Blackout ✓

24 | spring break

"ARE YOU SURE YOU'LL BE alright?"

With her wide, anxious eyes, Riley didn't attempt to mask her concern.

However, Jake and Jamie did, sitting awkwardly at the circular table in the corner of our room. Their discussion was low and casual. But now and then, Jake would cast an uncomfortable look my way.

I understood the reaction. I looked like I'd survived an exorcism—matted hair, sweaty brow, rumpled bedsheets, and all. Searing pain ripped through my lower abdomen and back, rendering me immobilised supine on the bed. Fuck endo. I hated it. The first three days of spring break in Panama City had been fantastic, full of suntanning and sightseeing. Then Bloody Mary struck.

Emphasis on the bloody.

The four of us had booked only one room with two double beds for five nights. Riley and I shared one, and Jake and Jamie shared the other. It was a tight squeeze, and we'd grizzled at each other, but it was the best we could do on our budget.

Being in San Diego with her girlfriends precluded Jamie from inviting Farrah, and thank goodness Krista and Quentin went to visit her brother in Texas. Any more people in such close confines would have driven me crazy.

"Yes," I told Riley. "I'll be fine. Go. I've dealt with this countless times."

We had intended to visit the aquarium today; the sea life centre was within walking distance of our cheap inn. But I couldn't take two steps without stooping over, and apparently, Jamie harboured a moral opposition to confined marine animals.

And he'd conveniently volunteered to stay with me.

While I appreciated where our friendship was at the moment, I didn't need a guardian. No matter how bad these cramps became, they always passed. There was no reason for Jamie to miss out on a day of touristy fun. But, glimpsing his tense posture and crossed arms at the coffee table, I instantly knew he wouldn't budge. Stubborn numbnuts.

Riley shouldered her backpack and pulled on a cap, her voluminous braids peeking out behind each ear. "Either of you text me if you need anything. Anything at all, and we can get it for you."

"Will do, Riley," Jamie chirped.

"Thank you, Riley," I wheezed, unable to even lift a hand to wave. "Love you."

Jake bid us a similarly worried farewell before following Riley out of the door.

As soon as we were alone, I shot Jamie an arch expression. "You're not morally opposed to aquariums. You eat fish."

He rolled his eyes and rose from the table. My eyes trailed his hand as it gripped the edge of the duvet covering me. Underneath I wore a WISA t-shirt three sizes too large and cotton shorts. Still, the idea of Jamie tearing the sheets off sent a shiver down my spine.

"Get up," he said, tugging once on the duvet.

"Gee, if I could, I would," I hissed. "But I'm incapacitated right now."

"Then get up slowly. I know you," he chuckled. "Lying still is going to make this worse. Why don't you come to do yoga with me next to the window?"

I followed Jamie's glance to the left. The inn was neither clean nor dirty, fancy nor dilapidated. But, man, it had prime real estate. Past the full-size window—which was really a glass sliding door—lay a thin balcony with a small cactus in the corner, and past that lay miles and miles of white-sand beaches.

The bright sunlight that poured into the room mocked me, hinting at the freedom and fun I'd lost.

I turned my gaze back to Jamie. "Do yoga? With you?"