Watching Them Burn: My Rebirth Story novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: First Night

"Homecoming," Luka said.

We were sitting on the floor of the pool office with our backs against the desk and a half-empty bottle of water between us.

It was dark outside.

I had stopped crying an hour earlier.

"The whole school goes," he said. "The president speaks, the team gets introduced, and there's a screen the size of a barn behind the stage. Willa's been telling anyone who'll listen that she and Dane are going to be on it as the couple who found each other."

"Three weeks."

"Three weeks."

"Then we play it there," I said. "Your recording. Her face on the screen next to my voice."

"Dane's face too."

"Dane's too."

He turned his head against the desk and looked at me.

"And after that?"

"I don't know yet."

"Okay."

"That's it? Okay?"

"You were sixteen in a hospital chair and you gave a stranger two hours of your life for free," he said. "You get to not know."

I stared at the opposite wall.

My chest hurt in a way that felt almost good.

"I want to go somewhere that isn't this room," I said.

"Where?"

"Wherever you live."

He did not answer right away.

When I looked, he was watching me very carefully.

"You've had a day."

"I've had a lot of days. I've had six years of days you don't know about." I turned to face him. "I'm not asking because I'm sad, Luka. I'm asking because I want you."

"You said no kissing at work."

"I didn't say it. You did."

"Fair."

"And it's one in the morning, and I'm off shift."

His mouth curved.

"Then I'd better lock up."

His apartment was a fifteen minute walk, over a bike shop.

We did not talk on the way.

He held my hand the whole time, and his thumb moved over my knuckles in slow lines.

At the top of the stairs he opened the door and we went in without turning on a light.

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