“Instead of worrying about how we feel, ask us how we feel. I don’t think anyone would hide it if you asked directly.”
His green eyes were so soft in that moment, like the clothes I was wearing. We were leaning close against the couch. I looked at our hands. His thumb massaged the back of my hand.
“How...” I started to say, blushing hotly. “How do you...”
“You’re incredible,” he said quickly before I had a chance to finish. His other hand drifted to my chin, lightly urging me to look up. I wouldn’t dare to look at his eyes. The moment was too intense, and he was, too. Instead, I stared at his nose and mouth. He held a playful curl at his lip. “Before Owen told me about the plan, I was wondering how I was going to fight off the other knuckleheads. Now...it’s...” He paused, looking down at our hands and then bringing them to his mouth, kissing the tips of my fingers.
Each one sparked a tiny piece of electricity through me, zapping through my nerves to my heart. I stilled, not daring to move, not wanting him to stop.
He brushed his cheek against my fingers. “The only thing I think about is wishing I could talk to you more. Or just be around you. The others being around you doesn’t bother me. I just want to be there more.”
“You can be,” I said quietly, without thought. I wanted him to be. With as little time as we got together, Sean always made me feel comfortable, and happy. “But I guess with Carol...”
“And my job,” he said. He lifted his head and rolled his eyes. “Speaking of which, I’m a little off track.” He leaned in a tiny bit more.
I giggled a little, more out of anticipation of what he might say next.
He quickly reached for my lips, using a single finger against them to silence me. He kept his playful smile. “Don’t start that. I’ve got to take some blood, and I’m bad enough at getting a vein.”
I smothered the urge to giggle more, but looked at his eyes, longer than I might naturally have been comfortable with, but wanting to look at him.
He locked his gaze on me, holding it.
He released my hand, sliding his fingers down until they brushed against my wrist.
After a minute, he spoke. “Your pulse is faster,” he said softly. “I think that means you like me, too.”
The intensity between us grew, a spark that started in my chest, like it had before for him, only this time, it grew with each long look and with his gentle fingers pressed against my wrist. I held my breath. I looked quickly at his chest, feelings welling up too strongly to continue, but then looked back up.
He leaned in and kissed my nose. He hovered there, and I didn’t move.
He tilted his head, kissing my lips.
I remained still, kissing him back. It was a light kiss, but he kept it going. Soft, and steady.
His tongue teased my lips, and I welcomed it.
He made a delightful noise and leaned into me, tongue darting into my mouth.
I was leaning far back, trying not to fall. My hand looked for something to hold on to. I found his shoulder, and then the back of his neck.
He shoved aside a stethoscope and other items that had been in his lap. They clattered to the rug. He scooped up my legs, under my knees, and drew them out. He moved closer to me, lying next to me on the couch.
The leather of the couch made noises as he cuddled next to me.
His lips pressed to mine again, eager.
I welcomed it. I kept my hand on the back of his neck, and instinctively tugged him closer.
Something had changed in kissing him. I didn’t know what it was, but it was so much easier to do this now.
Until I realized that they all knew about this. If they walked in, I’d stop, of course.
No longer was it because I feared discovery.
Sean’s hand moved to my hip, holding it while he kissed me. The kiss deepened, with his tongue reaching mine. He teased and then he backed up a bit, kissing my mouth once more and picked up his head, laughing.
“Sang,” he said and then kissed my lips lightly, and then my nose. “You sly devil girl. I’m supposed to be playing doctor.”
I bit my lip to stop giggling. “Sorry.”
“You’re not sorry,” he said. A wicked spark crossed his eyes and he bent over me again, kissing my mouth. “But neither am I. Playing boyfriend instead is fine by me.”
“It’s not just playing, is it?” I asked softly, and my face burned that I’d said exactly what I was thinking.
He chuckled and kissed my nose. “No. But I guess I never asked you properly, either.” He adjusted me until I had my back to the arm of the couch. He sat up against the back of the couch, his legs under mine. He curled up next to me, with his feet on the coffee table and an arm around my back. With his free hand, he took up mine and brought it to his lips. He kissed the knuckles, and the tip of each finger. “Sang,” he said between kisses, “you are the most adorable girl.”
I had to bite my lip hard to stop from giggling, but a few still escaped.
He kissed another knuckle. “The moment I saw you, you were so beautiful. And then I got to know you and you were just as beautiful on the inside.”
I stopped giggling, holding my breath and feeling my body warm from the inside until it radiated through me. “Sean...”
He leaned in, kissing my lips once. “Hang on, let me ask.”
I pressed my lips together to stop myself from saying anything else. He touched his nose to mine. He was so close, I closed my eyes instead of looking at him but couldn’t help but open them again just as he spoke.
“Sang,” he said quietly, his eyes half-open, gazing at my face. He brought my hand over his chest, warming my fingers. “You’re kind. You’re fun. Whenever you’re around, I never want to do anything else but be with you. Until I can convince you to marry me, will you at least be my girlfriend?”
I choked out a reply. “Yes...” I said, although my brain had hung up on the marrying him part. Was he still being silly?
His smile warmed and he started to giggle and then forced a cough. He backed up, covering his mouth. “Oh, that was slick. Don’t remember that part in the future.”
I smashed my lips together to keep from laughing.
He backed off a little, checked his phone. He made a face. “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a doctor...” He sighed and then looked at me. “When this internship is over, I want to take my girlfriend on a proper vacation. I need a few days off.”
The words he chose warmed me on the inside. I was his girlfriend now. I had been similarly asked by a few of the others, although not all of them. “We had a week off,” I said. “At camp. Didn’t you have fun?”
“I played doctor the whole time. And not in the fun Sang way.” He brushed a finger across my cheek and kissed my nose. “Next day off I get, let’s go out?”
“If I can.”
He smiled. “I get to see you tonight at dinner, too. Maybe after that, she’ll let me take you on a proper date.”
I didn’t want to like Carol. She made things so much more complicated, but I guess compared to my stepmother and how she’d seemed okay with me being interested in him...
He sighed. “But for now, I need to still play doctor. Before you starve to death right here.” He leaned hard over me, dropping his legs and reaching for the coffee table to bring over what he needed to draw blood.
He tied off part of my arm. He brushed his fingertips over my forearm, finding a vein in my wrist, as mine were too faint at the elbow for him to find a vein there. He dampened the spot with an alcohol swab. I’d been poked and prodded at the hospital, so this was now a little familiar.
It still seemed different when I was mostly in his lap, and he was being so delicate.
When he was ready to prick me with a needle, I tensed. He massaged my arm. “Look at my face, Pookie,” he said.
I giggled a little, focusing on him.
He kept his face up, but his eyes were on my wrist.
The cold needle slid into my skin, but not l
ooking at it made it seem as if there was very little pain at all. I relaxed.
My arm warmed as blood drained into vials. He had to use both hands and even asked me to hold things as he did what he needed to.
Once everything was finished and my wrist was bandaged, he kissed the spot gently, and then the palm of my hand. He pressed my palm to his face. “I guess I’m a vampire boyfriend now. I took blood.”
I couldn’t help but giggle now. I used my other hand to smother it.
He laughed and picked his head up, leaning over and tugging my hand away so he could kiss me again. He pressed his forehead to mine. “I have to take it with me and get to the hospital. Can I text you today? Or call?”
I nodded. “When you have time.”
“Don’t answer me if you’re busy,” he said. “But one of my favorite things to do is talk to my girlfriend, Sang.” His face broke into a wide smile. “Oh, we can get matching phone cases, now. Or...” He backed up and raised his eyebrows playfully, pulling out his purple-encased iPhone. “Oh, wait, do me a favor.”
I giggled as he pushed buttons on his phone. “What do you want me to do?” I asked after a minute.
He pressed a few more buttons and then put his phone toward my face. The iPhone’s screen featured a recording app. He hovered a finger over the record button. “Say my name.”
“Dr. Green?” I said, trying to understand what he meant.
He pushed the button again, and made adjustments. “Say my first name this time.” He held the phone toward me again.
He was recording my voice? I didn’t understand why. “Dr. Sean?” I said, although it ended in a giggle.
He shut off the recording. “You’re such a goof,” he said. “I meant just my first name.”
“I like Dr. Sean,” I said. It did have a nice feel to it. I’d thought of him as Dr. Green for so long, but Dr. Sean felt way more endearing. He’d often said he loved being a doctor. I thought he enjoyed hearing the use of it with his name.
The garage door opened again. Nathan and North’s voices traveled to us.
He winked at me and backed up a bit. I started to sit up, but he kept my legs in his lap while he packed up what he needed.
Nathan came in, looked at the two of us and raised an eyebrow. “Everything okay?”
“Uh-huh,” Sean said casually, although there was an amused look that even Nathan caught.
Nathan questioned me silently, a rusty eyebrow raised over serious blue eyes. I tried my best to smile casually and respond just as quietly that everything was fine.
What else was I supposed to do when they didn’t want to know what happened in private with the others?
Confiding
DR. GREEN
Things with Sang couldn’t have gone better, as far as Sean was concerned.
Sean left Nathan’s house happy after what he thought was a success. Sang’s blood was in a cooler, and he stashed it and his medical kit in the backseat of his car.
The drive out of the neighborhood was quiet. While there was a chill, it wasn’t so bad out in the sun. He turned the car radio on and searched until he found something happy playing. He tapped his fingers against the wheel.
Sang.
Girlfriend.
He felt he’d made an idiot of himself, but he didn’t care. Did she find him too sappy?
She giggled so much, and at the time he’d giggled, too. He wondered now if he hadn’t gone overboard.
Owen often said he did.
Still, he’d call it a success. He hadn’t had a girlfriend since...middle school? Well, nothing solid. He’d been on a few dates since then.
Sang was different. He’d never felt this way about anyone.
Sure, she was a little malnourished. The new situation was stressful. She’d eat better, even under Carol’s watch.
He was more hopeful about the situation, though. She’d smiled. She’d giggled. Gloom and depression weren’t her style. She never stayed down for long.
It gave him a little hope. She was stronger than he’d thought last night.
He was just turning onto the highway when his phone rang. Kota was calling him.
Sean put him on speaker as he drove. “S’up?” he said, and snickered. Owen would berate him for being so goofy.
Kota paused long enough for Sean to check his phone to make sure they were still connected.
“Are you busy?” Kota asked, his voice a little tense.
Uh-oh. Either Sean was about to get yelled at again or something was wrong. “I’m just driving, but I’m alone,” Sean said.
Kota paused again on the phone and then blurted, “I’m sorry about last night. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”
“No, no,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. We’re all stressed.”
“I know,” Kota said. “That doesn’t change how I spoke to you, though, so I’m saying I’m sorry.”
“Forgiven. Don’t think anymore about it.”
Another long pause. “How is she?” he asked.
“Low blood pressure. Seems like she ate sugar all week.”
“She ate the same lunch we all did,” Kota said. “Hamburgers and hot dogs...”
“But Pop Tarts and coffee the rest of the mornings, and sometimes Pop Tarts and granola bars at night.” Sean checked the mirrors as traffic slowed and he was forced to roll at five miles an hour. “Ugh. Traffic on the way to the hospital. Anyway, high sugar, super stressed out...”
“No help from me,” he said quietly.
“Now stop blaming yourself.”
“I do. It was my fault.”
“Then if you feel that way, apologize to her, not me.”
Kota sighed loudly. “It isn’t that simple.”
“Isn’t it?” Sean asked, picking up the phone so he could take him off speaker and hold it to his ear. Cars were going so slowly around him now that luckily he could concentrate a little for Kota. “You’re the one always telling the rest of us that if you’ve got a problem with someone, apologize first thing. Stop agonizing about it all day and get it done. If they don’t accept your apology, it’s on them. And Sang will accept it. You know she will. So stop feeling guilty and just do it.”
“I can’t get a moment alone with her,” Kota said. “I’m on the way back from the grocery store, and I know she’s in the house with Nathan and North, and others are showing up as well...” He sighed. “This was always the problem. The others are always around...”
Sean laughed, loud and deeply. “Yeah? We’ve all got that problem. You at least live on her same block. I’m out here on my way to the hospital. Where I’m going to be for days and sometimes weeks on end and never get to see her.”
Kota grumbled.
Traffic started to pick up a little. Sean switched the phone to his left hand so he could drive with the right. “We’re going to have to stop waiting until the others aren’t there to say what we’re thinking,” he said. “So what if the others are there? Just say what you want.”
“They don’t need to be in the middle of this.”
“They aren’t going to stop you, Kota. What’s more important? Telling her how you feel, or what your friends think about you for apologizing when you feel it’s appropriate?”
Kota mumbled something and then released another sigh. “You’re right.”
“Good. Then you can get over it and get back on the same page as the rest of us: getting her out of there.”
“We’re working on it.”
“Uh-huh.” As traffic picked up, Sean put the phone back in the cup holder and pushed the speaker button again. “I take it you’re up for the plan. By the way, we need a better name for it. Calling it the plan is confusing.”
“I...I don’t really know. I want her to be happy.”
“She’ll never be happy if we’re torn apart. We can’t do it without you.”
“I never imagined this.”
“None of us did. None of us knew Sang...” What was the right word for this? He wasn’t su
re. “She didn’t lure us into this as part of some evil plan. We didn’t see it until it was too late. It just happened.”
“I just don’t know how it would work,” Kota said.
Sean paused, thinking this time. “How would you want it to work?”
“What?”
“We’re kind of fumbling in the dark ourselves. So is she. I know it isn’t totally uncommon in the world, but we’ve always been different. We don’t have to do it in a particular way.”
“It’s hard to wrap your head around,” Kota said. “I never would have thought of it.”
“Now we have. Have you had a chance to talk to Lily and her team yet?”
“We’ve been kind of busy.”
“They’re the closest team we have that has done something comparable, especially with the Academy being involved and those complications. Maybe instead of commiserating alone about the idea, you should set up a time to talk with them.”
“Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to her. Lily. She’s got a background in psychology.”
Interesting. “Practicing?”
“From what I hear, part of what she does now is therapy for children. Off official records.”
Kota was doing a background check on Lily, finding out more about her through Academy networks. Sean smiled about that. Despite Kota’s reluctance, he was feeling her out to talk to her on his own. “Might be useful for Sang, and for all of us.”
“I’ll have to call her.”
“Talk to Sang,” Sean said. “Don’t put it off.”
“Okay.”
After he hung up, Sean picked up speed on the highway, continuing toward the hospital. He shook his head absently.
Having to give each other love therapy over the same girl... it was a strange feeling.
Nap
SANG
After Sean left, Nathan and I went to the kitchen table, where North was sitting, poring over his phone. It was plugged in, charging. He was so focused on the screen, he didn’t look up as we stood nearby.
Nathan and I shared a look. I sensed he was thinking the same thing I was. He wasn’t sleeping, and that was bad.
I sat next to North on a wooden dining chair, waiting for him to acknowledge me. When it didn’t happen, I put a hand gently on his arm. “North?”