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"Can’t we just head back?" I hedged

"Annelise" His tone told me that, no, we couldn’t

"Fine" I stretched up to unzip the back, and hissed as the movement tore some other part ofanything"

"Then showme to turn, so he could do my zipper

I presented him my back, and the next sounds came loudly to me There was the rip of Velcro, the crisp snick of the chunky, plastic zipper The thud of my heart in my ears

I turned back around and pulled le, fluidto stop this feeling of hyper-self-awareness

Before, Ronan had been my teacher and only my teacher By the time our friendship had deepened, Carden was in the picture

Carden, who looe in my heart Hell, he loohts of Ronan were completely mutually exclusive

But where was Carden now?

I knehere Ronan was He was right here, helpingmy pulse hop in a way that had me woozy A little woozy and a lot confused

I still didn’t get why Ronan was here Or where Carden had gone Or why he’d gone

I couldn’t wrap h the h fro on He was looking at ht nored me…of course "The salt water would be painful--"

I shifted away to give hilare "You think?"

"Aye" As he knelt closer, he tried to hide his smirk, but I spotted it "The salt burns, but it has antibacterial properties" He poked and prodded a bit ether, pressing down

"Ow" I hated the tone ofabout this blatant attention made me peevish I didn’t care about my injury I didn’t want to hear about it I wanted hi, like, in a fundamental way "Do you have to do that?"

"It needs to close back up Hoell did you clean this?"

"I cleaned it" As best I could, stealing solitaryPeople seeing , but I’d becoht betray a weakness I could’ve gone to the infir help was yet another way to mark yourself as vulnerable We studied coh To endure extre our wounds ourselves

I wouldn’t need to be tending my wounds if Carden were around I felt a flicker of resenter was so much easier than loneliness or sadness I pushed Ronan’s hand aside and felt around the wound It was cool Not swollen "It’s not infected"

"Keep direct pressure on it" He put uided an digging through "You need to keep it dressed" He pulled out a first-aid kit--it looked ancient, the red plastic box faded alh it till he found a yellowed roll of gauze and a sterile cotton pad "Hands up" His voice was devoid of ean to wind the ribbon of gauze around and around my belly

A silence followed, and it beca more clever to say, I finally told him, "Thanks"

Weak Lame

"You should’ve just told me," he said flatly "You didn’t have to do this today Why do you continually insist on putting yourself in harm’s way?" His hands stilled onme the truth without hesitation?"

"I tell you the truth all the tireen eyes

"Most of the time," I aet a look at that gate, you would’ve hidden the oars andit, but a reluctant smile finally quirked one corner of his ht to challenge me"