Page 89 of Stay With Me

Don’t go crazy,she silently told herself.He’s high as a kite so he probably doesn’t even know what he’s saying.

He was also calling her “Sammie,” which was cute, but it only underscored the fact that he wasn’t exactly back to his right mind yet.

Regardless of him being in his right mind or not, his drug-induced declaration of love was kind of moving. It probably had a bit to do with the fact that she’d hardly slept at all since before they left for their trip, as well as her still traumatized state of mind over the whole thing, her extreme gratitude that he was not actually dead, and her relief that he’d saidI love youand notI hate you, Samantha. How could you let this happen?Whatever it was, she was assaulted by the feeling of her throat constricting and her eyes welling up yet again, as she stifled a tiny whimper and pressed her face harder into his chest. She felt him cradle the back of her neck while he gently rubbed circles over her back. She realized it was pointless to try to stave off her emotions so she simply let the tears quietly come, and with them, a reciprocation of the words he’d told her mere moments before.

“I love you, too.”

She’d read in the past about people who fell in love after experiencing a traumatic event together so she decided it wasn’t a big deal that she said it. Who knows? Maybe she meant it. It wasn’t exactly the time to psychoanalyze him or herself, and he probably wouldn’t remember it anyway so she just went with it.

Finally, the tears subsided and she lifted up off his chest to sit back down in her chair. He weakly and wobbly lifted an arm to clasp her wrist.

“What happened to your arm?”

She rubbed the edge of the bandage. “I got stung by a scorpion.”

His sleepy eyes grew wide and his mouth opened as if he was going to speak, but couldn’t put words together so she patted his hand again.

“Don’t worry, Nick. I got a shot and it’s all better now. Still pretty sore, but I’m fine.”

His brow furrowed. “It’s okay now?”

“Yeah.”

“Why are you in a wheelchair?”

“Oh.” She paused to laugh. “The venom messed up my stomach pretty bad so I’m having trouble keeping food down. And I was really dehydrated. So now I’m a‘fall risk’.” She curled her fingers in air quotes and then pointed to her bright yellow hospital bracelet. “See? They’re worried that I’ll pass out if I walk around. I had to promise the nurse I’d stay in this chair in order to come sit with you.”

His brow continued to furrow in apparent confusion so she reached forward to rub his forehead with a thumb. “I’m getting pretty good with it. Maybe later we can have a chair race.”

She forced another laugh, hoping to make light of things, but he didn’t laugh back. He simply continued to stare at her with the same befuddled, awestruck expression. She became the tiniest bit uncomfortable, not knowing exactly what to do now that he was awake again, but not quite back to normal.

“How are you feeling, Nick?”

“Uh, I don’t know. Confused. Confused is probably the best word I can think of.”

“What’s confusing? Do you remember anything? What’s the last thing you remember?”

He stared at her for a few moments while his eye rims tinged red once again. He appeared to swallow heavily, and then rubbed his fingertips firmly over his eyes. She imagined it must have been incredibly traumatizing for him in particular. He must have believed he was about to die just as much as she had. So she held his hand and gave it a squeeze, intending to apologize and tell him he didn’t have to talk about it, only for him to speak first.

“You were dying. And there wasn’t anything I could do to help you.”

It was a confusing statement, but she just nodded as little blips of the night in the desert flashed inside her mind.

“I know how that feels. It’s scary. But, look.” She used his palm to pat her face. “See? I’m still here. So are you. We’re both going to be fine.”

She leaned forward to rest her forearms on the bed and smiled, hoping to set him at ease.

“It was probably just a bad dream, Nick.”

But his reaction to her words made it clear they were far from comforting. His eyebrows knitted and his eyes welled up again. He looked up at the ceiling and swallowed.

Maybe he was in pain.

“Are you hurting?”

He gave a small, breathy laugh. “Yeah. You could say that.”

“I’ll call the nurse. Maybe they can up your meds.”