Changing You ✦ The Sequel

Chapter 51 {R}

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✦ RILEY ✦

I woke up with a startle, not remembering when I had fallen asleep. Or how. I hadn't been anywhere near collected or calm enough to close my eyes, let alone fall asleep, and yet somehow I had.

My confusion didn't last long. Jonah didn't draw back in time, and I still felt the haze of tiredness, of comfort, inch back from the edge of my mind like a wave pulling back from the shore.

I fought the urge to scold at him.

Warner had already enjoyed too many opportunities to kill Zach, and wasted them all. There was something else, something more he wanted to accomplish.

Something worse. And we didn't have time to sleep on that.

"You needed the rest."

"I wasn't going to say anything," I sighed, meeting his eyes across the dark living room. I sat up, careful not to kick Lexa, whose face was stuffed deeply into the pillow on the other end of the couch.

"You didn't have to," Jonah breathed, keeping his voice low so he wouldn't wake up any of the others.

I stepped over Daniel's long legs and moved past Corbyn in the lounge chair, their loud, steady breathing very much betraying how fast asleep they still were.

I bit back a chuckle, hushing my voice as I took a seat next to Jonah at the dining table. "That has to be your doing, no one can sleep like that."

"Guilty," Jonah grinned lightly, glancing past me to Daniel's uncomfortable-looking sleeping position, his back popped up against the couch and his head fallen all the way back due to the lack of support.

We stared at his widely opened mouth maybe a little too shamelessly, enjoying the awkward sight maybe a little too much.

"How is he? Besides the neck hernia he's going to have when he wakes up."

Despite the joke, Jonah caught on to the sincerity of my question. He rested his elbow on the table, giving his head something to lean on. "Worried. He still feels the way he did. Feelings that deep never really leave completely, I guess."

My eyes snapped to his, knowing his words implied more than what I could bring myself to ask. I tried to convince myself Jonah meant the trauma rooted in our brains, and nothing more.

"But he's doing better."

"And them?" I tilted my chin towards the two halves that used to make such a happy couple, the space between them gaping like open jaws. "I was afraid they were gonna go for each other's throat more than once today."

Jonah's eyes moved between them, his voice softening even further. "It's not truly anger. It hurts them both to see each other. It's just a cover up, but they're both to headstrong to admit it." He turned to me, asking the same question that was hanging on my lips. "Do you know what happened between them?"

"The distance," I guessed with a shake of my head. "Drove them apart."

Jonah pursed his lips. "The distance drove all of us apart. But she's too hurt for that and he feels too guilty."

If Jonah didn't know what happened either, that meant I hadn't been the only one keeping stuff from him. A hot wave of regret spiked up my back, flushing my cheeks a scarlet red.

It was too dark for him to see it, but with the others peacefully sleeping, my emotions stood out like a candle in the night. It didn't take him much to pick up on them.