Rose Red

Big breath

Bella's POV

When I finally get up the stairs I see Danny. He turns and sees me and smiles. I quickly wave him over and lean down. I try to catch my breath as I hear his jogging toward me. "Are you okay?" I try and speak. "Water" I pause and take a big breath. "Please" He laughs at me but still walks to get a cup of water. I don't know why I'm always so out of breath. I'm not super skinny but I'm definitely skinnier than I was in middle and high school. Danny comes back and hands me the cup. I drink it down in three gulps. "Slow down Quinn" I glare up at him.

When I've finally caught my breath and Danny is back to "checking on patients" -he's really just walking up and down the halls- I make my way to August's room. I look at his door for a couple seconds before letting myself in. I see him standing in front of the window. He turns and looks at me and gives me a surprised but confused look. I give one right back. Didn't he ask for me? Why does he look surprised to see me? I go to speak at the same time he does. I quickly shut my mouth and let him speak. "Won't you get in trouble for having your hair down?" Oh.

August's POV

When she walks in the room the first thing I notice is her lion's mane cascading down her back. We've talked about her hair a lot and she's told me a couple stories about her getting in trouble for having it down at work. She nods her head at the ground. "I forgot to do it this morning" She gets quieter at the end and I can tell that she's embarrassed. I take 4 long strides over to her and push her chin up. I take a hair tie off my wrist and hold it in front of her face. She gets excited and makes grabby hands toward it before bringing her hands straight back down and giving me a look. I suspect that she wants to know why I have one.

Very simply explanation really. She left it in here at some point. "It's yours. You left in here" She nods her head at me but still doesn't reach for it. "You can take it" She beams at me and quickly grabs it before putting her hair up into a top bun. Once again I'm mesmerized by her doing it in less than a minute. She smiles up at me. "Thank you" I simply nod my head and walk back to the window before leaning against the wall next to it. I cross my arms and just watch her. She looks around for a couple seconds before catching my stare.

And she just stares back.

Bella's POV

He's just looking at me. Granted I'm just looking back but I have no idea why. I look down and think back to what Clare said. A couple phrases keep swirling through my mind.

A liking to you

Won't be a virgin

Then I remember her saying that he needed to speak to me and I look back up at him. He looks surprised again and brings his hands down to his crotch. "Clare said you needed to talk to me?" He slowly nodded his head and opened and closed his mouth a couple times. I cocked my head to the side and looked straight into his eyes.

August's POV

She looked up at me and I couldn't help myself. I immediately had to cover some parts. She didn't move her face. Just her eyes and she looked oh so innocent but when she cocked her head at me I couldn't even remember what words were. How does she look so cute doing the simplest things? Unbelievable. "Um, I just wanted to talk. You haven't really come up here at all today" She nods her head at me and takes a seat across from my bed. "What did you wanna talk about?"