Chapter 32 Ch. 21.2
He didn’t answer. He ran a hand through his hair and turned around. His phone buzzed in his pocket with a text from Coach Santiago asking if he’d be coming to training tonig.
Ethan stared at it for a second, then slipped his phone back into his pocket without replying.
Zara on the other hand hadn’t slept well in days. Her head felt like someone had put her brain in a blender and hit the pulse button every ten minutes. The chest pains were still theee as well, her chest feeling like someone was squeezing it from the inside. It came and went, sometimes dull, sometimes stabbing, but it was always there when she tried to run that it seemed to get worse.
She didn’t tell anyone, even Noah because she knew for a fact that he was definitely going to tell her Dad all in the name of being a concerned friend. And her dad would probably call her dramatic and say she was finding excuses for her poor performance at track. She had the option to go to the school nurse, but decided against it knowing that she'd probably just offer water and tell her to stretch.
She just had a feeling that all of what was happening had to do with Ethan. None of the pains had started until the night he tried to compel her, and the headaches were from the moment he hugged her.
The nerve of him to act so concerned when he just wanted to do something to her.
Her phone buzzed. She looked down and saw his name trending again—some dumb video edit with him dodging a water bottle midair. The caption said “definitely not human,” followed by a vampire emoji and a bunch of hashtags. She rolled her eyes and shut off the screen.She spotted him just as he stepped out through the side doors toward the track, gym bag slung over his shoulder like he didn’t have a care in the world but also looking slightly annoyed and flushed.
There was a lipgloss stain near his lips which got some reason riled her up.
"Ethan!"
He turned, eyebrows raised slightly. "Hey. How’ve you been? Haven’t seen you around. Are you... Okay?"
"Don’t," she said, walking up to him and stopping just a few feet away. "Don’t act like you are concerned about my well being when in reality, you just want to know if what you're doing is working."
He frowned, adjusting the strap of his bag. "What are you talking about?"
"You’re doing something to me," she said. "I don’t know how or why, but ever since that day—you know, when you did whatever you did to try to make me forget—my chest has been killing me. I can’t breathe properly, I can’t run, and I’ve got a race in a few days. And my head is pounding like crazy. So whatever spell or vampire voodoo or whatever it is, knock it off."
He blinked. "Are you serious right now?"
"Do I look like I’m kidding?"
"You think I gave you… chest pain? And headaches?"
"I think something happened after that night and when you hugged me on the bleachers. I don’t know what. Maybe it was your freaky powers or failed compulsion or whatever you guys do, but nothing’s been the same since."
He dropped his gym bag to the ground and looked at her. "You seriously think I’d go around cursing people? That I did something to you on purpose?"
"I don’t know what to think anymore! My head’s a mess, my chest feels like it’s being crushed every other hour, and I can’t even run without feeling like I’m going to black out. So yeah, if there’s even a slight chance you’re the reason, I want to know."
"You’re being ridiculous," he said, brushing a hand through his hair. "You don’t even know what you’re saying."
"Oh, but you do, right? Mr. I’m-Not-On-Drugs-But-I-Still-Run-Like-A-Dsmn-Cheetah? I know you will do anything to protect your secret but I need you to stop okay? I'm having a hard enough time form my dad and coach and a fucking race I three days Ethan! Just stop, please."
"You don’t get to come at me like this. Not after you ran your fucking mouth and you’ve been ignoring me, avoiding me like I did something wrong, and now what? You’re suddenly the victim?"
"You kind of made me the victim when you messed with my head!" She yelled, suddenly getting in her tiptoes just so she could say it to his face.
"I didn’t mess with your head. If I could, don’t you think you’d have forgotten all about me by now?" He replied, stepping closer and looking down at her.
"Oh please," she yelled, still leaning up, her hands clenched until fists at her sides. She opened her mouth to say something else, maybe something mean, but then their lips brushed— she hadn't realized how close she was.
Ethan stepped back instantly, like he’d touched something hot. His eyes flashed golden and then red for a second too long, and he looked deprived. "Don’t. Zara."
Then he picked up his gym bag and slung it over his shoulder.
"I have to go," he said, already turning.
Zara lifted her hands slowly to touch her lips.
They burned.