“You’re back,” she whispered with a smile after she reluctantly ended our kiss.

“Harley, I’ll have to do something now. Please trust me that …” I started to say, stumbling over my words.

“Aerin, remember what I said ….” I heard Annie’s voice from somewhere behind Harley cut through the air like a knife between us.

“Aerin!” I heard the collective shouts of the others drown Annie’s voice out as they caught up with Harley and stood around us.

“What was that, baby?” Harley was asking at the same time. She was helping me to stand.

I swayed uncertainly to my feet.

Everyone was talking at the same time. Harley was still holding me by my forearms when I took a tentative step back away from her, looking down at my feet waiting for my vision to steady and the fog in my mind to clear.

I don’t know how long that kiss had lasted for. In my mind, it had felt like it had gone on for forever, but in reality it looked like it had only taken a few seconds.

As I drew my eyes up, my eyes collided with those of Annie’s cold, calculating grey ones.

In the midst of the confusion of voices and head-spinning jumble of faces pressing in around me, I heard Sheryl’s commanding voice cut through the babble, “everyone step away from her for a minute, alright?!”

Everyone stood aside to let her through. But Harley stayed, and even took a step towards me. Her eyes were trying to probe mine, and I was avoiding them.

A phone started to ring. As Harley felt for something in her pocket, I took advantage of the moment to gently shake off her hold on my elbow. Her eyes clouded in confusion and her eyebrows knit together as she pulled the ringing phone from her pocket. Sheryl stepped next to me to grab a firm hold of my other elbow and said, “Harley, I’ll take Aerin to my place. Why don’t you step aside and get that call?”

I leaned gratefully against Sheryl as she shepherded me towards her house. I could hear her explaining to others who were walking along slowly with us, “I think she needs to get out from the sun, and lie down a bit…”