“First off,” she says. “I’m not scared of the dark.”
I raise both of my eyebrows in disbelief and she has enough of a sense of humor to smirk. “Technically, I’m scared of the combination of the dark and woods.”
“Thanks for clearing that up.” I pick at the strings as if I’m on the verge of playing something brilliant, but I’ve already run through my entire music catalog. Those two months of lessons were all I cared to take. “Mind telling me the story now?”
“You know how on the six o’clock news they report when a dead body was found?”
Not liking where this is headed, I lay my hand over the strings and they vibrate beneath my skin. “Yeah.”
“Have you ever considered how the body’s found?”
“Can’t say I have.” Until now.
Emily shrugs her shoulders like what she’s about to divulge isn’t a big deal. “Neither did I until I was eight, got separated from my Girl Scout troop in the woods, got turned around, fell into a hole covered with sticks and leaves, and spent the night with the next headlining story on the six o’clock news.”
I can’t breathe. “You’re shitting me.”
“Wish I was. By the way, I will totally accept your apology for making fun of me for freaking out at Olivia’s wake whenever you’re ready to give it. Your turn.”
I prop the guitar against the wall. “Fuck, no. You don’t drop that type of news then switch subjects.”
“Well.” Emily lifts the ends of her hair and twists her fingers into it. “There’s not much to tell and, to be honest with you, I enjoy talking about hanging with a dead guy as much as you enjoy talking about Olivia dying.”
Touché.
“As I said, your turn.”
Guess it is, but it feels wrong to switch the conversation to me after Emily declared something so huge. “Does Eli know?”
“No. Only a few people do. The media and the police never released how the body was found, just that it was. You don’t have to look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“As if I’m going to go spastic like I did at the funeral home. That was a special circumstance. I hate the dark and the woods so the worst that will happen is that I’ll stay up until the sun rises.”
My world narrows in on Emily. “How many nights have you slept through since you’ve been here?”
She rubs eyes that are plagued by dark circles and exhaustion. “Probably as many as you have sleeping outside my window.”
Fuck this. I stretch past her and pull down the blanket. “Lie down and get some sleep.”
“It’s been a crazy night.” She draws her knees in closer to keep from touching me, but it’s a twin bed and I fill the entire mattress on my own. “I thought I was watching Olivia die and the woods are practically covering us and it’s after four so the sun will rise soon. I’ll be okay. If you’re tired, it won’t bother me if you go to sleep.”
“I’ll stay with you while you sleep.” I prop myself onto my elbow on my side to watch her reaction. “Will that help?”
She fixates on her thumbnail. “It doesn’t work that way. It’s as if there’s a monster under my bed and as long as I keep my eyes open, then it won’t escape and attack me.”
“I’ll take on your monsters,” I tease, but I’m dead serious.
Paint that was on her nails before is stripped away as she mulls over my offer. “When I was trapped, I screamed for hours and nobody came. Eventually, I curled myself into a ball next to the feet and stared at the body. If I watched it then it couldn’t hurt me so I stayed up and stared. Even when it was pitch black.”
Emily goes silent and I feel like an asshole for every bad comment I made.
“Do you know why I joined the Girl Scouts?” she asks.
“Because you like cookies?”
That earns me a short-lived smile. “Because I wanted to see the world. Experience new and different things.”
“Think you got more than you bargained for.” It’s a joke. A bad one, but it’s my attempt to lighten her mood.
She laughs, but it has a bitter edge. “You could say that.”
Emily absently scratches at her arms. I immediately snag her fingers and gently tug until her body drops next to mine. Keeping her fingers, I brush my other hand along the angry welt forming on the inside of her arm. “Do you notice when this happens?”
“Usually not until the hives are huge. I started getting them after, well...after that night.”
Emily blinks several times as she rests her head on my pillow. It’ll absorb her scent and the thought pleases me more than it should. It’s time to let Emily go and roll out of bed.
Because I promised, I’ll stay with her, but it needs to be at a distance of five feet. But I don’t move. Instead, I keep massaging the smooth skin of her inner arm.