Alonso's presence in Natalie's room felt closer to a dream than to reality. She tightened her quilt around her and watched her uncle half-dragging Kevin out of her room then heard the door clicking closed behind them.
"I have so much to say, but I would like to hear from you first," he said in a much softer tone than the one he entered the room with.
Speechless, she looked up at Alonso in his flawless gray suit beneath his brown overcoat. He looked so good; it was like rubbing salt on her injury—a physical reminder of how this shiny meteor neither belonged to her world nor belonged to her. The more he needlessly shone around her, the darker and more depressing the reality of her surroundings became.
But why was he looking at her so tenderly?
"…Why are you here?"
"Because it is where you are. The last three days felt like three centuries to me."
