Saturday night, Maximus and I met again.
I could hear the roar of a party at Kairos’s house on the other side of campus. It immediately made me anxious. It’d only been two weeks since my incident and the prospect that it could happen again set me on edge.
Maximus clearly noticed it as we sparred that evening. After one particularly brutal swipe of his elbow landed on the high of my cheekbone, I staggered back and pressed my hand to my cheek.
“What’s going on?” he asked, softer than usual. “You blocked that just fine the other day.”
I let my hand drop from my face. The place he’d hit still stung with the force of his bone jamming into mine. I motioned vaguely to the noises in the distance.
“I just—” I let me hand drop and smack against my side. I couldn’t seem to voice how uncomforta
