Unquiet Read Online Free Page B

before he left the room, he glanced back over his shoulder just in time to see Dr. Devlin slump against the counter, a sort of defeat written in every line of her body. Loren opened his mouth to say something and then snapped it shut, turning and walking away.
    When he got back up to Eliot’s room, nothing had changed. Loren had intended to do some more homework, but what he did was end up sitting at the desk and watching Eliot sleep. At one point Loren drifted off himself, his chin falling toward his chest, and he jerked awake. When he did, he noticed that Eliot’s eyes were open, slitted, watching him.
    Memories of those long-ago nights sitting up with him after a nightmare came rushing back to him. Loren stood and opened the blinds, letting the moonlight flood into the room, remembering how that used to bring Eliot some strange sort of comfort. Would it still work?
    He watched as Eliot’s eyes tracked toward the window and held there. Loren kicked off his shoes and climbed into bed next to him, easing him into his arms. Eliot didn’t resist, just lay there like a deadweight against Loren’s chest.
    “See the moon, El?” Loren whispered into Eliot’s hair, wanting so desperately to take some of his pain away. “Because I see it.” He kissed the top of Eliot’s head, and while Eliot didn’t move a muscle or react in any way, Loren felt the hot wetness of tears against his neck.
    As he sat there holding him, Loren’s worry kept him awake all through the long night. He slipped into a light doze a little before dawn, waking when the morning sun fell across his face. Loren groped for the phone on the nightstand, asking his own dad if he’d call Loren in absent for school, explaining Eliot was sick and Loren wanted to stay with him. His dad didn’t question it, just did it, so Loren spent the day watching Eliot sleep, at one point waking him and almost force-feeding him some more soup.
    Another morning brought no real change, and Loren reluctantly left Eliot so he could go home to shower before school. As soon as the final bell rang, though, he headed straight back to Eliot’s house. The first thing he did when he arrived was open the blinds again, letting sunlight flood the dark room. Eliot blinked, then turned over in bed, away from the light. Loren gasped. Progress.
    He sat down next to Eliot and stroked his hair. “You’re going to be okay, El.”
    Eliot’s lips moved but no sound came out, and all Loren could think to do was climb into the bed and hold him close.
    School the next day was long and excruciating, and when Loren got back to Eliot’s room at last, he was elated to see Eliot up and about, paler and quieter than usual, but at least not as scary out of it as he’d been those days before.
    Loren sat down on the end of Eliot’s bed and asked flatly, “Dude, what the fuck was that?”
    Eliot didn’t even pretend not to know what Loren meant, and he shrugged, his movements still a little slow and listless as he pawed through the backpack full of makeup homework Loren brought him.
    “I don’t even know if I can explain it to you, man,” he mumbled.
    “Try,” Loren ordered, a thread of steel in his voice. “You scared the shit out of me, saying that you wanted to die. What the fuck, El?”
    “I did want to die,” Eliot said simply. “More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. It’s always like that.”
    Loren gasped. “This has happened to you before ?”
    “A few times.”
    All Loren could do was sit and gape in horror and disbelief. “How come I’ve never seen it?”
    Eliot stopped making neat stacks of his textbooks, turned and sat down next to him on the edge of the bed.
    “It’s never been quite that bad before,” he admitted. “Most times when I get like that I can still go to school. I just feel sad, like there’s not a whole lot to look forward to or live for. But I can usually deal until it passes.”
    “Jesus, El,” Loren whispered.
    “But this time I