Page 231 of The Night Shift

She pours it into the tumblers and slides one to me across the counter. “Cheers?”

I raise mine. “What are we cheers-ing to?”

“Hmm. How about cheers to me for finally getting my best friend back for good?”

“That’s unnecessarily dramatic, but okay.”

We clink our glasses. I take a sip. It’s a bit less sweet than I remember. A bit more acidic. Maybe I just remember it wrong. Memory’s funny like that. Unreliable. Sometimes I think mine’s defective by design.

“Hey, Hol?”

“Yeah?” I lean back against the back of the couch, glass still in hand.

“Can I ask you something?”

“I don’t know, can you?” I already have a bad feeling it’s going to be about Theo, then feeling even worse because — God, I need to stop thinking about him so much. It’s becoming embarrassing. Borderline clinical. Like there’s something malfunctioning in my brain, and the only symptom ishim. Pathetic. I take a large gulp of the drink. The sweetness hits the back of my throat but doesn’t settle anything. The words in my head twitch and shiver, trying to rearrange themselves into something manageable. My mouth feels like I’ve swallowed ash.

“Is everything all right between us?” Cami asks. “Like genuinely?” She sets her glass down and stares at me.

“Of course, it is.” I smile too tightly. There’s a faint tremor in my throat. I lift the glass and finish the rest of the drink in one go. “I promise I’ve just been MIA because of my schedule. And also the whole fucking stalker bullshit that’s still not over. I really thought it was Nate, you know? But then you got attacked. And it became pretty obvious that I had failed once again, to protect the people I love.”

“People you love? You love me?”

My body feels disconnected from my feet. “You’re my best friend, Cami. Of course I love you.”

“Right.” Her voice sharpens — just a little. The edge is thin, but it’s there. “Well, I’m sure you and Theo will figure everything out. The anomaly in the texts, the severed head —”

I freeze.

I frown. My thoughts spin, trying to latch onto something solid. “What did you just say?”

Cami just stands there. “Hm?”

My mind stutters. There’s a tightness in my chest that wasn’t there a second ago, the kind that makes it hard to draw a full breath without it catching on the way out. “I…I never said anything about a severed head.”

“Sure you did,” she says, her words sharp, cutting through the haze in my mind.

My head feels heavy, like it’s packed with fog. I blink at her, trying to process what she’s saying, but it doesn’t add up. I feel…I should sit down. “What…what is happening?” My voice is slurred, and I’m aware of the way my tongue trips over the words. Everything’s off. Distorted.

Cami sighs and takes a slow step around the kitchen island toward me, her movements deliberate, controlled.

I try to focus on her, but it’s like the world is sliding out of place. There’s a buzzing sound in my ears, like a mosquito trapped inside my skull, everything shifting and mutating, and something heavy weighs down my eyelids.What the hell is happening to me?

I swallow thickly, trying to clear the fog, but I can barely keep my eyes open. I glance down at the empty glass in my hand, then back at her. “You…did you put something in my drink?”

Cami scoffs. “Don’t be so dramatic. It’s just a mild sedative to make you more compliant.”

Wha…what the fuck?

I open my mouth, but my mouth feels too thick, words slurring into one another like they’re trying to escape me. It’s all so blurry.

“You should be more careful, babe,” Cami says, her tone suddenly menacing, an edge creeping in that sends a shiver up my spine. “What ifIwas the psychotic stalker? What if I wanted to poison you? Your drink is the first thing I’d go for. Your survival skills need work.”

Her words hit me like ice. It’s loud and garish. Switching from ear to ear. Those words. So similar to what Theo had playfully said during our first dinner date.

I push myself up from the back of the couch, desperate to move, to clear my head. But my legs are weak. My vision swims, and before I can catch myself, my knee gives out. I crash to the floor, the glass shattering around me. A sharp pain slices through my palm as I try to catch myself.

The world spins in dizzying circles, my head too heavy, my body too slow to react. I look up at Cami, but her face is blurring into something unrecognizable.