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“Uh, Hazel. Come back to us, Hazel.”
My eyes flickered open. The image of Benton’s eyes, framed with his dark glasses, was blurry. My vision sharpened quickly when I realized he was frowning at me.
I glanced down. His hands were pressed flat against a conference table, his nose just inches from mine.
Unable to help myself, I yawned.
Benton shook his head and sat back in his seat.
“I’m sorry,” I said, noticing the other Science Club members seated around the table. “I didn’t get much sleep last night and—”
“And you probably haven’t eaten much today, either.” Benton handed me half an almond butter and jelly sandwich. “Here, I saved this for you from my lunch.”
I blinked back tears. How much had he been noticing? Was it that obvious? I needed to slow down, to take better care of myself.
I took a bite of the sandwich. “Thank you,” I mumbled.
He nodded. “Let’s finish up here so we can go home. Meg, please continue with the treasurer’s report. Hopefully, there’s enough money budgeted to pay for this year’s trip to the air and space museum.”
I cringed. As vice president of the club, he must have taken over the meeting for me. Again.
***
I WAS HALFWAY OUT OF my chair when the meeting concluded.
“Not so fast,” Benton laughed. “I’m walking you home.”
I raised a brow at him. “But I drove here.”
He sighed. “Okay, fine, then I’m walking you to your car, and then driving you home.”
“Why?”
“You look like you’re ready to collapse at any moment, and I’m not going to let you do that either on foot or behind the wheel of a car.”
“It’s that bad, huh?”
He slipped his backpack over his shoulder and gave me a look of bewilderment.
“Okay, it’s that bad.” I handed him my keys as we walked to the car. “Are you going to be all right walking home after dropping me off?”
“Yeah, it’s not far.”
“As much as I appreciated it today, please don’t save any of your lunch for me. You need to be able to focus in classes, too. It’s not good for you to go without eating.”
“Well it’s not good for our co-president to be falling asleep during Science Club meetings.”
“Co-president?”
He rolled his eyes. “Before you started attending meetings regularly again, the group voted for me to share the position with you given your many absences. They were worried you were going to quit.”
“Oh.” I frowned. I didn’t blame them. I’d been preoccupied with other things, and had even joined another club.
When we reached the car, I begrudgingly let Benton open the passenger’s door for me.
I moved to step inside.
He took my hand and turned me toward him. “I don’t know what’s been going on, but it sounds like it’s still not something you want me to know about. And that’s okay.”
I swallowed. We’d been such close friends, and we’d been through a lot together. Why was I having such a difficult time sharing this with him?
“It’s complicated,” I said.
“I figured as much, but if there’s anything I could do to help— You don’t even have to tell me what’s going on; I can do whatever you think might help you get through it. Just let me know.”
“I will.” I reached out and gave him a light squeeze. “Thank you.”