Lightning in the Bones

The vitamin sat on her kitchen counter, a small orange promise she'd been ignoring for three weeks. Elena picked it up, considering how something meant to sustain her had become another item on her growing list of failures.

"You going to take that, or just stare at it until it withers?" Marcus stood in her doorway, not quite meeting her eyes. The friend who'd become something more, then nothing at all, then this—whatever limbo they currently inhabited.

She dry-swallowed the pill. "Satisfied?"

"Ecstatic." He gestured toward the window, where lightning stitched the evening sky in violent flashes. "Storm's coming. Your cat's been hiding under the bed since noon."

"Buster knows." Elena pressed her palms against the counter, feeling the cold marble seep into her skin. "He always knows when something's about to break."

Marcus stepped closer, his hand hovering near her shoulder before dropping to his side. The space between them felt charged, electric—like the air before a strike. Three months ago, this distance would've disappeared with a single look. Now it was a canyon.

"About Friday," he started.

"Don't."

"Elena—"

"We said we'd talk about it when we could both be adults about it." She turned to face him, surprised by her own calm. "I'm not ready to be that adult yet."

He laughed, a sharp exhale. "Since when do you run from things? You've been charging at everything since we met. Took that promotion nobody wanted. Ended things with Richard when he wouldn't commit. You're the one who taught me to grab life by the—"

"Bull?" She raised an eyebrow. "Is that where we're going with this?"

"I was going to say horns, but sure. Bull works too." His expression softened. "You're the strongest person I know. Which is why watching you fall apart over this is so..."

"What? Infuriating? Uncharacteristic?"

"Human." He reached out, finally, his fingers brushing her wrist. The contact sent something through her—not lightning, exactly, but close. Something elemental and unforgiving.

"I'm not falling apart," she said, though her voice cracked. "I'm just... pausing."

"Take all the time you need." He stepped back, creating distance again. "But lightning strikes whether we're ready or not. And sometimes you get to choose what you build from the ash."

The cat emerged from the bedroom as the first raindrops began to fall. Elena watched them both—Marcus with his quiet patience, Buster with his survival instincts—and thought about vitamins, about things meant to sustain you that you only take when you remember you need them.

"Stay for dinner?" she heard herself ask.

Marcus smiled, just barely. "Only if you actually eat something this time."

Outside, the lightning struck again, illuminating everything.