Shatter-Me-PDF-Shatter-Me-Series-Shatter-Me-Shatter-Me-1-Tahereh-Mafi (1)

“Juliette?” He doesn’t move an inch. His gaze is fixed on
me: calm, unflappable; 2 buckets of river water at midnight.
I’d like to cry into his eyes.
I don’t know why I tell him the truth. “I couldn’t sleep up
there.”
He doesn’t ask me why. He pulls himself up and coughs
back a grunt and I remember how he’s been hurt. I wonder
what kind of pain he’s in. I don’t ask questions as he grabs a
pillow and the blanket off my bed. He puts the pillow on the
floor. “Lie down,” is all he says to me. Quietly, is how he
says it to me.
All day every day forever is when I want him to say it to
me.
They’re just 2 words and I don’t know why I’m blushing. I
lie down despite the sirens spinning in my blood and rest my
head on the pillow. He drapes the blanket over my body. I let
him do it. I watch as his arms curve and flex in the shadow
of night, the glint of the moon peeking in through the
window, illuminating his figure in its glow. He lies down on
the floor leaving only a few feet of space between us. He
requires no blanket. He uses no pillow. He still sleeps
without a shirt on and I’ve discovered I don’t know how to
breathe. I’ve realized I’ll probably never exhale in his
presence.
“You don’t need to scream anymore,” he whispers.
Every breath in my body escapes me.
I curl my fingers around the possibility of Adam in my hand
and sleep more soundly than I have in my life.
My eyes are 2 windows cracked open by the chaos in this
world.
A cool breeze startles my skin and I sit up, rub the sleep
from my eyes, and realize Adam is no longer beside me. I
blink and crawl back up to the bed, where I replace the
pillow and the blanket.
I glance at the door and wonder what’s waiting for me on
the other side.