Chapter Four: The party

POV: Haley

"Miss Winters. Are you still there?"

I'm on my couch, still in yesterday's clothes from Nathan's place, staring at a water stain I've been meaning to report to my landlord for weeks.

"We need you to come in for more tests."

"I heard you."

"Your levels are—"

"My levels are always something."

"These are different."

I sit up too fast and the room tilts. "Different how?"

"Your heart took too long between beats last night. We caught it on the monitor. If you'd been asleep—"

"I wasn't."

"Haley."

"I was awake. I'm telling you I was awake all through the night."

"That's not the point."

"Then go straight to the point."

She clears her throat. "Your body is changing faster than your medication can keep up with.

I walk to my window and lean on the sill, watching a woman lace her daughter's shoes below.

"Come in tomorrow. We'll run new tests and adjust the dosage."

"I'll think about it."

"Thinking isn't going to—"

I hang up.

---

I put music on because the quiet was getting a shape to it. I'm halfway through a sleeve of crackers when the notification comes through the campus group chat.

Kai Remington throwing a party Saturday. His place. Everyone invited.

Under it are forty messages.

Avriel: Wait. HIS house? Like the actual mansion??

Someone sends six crying emojis.

Another person: He's trying to buy friends already lol

Avriel: Who cares. Free drinks.

I type: I'll go.

Avriel: ????

Avriel: Who hacked haley

I toss my phone onto the couch before another message drops.

I go to my closet and pull out the black dress buried behind everything I actually wear.

Nathan saw it once and immediately looked somewhere else.

---

Nathan calls an hour later.

"Hey." I hear papers rustling on his end.

"Hey."

"I went past your first class and you weren't there."

"I'm staying in today. I wouldn't make the next one on time anyway if I left now."

He doesn't say anything for a second.

"Haley."

"About last night—"

"It's fine."

"It's not fine. You pulled away from me." I feel the strain underneath his voice.

"I was tired."

"You've been tired before Haley. That wasn't tired." His tone raises.

"Nathan."

He sighs, long and slow, and it lands in my chest like he meant it to. "I'm sorry," he says. "I didn't mean to pressure you last night."

I pause.

"I'm coming to breakfast tomorrow," I tell him. "I'll sit across from your mother and let her ask her questions about my future."

"That's not what I want from you."

The line goes quiet for a moment.

"I love you," Nathan says.

"I love you too."

My eyes stay on the black dress hanging from the door.

I don't realize the call has ended until the screen goes dark. I didn't tell him about the party. I didn't tell him about the cardiologist either.

I go back to check Kai's chat. Delivered. No reply. I don't know if I'm relieved or disappointed.

---

I lose sight of the front door almost immediately. There are people on every floor, spilling out of rooms, sitting on stairs.

Avriel finds me near the door. "You actually came." She grabs my arm with both hands.

"I said I'd come."

"You say a lot of things." She grins.

She looks at me and nearly swerves. "That dress is doing something."

"It's just a dress."

"Haley, that dress is not just doing nothing, okay?"

Avriel disappears into the crowd almost immediately after handing me a drink.

For a few minutes I feel like an actual person at a party and not a medical appointment with legs.

---

A guy I vaguely recognize from campus lifts his cup toward me.

"You're Nathan's girlfriend, right?"

I nod once because correcting men at parties usually creates more conversation.

He steps closer, not a lot, just enough to be deliberate. "Where is he?"

"Not here."

"So you came alone?" His breath is hot with alcohol.

"With a friend."

"But you're alone now." His hand lands on my waist like he already knows I won't move.

I try to step sideways but he shifts with me, a smirk on his face.

A girl nearby lifts her phone to record her friends and for a second I think about asking for help.

Then she turns away.

The guy's hand tightens around my waist.

"Where are you going?"

I grab his wrist and pull it. "Let go of me."

"Relax. I'm just being friendly." He says it pleasantly, his hand sliding lower. I try to wrench it sideways but he catches my wrist instead.

People squeeze past behind him but nobody stops.

---

I see Kai coming through the crowd towards us and I stop struggling. The guy notices and follows my gaze.

Kai takes in the whole picture in about two seconds.

"Problem?" The guy asks.

Kai looks at his hand on my wrist and the stillness in his face shifts into something else.

"Yeah."

The guy laughs.

"Mind your business, man."

Kai grabs the guy's collar and slams him into the wall hard enough that a picture frame rattles.

"The fuck—"

He leans in closer and says something to the guy. His face goes pale immediately.

Then Kai releases him. The guy straightens his shirt and wanders off.

Kai watches the guy disappear into the crowd and for a second I think he's angry at him until he looks at me.

"Nathan doesn't know you're here, does he?"

I blink.

"What?"

"You heard me." His voice is sharp.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I stutter.

"You knew exactly what kind of place this was, don't act surprised."

"Kai—" My voice breaks.

"You walked into a house full of drunk strangers wearing that, and you didn't think to—" He stops and closes his eyes for a second. When he opens them, they're different. Colder. "You know what. Never mind."

"Nathan worries himself sick over you and this is what you do?"

He turns and walks away.

---

And then Nathan is beside me, his hand gentle on my shoulder. "Haley?"

I didn't even notice him until his hand touched my shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

I look at him. The one who never makes me feel like I'm drowning and being saved by the same hand.

"Yeah," I say. "I'm fine."

He looks at my wrist and frowns. "What happened?"

"Nothing. Just someone being drunk."

"Come on, I'll take you home."

"I don't want to go home."

Nathan glances at me.

"Okay."

I wait for a lecture from him, but it doesn't come.

---

He opens the passenger door and waits.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

The traffic gets lighter the farther we go, streetlights blurring past the windows. A few times I think he's turning toward my building, but he doesn't.

Ten minutes later he pulls into the top level of an empty parking garage.

I look over at him.

"Really?"

"What?"

"This place?"

A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. "You said it was your favorite view in the city."

I'd mentioned it once almost a year ago during a random conversation.

We take the stairs to the roof.

From up here the city looks quieter than it actually is, some windows still lit despite the hour.

Nathan shrugs out of his jacket and drapes it over my shoulders before I can tell him not to.

We stand at the edge, leaning my head on his shoulder, saying nothing to each other.

---

After a while he drops me back home.

Nathan waits until I'm inside my building before he drives away. I know because I can still hear his engine from the window.

My phone buzzes against the counter.

A voice note from Avriel.

I open it.

"Haleyyy… You left your bag so I gave it to Kai along with your address because I would absolutely die if I tried driving right now."

The note cuts off.

---

Then the doorbell rings.

I open the door halfway, my hand blocking the gap.

Kai is standing in my doorway holding my bag, and he looks like whatever mood got hold of him earlier had worn off.

"Avriel was in no state," he says. "She gave me your address."

I take the bag and I'm about to close the door.

"What I did at the party—"

"Save it."

"I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have left you there," he says finally.

"Then why did you?" I ask.

His jaw tightens.

"I can't explain it in a way that makes it any better." He lifts his head and suddenly he's looking right at me.

The light above us blinks.

"Can I come in?"

The reasonable answer is no. But I find myself stepping back from the doorway.

"Okay." I don't recognize my own voice.

Kai hesitates, then he steps inside.

I turn to put my bag down and when I look back my phone is lit up on the counter.

Nathan calling.

Kai sees it the same moment I do. My eyes find his before I can stop them. The call keeps ringing between us.

I reach over and decline it.

—