The harsh white ceiling glared under the hospital lights, and the air smelled sharply of disinfectant.
Ethan blinked, his head heavy and slow. Fragments of the night before came back in broken flashes, shoreline, Aria's back turned to him, the wind off the water, and then nothing.
"Ethan!"
Scarlett threw herself into his arms, her whole body hitting his chest as she sobbed and trembled. Her copper curls brushed his jaw, and the rose-and-caramel scent he remembered curled around him, cloying and wrong, familiar in a way that no longer felt true.
"I stayed here all night. You scared me, Ethan. I thought you weren't going to wake up."
Ethan's lips moved.
"Where's Aria?"
Scarlett's body stiffened.
"She brought you to the hospital last night, and then she left. Her parents finished the
