How I Fall by Anne Eliot

pull my head away from him and support it on my own. I will not let any of them know how shaken-up I am. Or how flipping weak I feel. Of course, that’s when I start shaking from cold even more and my teeth go from chattering to what sounds like a machine gun firing off for all to hear.
    I’m forced to give up the fight and lean my head back against him because the chattering thing is way more embarrassing than the weakness thing. He shifts and I feel him turn back toward me, and I think he’s cursing under his breath again.
    I don’t blame him. He must be embarrassed, too. Who wouldn’t be?
    “Hold on, Ellen,” he whispers in this butter-soft voice. Caramel-coated breath hits my cheeks and is suddenly the only warm thing I can feel, but I think that’s because I must be blushing because who thinks about how someone’s breath smells amazing? Awkward. Thank God this guy is not a mind reader.
    His gaze goes over me while he bites his lip—and yeah it’s so freaking cliché but when you have hypothermia you can do stupid cliché things so I can’t stop staring at that lip! Worse, I actually wonder if it might taste like some sort of caramel candy even though I’ve never tasted anyone’s lips in my whole life before— okay —? It’s just a thought…before death people have last thoughts…mine are obviously going to be about candy and about things I didn’t do in my life.
    I’m sure this is normal, considering…
    He’s saying, “I’ve got an idea to get you warm faster but you’ll have to let me move you around a bit? Is that all right with you?”
    I nod. It’s all I can do.
    Very quietly he whispers over my head, “Laura, can you help me a sec?”
    In seconds, they’ve peeled off my sopping coat and flung it into the aisle. Keeping his huge arm very gently over my collarbones so I don’t slump, Cam shrugs partially out of his wool coat, waiting while Laura pulls on each of his sleeve cuffs so the whole jacket can come off without him letting go of me. Then he wraps me up completely into it and pulls me back in next to him how I was before, only this time I’m even closer because he’s locked his other arm around me in a bear hug! Then he turns me a bit to the side, and tucks me against him so that his wide chest is against my back and still blocking the sight of me from everyone on the bus besides Laura and the three kids in the seat across the aisle.
    “There. Better?”
    I nod again, because who in the heck could talk right now?
    “Good. Sit tight and soon you’ll feel some sort of warmth seeping in. I hope.” He’s whispering low against the side of my head. “My friends—they don’t mean any harm—they’re just…” He pulls in a long breath and tucks me closer. “I don’t know what they are. Most aren’t really even my friends. So, ignore them if you can. It’s what I always do.” He calls over to Laura. “That goes for you, too, Ireland. Ignore them.”
    “Gotcha,” Laura answers for both of us. I glance up at him just as he’s checking over his shoulder again. This time I catch the message he’s sending to the back of the bus, and my heart soars with elation.
    He’s glaring murder bullets at those friends-not-friends !
    All laughing and even the whispering stops.
    *And the king has spoken.*
    Laura’s looking over at both of us with this motherly, proud expression that’s so friendly, open and truly concerned that I’m suddenly almost undone to tears. This is the safest and most cared about I’ve ever felt on a school bus ride, ever. Suddenly and irrationally so, I fall the tiniest bit in love with both of them. Even though I’m sure it’s because I’m so humiliated that I fell in front of everyone, and even though I know they’re only being kind because they feel sorry for me—because who wouldn’t with the show I put on—I think I will be forever grateful that I did not have to face this bus ride soaking wet and all alone.
    If time stopped right this second