A Kiss At Midnight (Delilah and Caelum) novel Chapter 109

A Kiss At Midnight

A TRIP OUTSIDE

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Spinning around in my desk chair for what seem like the twentieth time, while staring at the ceiling blankly as 1 revolve slowly around

I was bored, like painfully bored

It was Friday afternoon after school, which normally would’ve meant I had something to look forward to. But today nothing

Today was Caelum’s break day, which also meant there was no tutoring. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, he wasn’t even around. He had gone to his grandpa’s house for the weekend straight after school, which again meant I wouldn’t see him again until Monday.

Monday

That was three whole days away, which sucked like hell.

I spin around again, letting my chair carry me toward the window before pushing myself off with one foot. Kaia was out too. She’d been busy with preparations for the fall festival and apparently had no intention of escaping until everything was ready.

Jace was spending some much needed time with his mother. And Elias?Elias was just..MIA, gone, vanished.

Probably somewhere doing whatever the hell Elias did when he disappeared off the face of the earth.

I sighed at how friend group was ridiculously small. Not that I minded, I would take the four people I actually liked over a hundred fake ass friends any day.

But right now? i was bored out of my fucking mind

There is always a party to go to, I supposed. There was probably something happening tonight. There always was, but even the thought of getting dressed up, and having to deal with loud music, drunk idiots, and people pretending to like each other sounded very much exhausting. I wasn’t just in the mood for that.

Spinning around again and again, when my phone rang, causing me to stopped mid spin.

The sudden sound made me glance toward the desk, as my phone was vibrating beside my laptop. I looked down on it, to see it was from an inknown number and mg brows pulled together.

Who the hell was calling me?

I reached over and picked it up. “Hello?” for a second, there was silence, then a voice came through the other end, monotone.

“Am I speaking with Delilah Quinn?”

My brows creased, “Yes..Who is this?”

There was another brief pause. “This is regarding an emergency,” something about the voice immediately

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A Kiss At Midnight

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made me sit straighter as the person continued, “We’re calling from Rosewood Hospice, you’re needed here immediately.”

I jumped out of my chair so quickly it nearly rolled backward. The hospice, I knew that name. It was the same hospice where Jace’s mother stayed and my stomach twisted.

How the hell had they even gotten my number? that wasn’t important right now.

“Is this about Jacquelin Moreno?” I asked, my voice suddenly tense.

There was a pause on the other end. “You need to come here immediately, Miss Quinn.”

My brows pulled together. “Why? What happened? Is she..” the call ended and I stared at my phone.

“What the fuck?” I immediately tried calling back, but the number was already unavailable.

Whatever was happening, I wasn’t going to sit here waiting for answers, I had to get there, fast.

I rushed to my closet and changed into a hoodie and sweatpants, shoving my feet into my fluffy slippers, and twisted my hair into a messy bun before practically sprinting out of my room, racing down the stairs two at a time.

“Miss Delilah!” I heard the maid call after me, “where are you going? your parents are going to be back for dinner!” I didn’t stop as I hurried through the front door and straight toward my car.

The drive to the hospice was smooth, thankfully, but my mind was anything but.

Should I call Jace?

I reached for my phone before hesitating. What if everything was fine? What if the hospice had already contacted him? But what if they hadn’t?

My fingers tightens around the steering wheel, I needed to find out what was happening first, and then I can call Jace once I knew how serious the emergency actually was.

The thought of Jacquelin lying there while something was wrong made my chest tighten.

I drove faster, reaching the hospice and managing to find a parking space close to the entrance. I barely had the car in park before I was out, the area was quiet as usually with only a handful of people moving around outside, their footsteps echoing faintly against the pavement.

Hurrying toward the entrance, I already preparing myself to bombard whoever was behind the front desk with questions and had barely stepped through the doors when a hand suddenly grabbed mine.

“What the..” I was yanked toward the corner beside the entrance, stumbling as I tried to regain my balance.

My gaze resting on a very familiar boy standing in front of me, practically glowing with excitement.

“You came!” my brows furrowed as I stared at him then at his hand still holding mine before returning it back at his face.

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A KISS At Midnight

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Narrowing my eyes. “Romeo?” I said since I had absolutely no idea what his actual name was and his grin widened.

He gave me a sheepish smile. “Not Romeo,” he corrected, “It’s Leonardo.”

I stared at him for a second. “Leonardo?”

He nodded proudly before his grin returned. “Leo, if you want,” then reached up and adjusted the little dinosaur shaped zipper pull on his backpack, as if suddenly becoming very interested in it.

My brow furrowed, something about the whole situation wasn’t adding up. Then it hit me, the phone call. Narrowing my eyes at him, I wondered if he had been the one who called me.

But I could have sworn the voice on the other end had belonged to a woman. I tilted my head, my jaw tightening as I fought the urge to get pissed.

“Were you the one who called me about an emergency?”

His smile immediately disappeared when he noticed the look in my eyes and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s not an answer.”

He gulped, “I.. asked the nurse to call you. More like begged her to get you here,” he admitted, “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just..”

“Well, you fucked up pretty badly if your plan was to not scare me,” his shoulders dropped, “you don’t call someone saying there’s an emergency and then hang up before explaining what the hell is happening!”

“I know.”

“I thought something had happened. Do you have any idea how fast my heart was beating?” he gave me an apologetic look, “don’t ever make a call like that again, seriously. You nearly gave me a fucking heart attack.”

He paused before giving me a tiny smile. “Well, at least now you know what it feels like to have a heart that refuses to cooperate.”

I stared at him for half a second, the joke landed differently because I knew about his heart condition and my expression softened, “That’s not funny.”

“I know,” he murmured, “Sorry,” he looked down at his shoes before continuing, “It had just been a while since I’d seen you and you’re the only person I could think of calling.”

Something about the way he said it made my concern return. “Why? Is something wrong?”

He quickly shook his head. “No, nothing’s wrong,” then his smile returned, brighter this time, “they’re letting me go outside today.”

My brow crease. “Outside?”

“Yeah. Just for a few hours,” he glanced toward the doors, looking almost giddy, “I get to leave this place for a

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A Kiss At Midnight

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little while. It’s not forever or anything, but..It’s exciting.” He took a deep breath, filling his lungs slowly, “It’s nice to breathe air that doesn’t smell like disinfectant.”

“Is it actually safe for you to leave without someone monitoring you?”

Lifting his wrist, tapping the screen of his watch. “Technology, remember? this thing is basically my personal babysitter,” I raised an eyebrow as he grinned, “If anything goes wrong with my heart, it detects it and sends an SOS straight to the hospice. They get notified immediately.”

“That sounds reassuring.”

“It is,” he lowered his wrist, “besides, I’m only out for a few hours.”

“Okay,” nodding slowly, before raising an eyebrow, “but why exactly am I here?”

Staring at me for a second before shaking his head. “I needed a friend,” his expression softened, “and I needed some company. Plus, I have a few things I need to get, and you look like someone who knows what she’s doing.”

Deciding to take that as a compliment and besides, it wasn’t like I had anything planned out for today, so..why

not.

“Fine,” glancing toward the front desk, “don’t you have to sign out or something?”

“Already did,” he started walking toward the entrance. “Come on, I guess you came with your car?“clicking his tongue, he raised two fingers in a quick salute before pointing toward the doors.

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