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“I’ll come with you,” he replies, but I’ve already dropped his hand and have quickened my pace to catch up with her.
“Sum! Hey, Summer!” I call. She doesn’t stop walking but she must have heard me. “Summer!” I jog to catch her and reach out to touch her shoulder. She flinches and spins round to face me, looking gaunt. “Summer? Are you okay? You look…”
“Malia!” She forces a smile onto her face, but even I can tell it's fake. “How are you?”
“I’m good. I haven’t seen you in ages. Are you okay? You’ve lost weight.”
Again, she flinches.
“I’m fine. Just under a lot of pressure from Mum and Dad to do well in my exams. How are you doing? I’ve been worried about you. It’s been ages since you’ve had your medication.”
“I’m doing really good, thanks. I’ve got access to everything I need,” I lie. “I, ummm, still have my phone on me, if you want to chat or anything.”
“Maybe we could hang out sometime?”
“Umm…sure,” I agree reluctantly, even as Bhodi is giving meno way in helllooks and slashing hand motions.What else am I supposed to say?
“Where are you staying, again? Your boyfriend did tell me, but I swear I’m so forgetful at the moment.”
“Oh it’s just—”
“Little dot, if I don’t get some caffeine in me right now, I’m going to keel over with the hangover from hell. Save me.”
I breathe a sigh of relief at Bhodi coming to my rescue so that I don’t have to lie to her again. It’s bad enough that I said I have my medication when I don’t, but I’m scared to tell her the truth in case she tells the hospital. Not that I think she’d do it to be malicious or anything, but from a place of concern, I can see her thinking it would help me.
“Sorry, Summer. I guess I better go.” I lean in to give her a quick hug and she turns to stone beneath my touch. Her whole body is ice too. It’s so strange, but she’s pulling away and practically sprinting across the quad before I can check again if she’s really okay.
“Come on, little dot. I wasn’t joking about needing that caffeine hit.” He threads our fingers together and we walk into the busy coffee shop hand in hand.
The only noise that assaults my ears is the usual coffee shop din. Bliss.
“Do you want to grab a table?” Bhodi asks me. I shake my head.
“Nah, I’ll just queue with you. We can get takeout cups.”
“Alright. What do you want?”
“Hot chocolate, please.”
The line moves quickly, and Bhodi places our drinks orders, still holding my hand while we wait. I can almost convince myself I’m a normal girl on a normal date, until a scream rents the air, clearly heard even over the noisy coffee shop, and everything falls silent.
Bhodi grabs our takeout cups and passes me mine but not beforethoughtssneak in at the lack of contact between us.Kill, rip, tear, feast. Lure her out. Make her beg.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Bhodi puts his arm around me and the noise recedes as he steers me out of the coffee shop. Once the fresh air hits, I turn to him.
“What was that scream?”
“I don’t know.”
“Should we—”
“Oh my god! Somebody help me! Get help! Please!”
“Did you hear that?” I ask Bhodi.
“Umm, yeah, you’d need to be deaf to miss that one, little dot. Come on, we’d better check it out.” He starts to walk in the direction that the shout came from and I realise that it’s the same way Summer went, so I quicken my pace.
Rounding the corner, we arrive in time to see a small crowd gathered.
