Chapter 10: The Bed

I woke with my laminated schedule stuck to my cheek.

I peeled it off and read it backward.

Monday, 6:30, shower. 7:05, wave. 9:00, IV poles.

I was wearing his sweatshirt, which I had no memory of putting on.

Knox lay on his side, three inches away, with his head on the lesser pillow, watching me.

"You said something in your sleep," he said.

"I did not."

"You said my name."

"That's slander," I said. "Which name?"

"Knox."

"With what in front of it?"

"I'm not telling you," he said.

I looked at the card. I looked at him.

It was 6:11, I had a vendor at nine, and my feet were on his shin.

"I'm going to be late for the wave," I said.

"Alana will understand."

"Alana has a binder."

"Vin."

I dropped the card on the floor, and kissed him.

I meant it to be short, and it was not.

He made a low sound against my mouth.

His hand came up into my hair and stayed there, warm and rough at the base of my skull.

Everything I had told myself since Saturday, on a schedule, went out of the window with the leak.

"Number Four doesn't get the pillow," I said, against his lip.

He reached behind my head, and took the pillow I was lying on, and put it under his own.

"Number Four doesn't need it," Knox said.

I laughed, and then I did not, because he had turned me onto my back.

He was looking down at me with the grey morning on his face.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Replacing Four Grooms in One Day from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.