For the light he'd given me when I was sixteen. For the thirteen years we'd clung to each other with no one else in the world.
I used to believe I owed him a debt bigger than the sky itself.
That was why I turned down every job offer after college and poured everything I had into helping him gain a foothold in the business world.
But that debt should be paid in full by now.
And the love should be done.
"I'll take these."
I grabbed a random assortment at the pharmacy, shoved them into a bag, and stuffed it away.
"Miss, do you have a fever? You're sweating, and your color doesn't look right..."
I licked my cracked lips, shook my head, scanned the code to pay, and turned to leave.
I didn't make it out of the pharmacy before my legs buckled.
The next second, I was on the floor.
"Miss! Miss!"
I felt myself sinking into darkness, drifting in and out of fragments and half-formed dreams.
In the dream, it was me and Kenneth at sixteen.
A past I could never return to.
My eyes snapped open. White ceiling. An IV bag hanging above me.
"Betty, you're awake?"
It was Victor, the same kid who'd tried to warn me before.