"Your location app was on."

"Just turn it off!" I said, out of breath.

"But how will we find Luke then?"

"I already did!" I screamed, and I recklessly jumped to the road to cross to the other side of the street.

A bus sounded its horn and a car skidded to stop ten centimeters before us. I should have been worried because of the attention I had brought to ourselves, and, over all, because of the fact that I could have killed both of us. But I didn't care. I continued crossing over, still holding Lindsay's hand, and knocked on Luke's blue Honda's back window.

He got startled for a second, but as we climbed into the car, he immediately moved his foot from the brake to the accelerator, and we were gone. Both of us had sat down in the back seat. I looked back once more, to check if someone was following us. Nothing looked suspicious, so I breathed deeply at last, while my heartbeat adjusted to its normal rhythm again. Lindsay's face was dark red, and she just fixated her eyes ahead and stared at the road. It was clear that though the treatment had altered our DNA, our mitochondria still had difficulties oxidizing at the speed of the race we had just run. Exhaustion was still the same as I remembered.

I didn't know what to say to Luke. Having him close was normal and weird at the same time, but thinking we had had sex the previous night was just weird. I was sitting across from him, so I was able to see his opaque eyes behind his Ray Ban sunglasses. As usual, they didn't tell me anything.

"Thank you." I finally decided to say.

"Don't thank me, Tess." he said, as if what I had just said was utterly ridiculous.

It struck me that he had chosen to call me Tess, remembering the last things we had said to each other the previous night, recalling the coldness in his face while he kicked me out of his room. I definitely wouldn't have chosen to see him again that soon if I had had a choice.

"I was thinking we could go to Liverpool tonight, to a friend's house. I think nobody will look for you there. And tomorrow we can decide what we are going to do next."

Lindsay and I looked at each other.

"Mm... we told our parents to meet us at Oxford tonight."

Luke stopped looking at the road and turned to me.

"Are you completely crazy, Tessa?"

Oh, I said to myself, he has chosen my full name this time.

"We already told them that. Besides, we have to stay close to London. I need to get more things from the lab."

"Okay, you're sounding suicidal now." Lindsay said.

"Thank you!" Luke said, moving his arm up and down as if to acknowledge Lindsay. "You can't steal any more, Tessa. You'll get caught."

I moved forward in my seat, eager to show him that he couldn't boss me around, and, close to his ear, I said:

"I'm going to. I'm not going to let people die." Speaking so close to his neck gave him goose skin, and I smiled internally. "You don't have to save me, Luke. I can do it alone."

"Oh, really?" he asked, defiantly. "Where would you be now if I hadn't set up this escape plan?"

He was right. I did need help. Not from him particularly, but I needed it.

"Please, keep looking at the road. You are looking suicidal now."

We both sighed at the same time, and Lindsay giggled.

"And where in Oxford are you planning to stay? Please tell me it's not at your college dorm." he asked.

This time, against my will, I joined Lindsay in laughing.

"No, I was thinking some youth hostel. Nobody would hide in there."

"But someone might recognize you and give you in. Did you read the article in the newspaper? They said your theft is going to delay the start of the treatment. People are getting anxious, and they think that you are to blame." he said.

I had to admit he was right.

"I think we should go somewhere fancy. Somewhere we can ensure our privacy." Lindsay suggested.

"Such as?" Luke asked, impatiently.

"The Cotswold Lodge." I said, suddenly convinced that it was the best option.

The Cotswold Lodge was an elegant hotel in Banbury Road. It was a Victorian, small palace-like building that was close to the city centre but not there. Its size and location were, therefore, important advantages in our situation.

Luke drove fast, so we arrived in an hour and a half. At the reception, we acted weirder than we wanted, and doubted for several minutes how many rooms we should get. Finally, we settled on three double rooms, knowing we might have to sneak somebody in if the situation got worse. We decided Lindsay and I should use one of the two we had booked on the first floor, and Luke stayed in the one on the ground floor. I could tell he liked acting tough, being the one to protect me. That realization gave me shivers and troubled me at the same time.

The rooms were decorated with flowery duvets and curtains, and white furniture. Out of custom, I decided that unpacking should be the first thing to do, and then I realized that the only luggage I had brought with me didn't need unpacking. We divided the treatment material among the safes of the three rooms.

"We should go to the library, open a new email account and send a coded message to mum and dad so that they now we are here." Lindsay said as I looked at myself in the mirror.

"And we should dye our hair."

Lindsay cracked up.

"Are you seriously going to imitate what they do in espionage films?"

"Don't you think it's wise? Maybe we should cut it too." I said, folding my hair at the height of my chin.

Lindsay shrugged, pouted and then nodded, showing me she was agreeing against what she wanted.

"Let's go!" she said, and she walked towards the door.

"Just... hold on." I said, still facing the mirror. "I should... Luke..." I didn't want to say it aloud.

"Okay, while you do that, I'll send the email." she answered, turning the knob of the door.

"No! Wait." I yelled, and I walked to her. "I don't want you to go alone. I don't want to get separated from you."

She sighed, walked back to the bed, and let herself fall on the light blue and pink flower pattern.

I heard the water run as I approached Luke's room. He was in the shower. Great. Anyhow, I used the spare key he had given to me, and walked in. The water stopped when I closed the door behind me, and he appeared wrapped up in a white towel that hung exaggeratedly low around his hips.

"It's good you're naked." I said, and his puzzled expression made me blush fast and dark. "Because... I was going to tell you to take your clothes off for this..."

I pointed at the safe. It was like we had made a secret agreement not to say anything aloud. I removed the material from the bed and set everything on the floor. Luke watched me all the time, and I wasn't thinking straight. From the corner of my eye, I noticed he had let his towel fall to the floor. I pretended to straighten the sheets while I figured out the face I would put when I looked at him.

I finally turned. The patches of his skin that weren't completely dry yet glistened in the most sensual way. 

"You can lie down." I said, trying to maintain a poker face.

His muscles showed through his skin as he sat, and I relived the way in which they had showed the previous night, while he moved on top of me. I bit my lip, but went back to my poker face as soon as I realized I had changed my expression. He didn't stop watching me for one second.

"Please, Tessa, don't be so cold." he said, and he gently caressed my hand. "Not now. It is the most important moment of my life, and I want to spend it with the Tessa that loved me."

Well, you killed her, I wanted to say. That girl ceased to exist when you came back a completely different person.

"Are you nervous?" I asked, still quite impersonally, but I looked directly into his eyes for the first time.

"Yes, I am. But I trust you." he said, and he smiled somewhat. "Why do I get the feeling that you still don't trust me back?"

"Because... because..." I sighed. "Because you kicked me out last night, Luke. After we fucking fucked." I almost laughed at my silly, obscene reiteration, but I didn't want to seem less serious, so I held it in. "The Luke that I fell in love with would never do that. And I trusted that guy."

He sighed.

"I'm sorry, babe."

Don't call me babe, I wanted to say, but something melted inside me whenever he addressed me like that. It made me feel sexy and falsely in charge of the situation.

"I was nervous, I hadn't seen you in so long...You know I get nervous whenever I don't know what I am going to feel... And then you mentioned kissing David..."

I realized I still hadn't shared with him the information that I had collected at David's. But I wasn't sure if I wanted to. It partly felt like betraying David.

Absentmindedly, he lifted the sleeve of my blouse, and caressed my wrist and my lower forearm. Chills inundated my whole body. Please, stay cold, don't let him blind you again. Don't fall for him again.

I stood up and reached for the first syringe.

"It's going to be alright." I reassured him, sweetly but coldly, reminding myself of the way I had acted with patients I barely knew during my last clinical electives.

Really, it was also an attempt of a reassurance for myself. Dad is not going to die today.

"I just remembered something you told me once." he said, breaking the cold atmosphere I had created; setting it into flames again, slowly continuing with my torturous meltdown. "Strolling around the Thames, you told me I should call my sailor friend once we were immortal. You said we should flee together, slowly, in a boat."

I couldn't help to smile like a fool. Even if remembering that moment transmitted me one hundredth of the happiness that I had felt when it happened, it still made me the happiest person on Earth.

"Shut up." I told him, but I couldn't stop smiling.

"You're beautiful."

"And you need to stay quiet, because I'm going to make you immortal now."

"Oh, yes, whatever you command, miss; I deserve that punishment, indeed. I'm not nervous anymore. Your smile drugged me."

To my horror, I giggled, already feeling like I was lying on a marshmallow cloud. Did I just think that?

It seemed quicker than the previous times; the image of his naked body and the flow of thoughts I tried to organize prevented me from anxiously waiting for it to be over. The emptying of the last syringe came like a surprise. He opened his eyes and locked them on mine.

"Thank you." he said softly, and he stood up and hugged me.

The first thing that I thought during that hug was that I wished it was dad who had just become immortal. The second was that I didn't get him, or what he felt about me. The third was that I didn't care. Overanalyzing every detail of every situation had gotten me exhausted and ill. I was sick of wanting things and not wanting them at the same time, of feeling responsible for everything and guilty if I chose things that were not beneficial for everyone. I was fed up of staying miserable through all the good things that were happening to me.

So when he lifted my chin up and kissed me, I gave in. I knew it was wrong, I knew I would regret it even more than the previous night, because, this time, it had been completely deliberate. I was utterly responsible. So what.

His mouth was hungry and hot, his hands were fast, wisely moving through the places that turned me on the most. We knew every nook and cranny on each other's body: I bit his neck and his swollen bottom lip, he caressed my inner thighs. He lifted me up in his arms and I took off my black lace dress. I touched his shoulders, his torso, his back. His muscles were hard, and his skin was sizzling and heated mine. He touched me as if a long time had passed from the previous night, as if every inch of my skin was new and delightful and worth exploring in utter detail. As we fell on the floral duvet, the doorbell rang.

"What the fuck?" Luke blurted, and he continued trying to undo my bra.

"Stop..." I muttered. "What if it's Lindsay? Or my parents?"

He sighed and lifted of me, turned around and fell on the bed on his back. I quickly jumped into my dress again, and run for the door. I had grown used to having a bad feeling every time something startled me.

What did you think of this chapter? Do you think that Tessa's choice to be with Luke again was a good one? Who do you think knocked on the door? Let me know in the comments! I am entering the Wattys 2016, so, if you enjoyed it, please don't forget to vote :)

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