Stay with me

The beat of the song stayed with me as my cheeks went numb from my perpetual smile. The room around us blurred, but he was detailed. I wrapped my arms around him, and his minted breath brushed my neck as he became my ambition. Ollie had me reeling, or maybe it was the ecstasy. Either way, it felt incredible.

We were enveloped in one another—in another dimension, another time. Time itself stood still and sped in synchrony, and I couldn’t get a handle on myself, but I grasped every second of it. I couldn’t stop the pace, but I also couldn’t keep going. I couldn’t understand what was happening at all.

“Ollie …” My legs couldn’t stand any longer as they buckled beneath me. He lowered me onto the mattress as his warm body hovered over mine. Slow hands ran over my bare stomach before gripping my hips as my hopeless being caved beneath him. His tongue traced my jaw before finding its way back to my mouth. My fingers landed on his waistband, and he pulled away.

“Not here,” Ollie said as he shook his head between our kiss. “Not now, not like this.”

Hours passed, and the music in the atmosphere changed along with it. I was back in Ollie’s lap with my head resting into the curve of his neck. Weak and relaxed, the scent of coconut and Ollie bounced off his skin.

Ollie smelled like the ocean and marine breeze—fresh air and freedom.

“What the hell, Mia?” Bria asked as we all sat in a daze.

“It’s Crap-bag now,” Jake hissed, but then giggled at himself.

With no will to answer, I continued to trace Ollie’s tattoos on his arm with my finger. Ollie dropped his head down into my neck. “I just got goosebumps,” he whispered, and kissed my neck as his nose grazed my ear.

The feelings rushing through me intensified with every second near him. I knew who and what I was, but I was also aware of the way he made me feel, and I needed it. I craved it. My empty soul thirsted for something, and he quenched every gap—filled every piece.

“I don’t want this to end,” I whispered, the inevitable lurking behind his light. Ollie dropped his ear closer and ran his fingers through my hair, and I continued to ramble, “It’s going to end. This will all go away when I wake up, but I don’t want it to. I’ve never wanted it not to go away before.” I couldn’t shut up, my filter still nowhere to be found. This stupid ecstasy had me saying things I never thought I would say. My thoughts flowed straight from my subconscious and into the air around me.

Ollie moved his mouth to my ear. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.” His voice tickled my neck. His tone tickled my heart. His words tickled my soul. Ollie’s lips brushed over my ear before trailing kisses below and down the tender parts of my neck. His fingers ran up the back of my head. My eyes closed, taking in every sensation, capturing it, and never wanting to forget.

Bria stood from across the room and waved her arms in the air. “Hello?”

“What, mood-killer?” Jake asked, then fell into another fit of giggles. Isaac laughed at Jake’s contagious giggle, and Bria stood humorless.

“Sit down or go back to your dorm,” Isaac said after catching his breath.

“No one is keeping you here,” Ollie added. I picked my heavy head off his neck when he lowered his tone. “It’s almost four in the morning. Everyone should go, anyway.”

“So you can finish yourself off?” Isaac laughed.

“You’re a dirty man,” Ollie said, shaking his head.

I attempted to pull myself up from Ollie’s lap when he reached for my hand.

“One more,” he pleaded, looking up at me with that daydream look in his eyes. He tugged me back down into a pair of soft lips already aching for the taste of mine.

The sun woke me and my eyes blinked opened. The clock above the door said I had missed breakfast, but I couldn’t care. I couldn’t gather a single thought; my head was in a fog. When I tried to lift my arm, I couldn’t. My eyelids grew heavy, and I drifted back to sleep.

There were a few knocks at my door throughout the day, but I couldn’t move my body to answer any of them as I floated in and out of consciousness.

When I woke again, darkness surrounded me, and I didn’t know what time or day it was. I tried to lift my head to look out the window. It was dark, and the moon shed a path of light across my floor, revealing a piece of paper. The note must have been slid under my door. I threw my legs over my bed and walked over to it.

“Making sure you’re alive in there,” it read with an ‘O’ at the bottom.

Ollie.

Memories of moments with him circled as my breathing grew shorter and shorter. A pain ached in my chest, and I reached for the door handle, but it was locked. I couldn’t escape. A scream burned in my throat as I threw my fist at the door. No one was there to stop me as I beat the steel door, screaming until my lungs were completely depleted of oxygen.

My door suddenly buzzed open, and Stanley pulled me from my dorm by my arm and dragged me down the hall. My other hand clawed at his, trying to release myself from his grasp. His grip only tightened, and my head uncontrollably shook as I screamed out, “Let me go!” Stanley ignored me and continued to drag me down the hall. “What did you do to me?” I shouted, my fingers trying to grip the wall as we turned the corner. His silence only made me angrier as I fought against him and punched his shoulder.

“What happened?” the nurse asked as we came through the door. The light in the room was too bright, and I couldn’t see anything. My free arm swung over my eyes to shield them as another scream left me. I felt a pinch in my arm before everything went dark again.

“She’s experiencing an emotional collapse … it should be temporary...”

My lashes parted, and my eyes darted around the room to see Dr. Conway and Lynch speaking at the foot of my bed. It was bright. Too damn bright. I tried to cover my eyes, but my arm was constrained somehow.

“What’s happening?” I asked as I tried to lift my head. My eyes couldn’t adjust fast enough.

“No, darling. Just lie down,” the nurse said before she took my vitals. Dr. Conway pulled a chair beside me and studied my face in silence.

“Answer me,” I demanded.

“I believe you suffered a nervous breakdown, but I don’t know what could have caused it. No one saw you at breakfast, lunch, or di

Ollie immediately came to mind. I remembered his intense green eyes and the way his lips felt against mine. I remembered the mint, coconut, and the … ecstasy.

It was the ecstasy.

“I don’t know,” I lied.

“Something had to have triggered this. Something opened a door, and it was too much for your body to handle all at once.”

The nurse took my temperature and I clenched my eyes shut as I tried to process what Dr. Conway was saying. “This all seems extreme for it to be something as ridiculous as a nervous breakdown.”

“You’ll be okay, this is normal.” Dr. Conway turned to the nurse. “She’s ru