Non Verbal

57

Ha the secret has nothing to do with this book ok? 

Rowan's POV.

I stood back, with Scarlett. I went to her because she looked like she was about to collapse and I couldn't even hear what Lottie and her mum were saying. I don't think Scarlett could either, she just stared blankly at the urgent scene.

"Is he ok...?" She whispers.

"He's alive." I nod.

He was.

His chest was rising and falling. His eyes were open and he still looked- very not okay. But I don't think this was physical.

At first, I went to pull Lottie away, her parents could deal, she couldn't. Shouldn't. But she squirmed out of my hands and crouched down beside the open car door and felt for his pulse.

He was clearly alive.

Just- he wasn't present.

August was next behind her, reaching for the teenager who maybe he knew, I wonder if Lottie's brothers had met her friends. Blaise. August spun around and asked Jackson about Narcan. Which is an overdose reversal drug. Lottie's mum shook her head and told them all to take a step back and she nudged Lottie gently out the way and she mentioned an anxiety attack or something to do with trauma and that's when I walked back here with Scarlett.

And ever since everyone came out, she's just been staring. They got Blaise out of the car, so he was sat on the cold grass, his back leant against the vehicle but his hands had moved to cover his face and I think everyone was relieved then, that he moved.

Lottie's dad was on the phone with someone. I think maybe his parents.

Lottie was sitting by his side, crossed legged, talking to him quietly as her mum also was crouched in front of him.

I don't think I have seen someone else look this broken before.

I mean I have been where he is.

With people organising help around me, trying to pull me out of whatever dark space I was in.

But I don't think it's ever been this bad.

I look at Scarlett. "I knew he had to come here." She whispers.

I nod.

She laughs shakily. "What the fuck is wrong with him?"

I wince.

Because I know now.

Fuck I was such a dick earlier. To Lottie.

Look at her.

She's sat there like an angel, her hands tightly in her lap so she wasn't to touch him, but her body language so warm, so open for him to lean on her if he wanted to.

I look at Scarlett. "We had a fight," I say. "Lottie and I, about her friendship with Blaise earlier."

Scarlett actually looks at me, for the first time her eyes meet mine and she waits.

"I was an idiot to question this," I say and nod towards where Lottie and her whole family surround this boy and are purely just trying to help. "And so are you. You're going to lose her." I say.

I can't imagine why Scarlett would ever purposely ruin her relationship with Lottie. I understood wholeheartedly why Lottie wasn't interested in being friends with Scarlett anymore, but I don't understand why anyone would want to lose Lottie, with how she treats people and her friends, how she loves on them so hard... I do not understand why Scarlett wasn't fighting the distance they have.