It’s all too fucking much. I want to cry some more. Or scream. Kick and punch something. But I can’t. Because I’m numb again. Cold.

Empty.

Shivering.

I feel Lex’s arms go around me. He pulls me into the warmth of his body. So solid and real and strong. And just knowing he’s there—my best friend—sharing the darkness with me, gives me so much comfort.

It doesn’t stop me from sneaking out of bed, though, later that night. It doesn’t keep me from wandering to the window.

And it doesn’t stop the shock that runs through me when I see the figure moving in the moonlight. Whispering through the fog.

It isn’t my mother, this time, though.

It’s Cole.

I watch him cross the muddy field from the farmhouse toward our cabin, and when I creep to the door and ease it open, he’s sitting there on the front steps, back hunched against the chill. Dark hair clinging to his forehead.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he tells me, without turning his head to look behind him. “So I figured I might as well sit here as anywhere else.”

I step out onto the porch. Touch his damp hair. Then I settle down on the step beside him. I slip my hand into his.

Cole doesn’t look at me. His eyes are searching the fog. “You don’t have to stay up,” he says. “Go on to bed.”

“No.” I shake my head. “I’ll sit with you tonight.”

Because this is how we save each other.

ACT II: SCENE 6

Cole and I sit together though the darkest, coldest part of the night. Side by side. Until the sun starts to come up. It’s Sunday, our day off. So once the fog clears, Cole tells me to go to bed. I don’t want to leave him, but I can barely keep my eyes open. So I go and crawl under the covers with Lex, and he pulls me into his arms without even opening his eyes. I fall asleep there, curled up in the crook of his shoulder.

When I wake up again, the sun is already bright outside the window. Some of the other girls are still asleep. But Lex is gone.

And I’m sure Cole is, too.

We’re all supposed to go out for lunch together. Me, Jude, Lex, Val, and Cole. Jude got permission from Willa to use the van. There’s some seafood place he wants us to try.

I roll over and grab my phone. It’s almost ten o’clock, so I’ve got like two hours to kill. I decide to take a shower and then find a quiet place to go over my lines. We’re working new scenes starting tomorrow, and I want to be prepared.