Starfall

Chapter 15 - Elyse

Ben is choking, and we only realize it once he's convulsing on the bench beside Kamal.

"Whoa, whoa!"

I bolt out of my seat and come around in front of him. His eyes are wide open and he's staring right at me, but he's not actually looking at me. His hands are on his throat, fingers wrapped tightly around his neck, thumbs pressing into his skin.

"Ben! Ben, stop!" I shout, trying to pry his fingers off his throat. Kamal attempts to help, too, until finally we're each holding his hands down.

"I'm sorry," he sobs, falling into me with all his weight. "I'm sorry."

With his head on my shoulder, I look up at Kamal in complete confusion. "It's okay," I tell him, even though I'm not sure what's happening. "Everything's alright."

Ben shakes his head and keeps shaking in huge, gasping breaths. "No. No, I can't."

Kamal watches as I pull him into a tight embrace on the ground. I don't know what's going on, or what's wrong, but for some reason, I can't let him suffer on his own. Not now.

He doesn't do much more than sob and mumble incoherent phrases into my coat, until after a few minutes, he wraps his arms around me and holds on for what seems to be dear life. I'm tempted to ask him what's going on, or why he tried to choke himself to death, but I know it's not a good time. For whatever reason, this is what he needs right now, so that's what I'll provide.

Kamal stares down at us with mostly confusion. He mouths, What in the world?

Since I don't have any better idea of what's going on than he does, I just nod. We'll figure it out when we get there.

Once Ben's breath has slowed for the most part, I gently push on his arms. This seems to wake him from whatever psycho trance he's fallen into, because he jerks upright and looks at me with red-eyed surprise.

His gaze drops to his arms that are still half-wrapped around my waist. He doesn't waste a second to pull away quickly and put a good chunk of distance between us.

"I—I'm sorry," he gasps, dragging his fingers shakily through his hair. It's only now, with his face in the light again, that I see a smear of blood on his chin.

I frown and gesture to it. "You've got, a, uh . . ."

He blinks, panicked, and lifts his hand to his chin. When his fingers come back stained red, his eyes go even wider as he quickly wipes it away.

There's a long, awkward hesitation that lasts a second too long before I manage to say, "What happened to you? You were fine before, and then you just—"

"Headache," he says hastily, nodding one too many times.

Kamal's brow lowers. "Uh, buddy, that did not look like a headache."

"No, really, my head is killing me."

In reality, I believe him. He doesn't look quite right, which is fair, considering the fact that he just choked himself, but he seems to be fatigued. If he didn't look ripped of all his energy before, he does now.

"Are you okay?" I ask carefully, tilting my head so I can meet his eyes. But his gaze is skittish now, like he doesn't want to look at me.

"Yeah . . . yeah, I'll be fine." Finally he looks back at me with those dark eyes of his. I try to look into his head and take a peek at the chaos he surely has enfolded through his thoughts, but he shuts me out before I have a chance to catch a glimpse of anything.

Then he goes rigid. His gaze moves up to something behind me, and when I turn and look, I see Leola approaching.

"Do you know how many times I've walked up and down this freaking mountain?" she yells, pumping into a jog to meet us as I rise to my feet.