Toxic (Denazen #2)(19)

No. I’d wait for a little while. Who knew what would happen for sure, anyway? There was no reason to overreact just yet. Maybe this was as bad as it’d get—an allergic reaction. A little pain and some itching never killed anyone.

Pulling out one of the few new outfits I had to choose from—dark blue jeans and a stretchy black T-shirt with a close-to-dangerous V neckline, I showered and dressed.

I pulled back my long hair—still brown from my memorable stint as Lara Croft at Sumrun’s costume theme—and began a quick braid, securing it with a scrunchie from my secret stash. I’d need to fix the color soon because cow brown so wasn’t going to cut it. That, and after an entire summer without dye, blonde roots were starting to peek through. I’d meant to do it last week but kept getting sidetracked. If I wasn’t so distracted by all the other crap going on in my life, I would have been too mortified to even consider going to school looking like this. Dad once told me priorities changed as you got older. It was the only bit of truth he’d ever given me.

I applied makeup and gave one last look in the mirror at the finished product. Part of me was horrified. I’d never been able to roll out of bed, hop in the shower, and be ready to go in less than an hour, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Halfway through the shower, I remembered it wasn’t just me and Kale heading to school.

His clingy new BFF would be tagging along, too.

I made it to the lobby exactly forty-three minutes after turning off the alarm. A new record. Not one I was proud of, either. Kale and Jade were already waiting. Red hair hung loose down her back, and thick curls bounced when she moved like some slow-motion montage from a Pantene commercial. An oversized black sweater was cinched at the waist with a loose-fitting belt and hung just below her thighs, almost meeting the high black suede boots. A swell of jealousy hit again. Obviously, she’d woken up on time.

“Hey,” I said, looking only at Kale. I’d ignore her and act like nothing was up, and maybe she’d go away. Play with the stuff under the sink or something.

“Dez…” He sounded surprised.

Why did he sound surprised?

Jade was kind enough to answer. “Are you feeling better? We thought you were staying in bed today.” She leaned a little closer, making a big show of putting a hand on Kale’s arm. “I heard what happened. So sorry. Sounds like you overdosed on my aura already.”

She heard what happened? As in, he’d told her? Since no one else had tried to wake me up, that meant he told them, too. They really expected me to stay home from school? And let Kale go with Jade? Ms. Touchy-Feely? They had to be frigging high.

I reached for Kale, but he stumbled away. It was understandable after what happened last night, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. “I need to talk to you.”

I’d prepared a whole upbeat, we’ll get through this speech while in the shower, but standing here with him staring at me, the whole thing melted away. All I could think about was reaching out and taking his hand.

Another swipe and I got him by the sleeve, pulling off to the side and around Rosie’s desk. “You heard what Jade said. In a day or so, I can touch you again.”

He didn’t answer right away. And when he did, his words made the room spin. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“What?”

His voice was low. Sad. At his side, fingers began to flick. Pointer, middle, ring, and pinky. “It happened very fast, Dez. We didn’t touch that much last night, and you overdosed, as Jade calls it.”

I forced a flirty grin. “If I remember, we were touching a lot last night…”

He didn’t return my smile. “I broke the door.”

“Huh?”

“After you left… You were in so much pain. At first I thought she—the door connecting our rooms—I thought Jade left the room, and that’s why it got bad so fast, so I broke it—”

“Whoa.” Wrong. That had to be a mistake. “Connecting doors? Are you frigging serious?”

From the look on his face, he didn’t see the problem. Of course not. Because using the door to go see Jade would have never occurred to him.

Bet it occurred to her, though.

He took another step back and slipped around so the corner of Rosie’s desk was between us. “I’m sorry I hurt you last night. I didn’t know—”

I held up my hand. The thought of him apologizing made me sick. “It wasn’t your fault. I knew better and pushed it anyway.”

He paled, and his knuckles went white as each hand tightened around the edge of the desk. For the longest minute of my life, he simply stared at me. “You knew it was getting worse, and you didn’t stop?”

I went to grab his hand, but he jerked away. Scowling, I said, “It was my choice. Mine. You’re worth a little pain.”

“No,” he said, pushing away from the desk. For the first time since we’d met, he actually looked annoyed at me. “I won’t allow you to do something that causes you pain. I won’t be the cause.”

The look on his face. That tone. He was flashing back to his days at Denazen. To how things were before we met. Their unique methods of motivation. Pain was something Kale knew quite a bit about.

I was set to argue, but Jade cleared her throat and made a show of strutting across the lobby and reaching for Kale’s shoulder. He didn’t brush her away.