Page 97 of Stay Scared

“You hadn’t been there for two years.”

“I hadn’t.”

“Apparently knowing things isn’t your strongest defense tonight.”

“No. Apparently not.”

I fold my arms.

Cade looks at me for a long moment.

“I spent our whole relationship trying to stop you from leaving.”

“You blocked doors.”

“I remember.”

“You showed up when I told you not to.”

“I remember that too.”

“You treated every step away from you like the beginning of the end.”

“I kept thinking if I held on hard enough, you’d eventually quit trying to get away.”

“And instead I got better at it.”

A humorless laugh leaves him.

“Yeah. You did.”

The timer drops below five minutes.

Cade turns one hand over, dried blood streaking his palm.

“You made loving you exhausting.”

His fingers close.

“Yeah.”

“You always said that after the exhausting part.”

“I know.”

I look at him.

“Some nights you were the safest place I had.”

His fingers stop moving.

“Then morning came, and you’d ask whether I regretted staying until I wanted to leave so that I could stop answering you.”

Cade looks down.

“I remember lying awake waiting for you to roll away from me.”

“And if I stayed?”