NINETEEN

Ben jumps off his bike and kneels down beside me on the gravel. Crunch go his shoes on the road. Boom goes the pulse in my ears. The smell of watermelon suddenly fills my nose. I close my eyes. My head is spinning so fast, I feel like it might just roll off my body.

“What happened, Lily?”

He’s so close, I can feel his words on my face. There isn’t even a trace of boredom in his voice. This is new.

“S-someone was chasing me,” I manage to say.

I feel him take my hands into his. His fingertips brush over the tiny rocks embedded into my palms.

“You’re hurt.”

The spinning is beginning to slow a bit. I try to sit up. “We better go. Whoever was chasing me is probably still out here.”

His hand presses gently down on my shoulder. “Not yet. Just relax for a minute and catch your breath. There’s nobody else out here. Trust me, I was watching from my bike. I saw you running alone down the road.”

My lids fly open. “No, that’s not true. There was a lunatic on my heels. I heard the footsteps.”

“What you heard was probably an echo, Lily. The lake’s right beside us.”

I peer through the darkness. The lake. Suddenly, the booming in my ears fades and I can hear the waves smacking against the rocks. Is there a chance he’s right? What if I was running away from my own footsteps? But I heard him running … saw his shadow … felt his breath on me. Was it another hallucination? Merde! The paranoia is finally taking over!

This must be the end.

Oh my God!

“You’re still bleeding,” Ben says, holding my hands up to the light shining off his bike. “We need to wash these cuts out.”

I feel an arm circle around my waist. A second later I’m on my feet.

Whoa!

The ground shifts slightly. The circle around me tightens.

“Are you okay? Do you think you can walk?”

Deep breath.

“Yeah, of course.” I take a small step to prove it. “See?”

But his arm stays glued in place. “Listen, I think the best idea is to take you to the lake and get you cleaned up.”

I don’t argue. Ben starts herding me toward the sound of the water, holding me up the whole time. Squinting through the darkness, I can just make out a familiar lollipop-shaped dock a short distance up the shore. I point to it. “That’s my aunt’s place. We can go there. There’s a shallow beach and some first aid stuff inside if we need it.”

Ben doesn’t argue. Hell, this is turning out to be the easiest conversation we’ve ever had. By a kilometre!

Still clinging to each other like a pair of staticky, mismatched socks, we amble slowly toward Aunt Su’s. A question occurs to me.

“So, what exactly are you doing out here, anyway?” I ask.

“Looking for you.”

Wait a second. Isn’t that supposed to be my answer? I waggle my head back and forth, trying to shake off the last of the spinning. It seems to work. I hold up a hand. “Thanks for all your help, Ben. I can walk fine now.”

But he doesn’t let go. And I don’t try to make him. We’re just a few metres away from the water. I can practically taste the lake in my mouth.

“I went by McCool’s and saw Jake Hudson in your crappy little cubicle.”

Silence.

“Why’d you quit?”

Long pause.

“Guess I decided my character was built enough.”

More mysteries. I don’t like that answer. “No, really.”

But before he has the chance to say anything else about it, we’re at Aunt Su’s dock. Ben leads me down the beach, straight to the water. He must be pretty freaked out about my injured hands because we don’t even stop to take off our shoes. The next thing I know, we’re walking into the lake. It’s so cold. My skin breaks out in an instant rash of goosebumps. Every instinct in my body is telling me to stop walking, go back, dry off, warm up. But still, I let him lead me further into the water. As soon as we’re waist deep, Ben takes my hands and plunges them under the surface. He swishes his hands over mine, oh-so-carefully extracting stones and cleaning out the wounds. It hurts a bit, but I let him do the job. When my hands come up a minute later, the stones are gone. And from what I can see through the darkness, the bleeding has stopped.

“How do you feel?”

I force out a shaky smile. “Thanks. I think I’m fine now.”

“Still …”

He keeps a tight hold on my hands. There’s no way in hell he’s letting go yet. Believe you me. And I know it has nothing to do with applying pressure to the cuts.

“Lily, I did some more reading on the sleep thing yesterday …”

I nod. The pain in my hands seems to be travelling to my chest.

“Do you know you’ll die if you don’t sleep?”

Another nod. And then I have to close my eyes before he can see the tears.

“I’m not going to let that happen to you, Lily,” he whispers. “We’ll figure out how to get your sleep back. I promise.” His words make an echo over the water … over my ears … through my insides and back out again. Suddenly, a tall wave comes up behind me and nudges us closer. My eyes flutter open just in time to see Ben leaning his head down towards mine. I feel my heart pick up speed. Above us, the half moon peeks out from behind the clouds to watch what’s about to happen.

“Ben …”

“Lily …”

My face is in his eyes. No, don’t fall in love with him, warns the nasty little voice in my head. What’s the point when you’re going to be dead any minute now?

“I think I still have your jean jacket.”

“Keep it.”

I can hear his breaths getting closer as he slowly leans his head the rest of the way. My eyes drift closed. One of Ben’s hands falls on my cheek. And then his kiss on my lips. It’s like a feather sweeping over my mouth. It’s like Niagara Falls crashing over my head. Everything starts to spin again. My knees wobble. I grab on to his arms to keep myself from tumbling into the lake. His kiss tastes like Froot Loops. No, better than that. His kiss tastes like the circle of milk in the bottom of the bowl after the Froot Loops are gone. No, better than that.

Pink, sweet, warm, delicious. Perfect.

Silver waves rise up around us. His hand curves into the small of my back. My fingers climb up to find the soft curls at the nape of his neck. The bottom of the lake disappears and suddenly I’m floating. We’re floating. Together.

Oh my God!

So, yeah. Now I understand what all the fuss is about.