Chapter 89

I help him stand and hold him against me for a while, until I’m certain he can walk alone. When I let him go, I instantly miss the warmth of his body. The night has never felt so cold. I’m beginning to think I was the one who took a blow to the head.

“I live nearby. Do you think you can walk?”

He nods and lowers his gaze. He runs his sleeve under his nose to clean up the blood and walks with me into the unknown. I’ve just decided he is my Christmas gift.

* * * *

Lucas

I blink, trying hard not to cry. They took everything from me, what the little I had. How naive of me to think I would be able to survive on the streets. My notebook and my precious books are gone. I no longer have the little money I’d managed to save so I could sleep in some seedy hotel.

I have nothing clean to wear. I don’t have anything at all.

But…