And Rhys was already insufferable enough.
I exhaled slowly, thumb tapping the side of my phone before I locked the screen.
I’ll call him after lunch.
That felt less likely to completely derail me in the middle of my mom’s kitchen.
My reflection caught in the mirror when I pushed off the door—flushed and a little unfocused, as though I’d just run a mile instead of walked ten feet down a hallway.
I turned the faucet on, took off my glasses, and splashed cold water over my face, sucking in a sharp breath as it hit.
Water dripped down my jaw, soaking into the collar of my shirt as I braced my hands against the sink, breathing through it.
Reaching for a towel, I dragged it down my face and shoved my glasses back up my nose before reaching for the door.
I wrapped my fingers around the handle and twisted.
Nothing.
Frowning, I shifted my grip, giving it a sharper turn.
The handle moved?—
—and then gave.
A soft, uglycracksounded, and suddenly the whole thing sagged in my hand, tilting down at an angle it definitely wasn’t supposed to.
I stared at it for a second, blinking, like if I waited long enough it would fix itself.
The screws were half-pulled out of the wood, rusted and loose, the plate hanging just enough to make the whole mechanism useless.
I tried again anyway, pushing the door with my shoulder this time, twisting what was left of the handle.
It didn’t budge.
For a second, I just stood there, hand still wrapped around the useless handle, waiting for my brain to catch up.
A dense, stale pressure closed on me from all sides. Fingers shaking, they slipped off the handle and dropped to my sides.
My eyes pinged through the room like there was another way to get out.
No. No. No.
My hand snapped back to the handle, yanking it harder this time, metal rattling uselessly against wood.
“Rhys.” My palm slammed flat against the wood. “Rhys!”
God.
My lungs seized, and I clawed at my shirt, tearing into the fabric.
“Rhys!”
There was a shuffle outside the door. “Arch?”
Help me.
“It’s stuck,” I choked. “Rhys, the door is stuck. I can’t get it open. I need?—”