I’m vomitting.That’s not even the wild part. Listen to this.I’m vomitting, and William Ravenstone is holding a large bowl under my face. I can smell the pungent, acidic odor of whatever I’m throwing up, like rotten cheese. I throw up more. His wrist is holding up my limp head, my hair gathered in his fist.“This is gross…” I groan in-between heaves. “It’s so- I’m so-”“Shh,” he replies, and I fall back into slumber, shuddering and gasping while he wipes my face with something cold and damp.Time passes.I think time passes, although I have no sense of it.The clock says 3:05 A.M when I sit upright again. A wet compress falls into my lap. I glance over and jerk in surprise at the weight on the bed next to me.“How are you feeling?” William asks, shifting a chess piece on the chessboard in his lap. He’s sitting against the headboard, lit up only by the glow of the lamp next to him on the nightstand. I notice a stack of medications arranged there neatly too. My gaze moves back to the c
When I wake up again, it’s morning, sunlight streaming into the room through the large windows and opened curtains. I blink a few times o clear away the bleariness of my sight, looking around and feeling a twinge of disappointment upon noticing that the space on the bed close to me is empty, and so is the couch. I stretch and hear my bones crack like my joints are rusty and in need of oiling.With a stifled yawn, I sit upright.The maddening headache is gone, and so is most of my fever, although I can’t remember much what has happened in the past twenty-four hours. My stmach still feels queasy, and very, very empty. It growls, as if to acknowledge my thoughts.I glance around the room for anything to eat, and my gaze zeroes in on an ancient-looking wooden bowl on the nightstand. With a series of twists and crawls and groans, I make it to the other side of the bed, and notice a small note with neat cursive handwriting. It says: EAT ME. Vaguely, it makes me recall the things that Alice
Unfortunately, I cant stab Mr. Ortega, or Mrs. Valerie, or the Doctor they came to see me with. William had given me one of his shirt -which was too large and too gray in my opinion, but I wasn’t complaining because it smelled like him and only common decorum was keeping me away from balling up the shirt and deeply inhaling it until I pass out of breath.I sneak a peak at William who’s leaning forward and talking with Doctor Foster. He’s not shirtless -to my bitter disappointment and dismay, he’d pulled on a black shirt before letting them in. These three adults standing in the middle of the room like they had teleported there, had robbed me of a shirtless Ravenstone.Still, he looks quite dashing in that black t-shirt.“Caillou?”I snap back, looking to Mr. Ortega. “Yes?” I answer, my throat still sore, my voice mostly croaky.“I asked if you can remember what you ate and drank before passing out back at the restaurant.” He repeats, shifting from one foot to the other, and staring do
I awake slowly, blinking and staring up at the hotel room ceiling that’s now starting to look as familiar as the one back in my dorm.The first thing I feel is the bitterness in my throat and the heavy sadness in my chest. Memories of the previous day slip back into my mind like unwanted phantoms. The parts of myself I’d kept glued together had come apart; shattered, in the rain. My tears had turn hysterical fast, and William had been there, asking me what was wrong and then holding me close as I wailed, once he realized I was far from being able to form coherent words.The pain of the accident, of losing my father, of my family being fractured beyond repair, had felt raw and fresh yesterday. But it was beyond just that. I’d cried because I was sad, because I was confused, and angry, and happy to be alive. The silver could’ve killed me, but it didn’t. I’d survived a tragedy once, and I’d blamed myself for being alive after it, but then I’d survived a second time, and I realized that s
The awkwardness is almost debilitating.I get dressed in the corner, quietly shrugging on my shorts and the polo shirt before pulling on the socks. William is gentleman enough to turn his back to me but apparently not gentleman enough to leave the room entirely. Would that be asking too much? Well, it didn’t matter anyways. I wanted him to stay, and I was done dressing.I run my fingers through my damp hair, loosening the few tangles. It will have to stay like that. I’d forgotten to add a blow drier to my packing list, and Wilma had been too busy being evil to notice.In the small vanity mirror, I look like myself again. And I have to say, Wilma did pick a really form-fitting outfit. Granted, I look like a preppy private school mean girl on her way to play golf and ruin lives, but I did make a very attractive preppy private school mean girl on her way to play golf and ruin lives.The fabric of the polo shirt is thin, and the temperature in the room a little chilly. And you know what t
Chapter 44:The rules of the game are quite simple.It’s almost exactly like truth or dare, but instead of having to complete a proposed dare when you opt for it, you strip; getting rid of one item of clothing at a time; each the equivalent of a dare. The idea behind the alteration is to get the people playing to be as honest as possible. Unless of course the players are eager to get their clothes off. It’s brilliant; I’m hitting two birds with one stone; getting Ravenstone undressed, and getting him to be honest with me for once, since I’m sure he wouldn’t be too eager to get naked in front of me.That’s if he agrees to it.I watch him quietly. He watches me back.I hold my tongue from explaining further, beyond the basic rules of what the game entails, that is. Half of the appeal of something like this is the intrigue and the mystery the idea is shrouded in. I wanted answers out of him. Maybe as badly as I wanted to get him undressed.“Isabella…” he runs a hand through his hair, sig
It takes us both approximately one full frantic minute to get dressed, rearrange the ivory table, the chairs, and ourselves. William dashes into the bathroom, locking the door behind him and I take a deep breath, sauntering over to the main door and opening it.“Ta da!” Akio cheers. “We brought-” He pauses, lowering the basket he’d held above his head like a trophy and sizing me up and down. “Were you in the middle of something?” He asks, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. He’s wearing a checkered blue and black 70’s disco suit, the pattern assaulting my eyes like a bad optical illusion. His matching cowboy hat is tipped back, the strings lost in his long black hair.My gaze darts to Bibah next to him, and she has the same narrowed look of suspicion, a slow smile creeping into her face. She’s in a gorgeous black studded abaya -the same one we’d shopped for together online, with a nude hijab a few shades darker than her skin tone. If it weren’t for all the glitter going on with Akio’s su
After a few more minutes of talking and walking, Bibah and I headed back in because we were both tired and the air had begun to get a bit chilly. We said goodnight at the doorstep of her hotel room, and I started back to mine, but not before getting a bombardment of questions regarding my health from Vahini Singh. I assured her I was fine, maybe even more than I assured my mom, and made a quick exit.With every step I took back towards my room, my heart fluttered, and a stupid cheeky smile stubbornly stayed plastered to my face. But I couldn’t help it. All of the events of the night keep replaying in my head over and over again that I had to question if it had really happened, or had been a fever dream from the silliest crevices of my imagination.William Ravenstone had kissed me.No, William Ravenstone had begged to kiss me.My cheeks heat up. All the confidence I’d felt surging through me while inches away from his lips? Gone. A peculiar anxiety mixed with a shyness foreign to me ov