermo found them in your bedroom last night we wondered where you'd gone with no shoes." Charlotte shivered where she stood, as if briefly transported back to the previous night's terror. "That's when I realized that your suit was missing from the closet. That's when...we started to call everyone."
It wasn't just Charlotte; I owed a lot of people apologetic phonecalls and solemn promises never to do stupid dangerous shit again.
"Make sure that Zeph eats." Charlotte ruffled Will's curls as she passed him in the corridor. "See you at home."
I eased my battered body onto the sofa while Will hid in the kitchen. Eventually he joined me in the living room, taking a seat far away from me at the dining table. He looked pretty unscathed.
"You get hurt?"
"I'm OK." His eyes couldn't linger on me for longer than a split-second before turning down to his lap. "You look...in really bad shape, Zeph."
I shrugged. "Looks worse than it feels."
Silence cushioned us. Talking was difficult with Will sitting so far from me. I didn't wanna talk to him anyways. I just wanted to fall asleep, close to him, warm and safe until my flight.
That was what I'd come for, wasn't it?
"You...you want me to check if you got hurt?" I chanced.
Will teetered on the edge of the sofa, still too far away, arms outstretched while I ran shaky fingers along the dusting of cuts and grazes on his skin, probably from when he'd dragged Noah, and then me, onto the concrete wharf.
"It hurts here." He pulled up his T-shirt.
My heart stopped, fingertips stilling at the sight. A lurid wound traveled the length of his torso, from hip to armpit, the skin torn and mangled in ragged patches. The gash had been cleaned, but oozed blood from where parts had stuck to his T-shirt and reopened.
"I can't remember how it happened. Maybe when I was..." His face paled, eyes huge and terrified like he was still there in the harbor.
"Check me." I offered my outstretched arms, hoping that examining my hurts would distract him from the terror that had suddenly gripped him.
Will couldn't look at me at first. Frightened eyes scanned my arms, eyebrows pinching at the long cut from Noah's knife. Will turned my face back and forth, examining my black eyes and weeping cuts from where Noah had punched the shit outta me.
Each new injury he inspected seemed to send him back to the wharf, until it became too much for him.
"Zeph. You weren't breathing." He couldn't hold back tears.
I took him into my arms. "Shh. I'm OK."
He clutched me tighter against him with each sob, like he was scared I'd be plunged into the harbor again.
"You were so stupid, Zeph," he sniffed, trembling hands pulling every part of me close. "You weren't breathing."
"I'm sorry." Having Will back in my arms unraveled something inside me. I began to weep too.
YOU ARE READING
The Sigma Asset 🏳️🌈 (bxb)║AMBYS WINNER 2022
Mystery / Thriller**AMBYS 2022 WINNER** He'll never play piano again. That's what virtuoso pianist Zephyr has vowed to himself after escaping Sigma, the sprawling criminal organisation that once held him--and still holds his friends--captive in California's mega-city...
