Catalyst Read Online Free Page B

slides off his boxer briefs and is completely ready for me. The sight of him has me unzipping my jeans and tugging them off my legs before yanking my top off.
    He comes closer to the bed where I’m sitting and his lips and hands are all over me. All I can think about is him as I wrap my legs around his back. I close my eyes, losing myself to his touch.
    Liam’s body, all of a sudden, falls on top of me, his full weight bearing down and making it hard to breathe. I open my eyes and see his eyes starting to glaze over and blood is pouring out of the two bullet holes in his chest. I scream and roll him over onto the bed and immediately look around for a phone.
    Scrambling, I can’t find a phone anywhere, and I hear Liam gasping for air and choking on his own blood. I’ve never felt so helpless. My hands are shaking, and I can’t think straight. What do I do?
    “Tins. Love. You.” His voice is barely audible, but I know I may only have a few minutes left with him. Moving next to him, I grab my shirt from the floor and use it to apply pressure but his blood immediately soaks through the material. I’m losing him.
    “You’re going to be okay, baby. All right? I’m right here. Liam, stay with me, baby.” I’m hysterical, and my tears are mixing with his blood. It’s everywhere, the bed turning crimson as I stare at the love of my life dying in front of me.
    “Love. You.” His eyes are fluttering, and all of a sudden, we’re in the storage room as paramedics rush by me and start working on him. Looking down, I’m in only a bra and covered in his blood. I watch in shock as they wheel him into the ambulance. I hear the paramedics saying to each other that I did this, that I killed him. The look in their eyes makes me want to collapse to the ground, to convince them that I was innocent.
    I scream that it wasn’t me, that I wasn’t the monster. They don’t let me in the ambulance, calling me a murderer and leave me out in the street as they take him away. Crumpling into the fetal position as I lay in the street, I pray for death to take me with him.
     
    I jolt awake, sweat pouring down my face. The sheets stick to my legs as I look around and gather my surroundings. I can feel my heart beating out of my chest, but it’s slowly returning to normal. After a minute, I lie back down and look at the clock. 3:20 in the morning.
    Fuck.
    I can’t handle the nightmares. They’re slowing tearing me apart. Morphing reality into fiction, it’s messing with my mind. I turn the television on and go to my recordings to find a show to put me back to sleep and, hopefully, in a better mindset. I miss not waking up through the night. After an hour’s worth of dozing off and a half dose of the sleep aid my doctor prescribed me, I’m finally able to fall asleep again without any semblance of dreams or nightmares.
     

     
    T HE NEXT MORNING, I can feel it’s going to be a good day. I was able to sleep in until ten, which rarely happens. After having my morning coffee, I head to the airport to pick up Noah. He went to visit his girlfriend who had recently moved to Detroit for a job. Even though it’s obvious to everyone that it isn’t going to work, they’re still trying their damnedest. Poor guy’s a hopeless romantic determined to find the one .
    Hanging out in baggage claim, I browse through the app Shannon installed. The first few times, I swipe the wrong way and curse myself when I can’t get back to potential dates that seemed normal enough.
    Why doesn’t this app have an undo button? Now I’ll never meet Ethan29038 because of my stupid swipe happy thumbs.
    I throw my phone back in my purse after closing the app and checking the time. His flight should be here by now, so I shouldn’t have too much longer to wait. Leaning back, I wonder how Noah’s trip went. He gets so blinded when he’s in a relationship; it makes me uneasy to question it.
    “Funny seeing you here.” I perk my head up in confusion and see