"Are you alright?" His voice was low, rough at the edges. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you in this state." A pause. Then, quieter, almost confused by his own words: "But why don't you just follow orders and go inside?"
He pulled back just enough to look at my face, and something in his expression shifted when he saw the devastation written there.
"See, Vanessa is terribly sick," he continued, his voice softening into something that was almost tender, almost human. "She came because I invited her. I couldn't have just left her like that. But even then, she was the one who sent me out here to find you. You should learn something from her."
The words landed like a blade between my ribs.
"Mom has been trying to call you. She even messaged you to come inside." He exhaled through his nose, a sound caught somewhere between frustration and genuine concern. "Why can't you stop being stubborn for one moment?"
Then he saw my face properly. The pallor. The trembling. The way my lips had gone almost blue.