“I’ll close the curtains and let you rot in the darkness, if you take a shower, drink some water and eat —” Softening my voice a little I add, “— I’ll go and get you literally anything.” She has the blanket pulled up over her face; with one swift tug I pull it off of her and onto the floor. “I’m not tiptoeing around you anymore, Kins — that was yesterday. Today we are doing things my way.”

“I c-can’t do it, Jesse,” she sobs. “I’m — I, I’m so tired.”

Seeing her this way is like a bullet to the chest, but I refuse to let her spiral any deeper. I’ve witnessed her rockbottom and it isn’t a place she will ever visit again, not if I can help it.

“Why do you keep pushing people away when they start to see all of you? Is it because you’re scared that you’re too much? Do you think that you’re too broken?”

I sit down next to her on the bed. With the blanket on the floor and nowhere to hide, she has curled into a ball, facing away from me.

“You can’t keep running for the rest of your life, Kinsley. Each time you break into a thousand pieces, who is putting you back together?” I pause, waiting for a response. When I get nothing, I lay down beside her and mold my body around hers, being the big spoon. Then I whisper in her ear, “Every damn time it’s me — I piece you back together and I would do it for the rest of my existence, but each time I piece you back together, I lose a piece of myself. I lose it to you, Meadow.”

Kinsley stays silent, her breathing evening out and the sobbing subsides. A few moments later she laces her fingers through mine and pulls my arm tighter around her; the only acknowledgement I’m going to get. I lay there with her, allowing my own eyes to close too. So much has happened over the past week, none of it was supposed to lead to this. If I’m honest with myself, I really wanted to be wrong when I told Tanner she would react this way, he is the only guy she has ever let in this deep, and he’s actually a good one too.

Little does she know, he doesn’t plan on going anywhere. I have to stop myself from laughing at the thought. One, because now is not the time to be laughing and two, because I think Kinsley has actually fallen asleep and I don’t want to wake her.