Lost Era 05_ Deny thy Father - Jeff Mariotte [91]
When he opened his eyes again, he thought the movement would kill him.
“I see you’re up,” Felicia’s voice screamed at him.
“Shhh!” he insisted with a giggle that pierced his brain. “You’ll wake Felicia.”
“Are you still drunk, Will?”
He realized several things at once. He was on the floor of Felicia’s room, which he determined because he could see Felicia standing across the room looking at him, and he recognized the art on her walls. Someone-presumably she-had put a blanket over him while he slept. His brain was on fire, his mouth tasted as if a Klingon had been herding targs in it, and he had hopelessly humiliated himself. But he was no longer drunk.
“No,” he managed. “Because if I was, then I wouldn’t be in pain. Feeling no pain, that’s what they say, right?”
“Sometimes they do,” she agreed. “But you’re feeling it now, aren’t you?”
He tried to push himself to a sitting position. It didn’t work very well. He reached out and steadied himself against her bed and did it again, and this time he was able to sit up, as long as he leaned against the bed. His head throbbed blindingly and his stomach churned. “Yes,” he admitted. “I’m feeling it.”
“You do know where you are?”
“I’m in your room. I came here… to talk to you.”
“You didn’t seem interested in talking. Snoring, maybe.”
“I’m sorry, Felicia,” he said. “I hope I didn’t keep you up.”
“After you woke me up in the first place, you mean.”
“Sorry about that too,” he said. The words were coming a little easier, but some water would make it easier still. She had already figured that out, it seemed, and she brought him a glass.
“You’re dehydrated,” she said. “You need to drink this. Slowly and carefully.”
He took a sip and felt his stomach lurch. He waited for it to settle, then took another sip. “I really messed everything up,” he said. “I am so sorry.”
“You’re a Starfleet Academy cadet,” Felicia said with a shrug. “It’s practically a graduating requirement.”
“You hardly ever mess up.”
“I am unique in my brilliance and self-possession,” she said, laughing.
“That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about.” Will drank some more water and felt a little stronger.
“If you came to compliment my good qualities, I’m sorry you were unconscious the whole time,” Felicia replied. “But now I have to get to class-as do you, although I doubt you’ll make it. So we’ll have to reschedule my praise.”
“But… no, Felicia.” He forced himself to his feet, made it for a second and then fell back to the edge of her bed. Progress, though. “You know what? I’ve put this off too long. I know I’ve blown it, probably ruined whatever chance I might ever have had. But I still have to say it. So stick around, please. For a little while.”
“Will, this class is important to me.”
“But you’re important to me!” There, he thought. It’s out.
“I appreciate that, Will,” she said, apparently not quite getting what he’d meant. “And I like you too. But I don’t want to miss this class.”
“Felicia,” Will said, hanging his head and gripping it with both hands as if to keep its halves together. His outburst had been truly excruciating. “Just… wait. Bear with me a little, okay? We’ve known each other for a long time.”
“Yes, we have.” She sat down on a chair facing him and waited. “So what did you want to talk about?”
“This made a lot more sense last night,” he began. “Or at least I thought it did. But… well, us. I wanted to talk about us.”
“There’s an us?”
“I always wanted there to be,” Will said. “I guess after last night, I can see that there never will be. But as long as I’ve known you I’ve wanted to be with you.”
“And of course I was supposed to know this by the fact that you never once mentioned it.”
“Yes,” Will said. Then, “No. I mean… you couldn’t have, I guess. I kept hoping you would just figure it out. And I wanted to tell you, several times. But things kept getting in the way.”
“What kinds of things?” she asked him. She seemed a little dismayed by this whole conversation, and he couldn’t blame her a bit.
“Different… things. Like