Precious and Fragile Things by Megan Hart Page B

thought of food made her swallow a gag.
    Her head hurt. Gilly had been prone to headaches her entire life, most of them tension related, but this was a bad one. Pain cradled her skull and spiked her eyes from the combination of infected sinuses, lack of food and anxiety. She’d never been diagnosed with migraines, but now she blinked away what sure as hell looked like an aura.
    Groaning seemed worthless, but she did it anyway. No ceasefrom the snoring on the room’s other side. Gilly pressed her thumbs to the magic spots just above the bridge of her nose, willing the pain to go away. It didn’t, but it did ease a little. Long experience told her that eating would help, even if she didn’t feel like it. A hot shower would, too, but she was out of luck on that one.
    She flung the covers off and swung her legs over the bed. Her head spun and her stomach rocked alarmingly. Clenching her jaw didn’t help her headache, but she refused to puke. Absolutely refused. Raw bile burned in her throat, and she swallowed convulsively, over and over.
    Breathe, Gilly. In. Out. Keep it together.
    She must’ve groaned louder because suddenly Todd appeared, leaning on the partition. “You okay?”
    She didn’t dare speak, and so only nodded. She pressed her thumbs more firmly against her forehead. The throbbing subsided. Sheer willpower kept her stomach’s contents inside it rather than all over the floor.
    â€œYou don’t look good.”
    â€œI don’t feel good.”
    He didn’t say anything. Gilly looked up at him. Sleep had mussed his hair and still clouded his eyes. He wiped a hand across bristled cheeks. “You gonna puke?”
    â€œNo!” Her indignation chased the last of her sour stomach away.
    â€œJust asking. You look kinda pale.”
    â€œI’m always this color.”
    He raised his eyebrows at her. “If you say so.”
    â€œI just need to eat something.” Gilly pushed past him and hobbled down the stairs. In the kitchen, she toasted bread and poured cereal. The single half-gallon container of milk was almost empty. She swished it around thoughtfully beforepouring it. There’d be no more for a long time after this was gone. She poured it anyway.
    Todd had bought the kind of sugary cereals she never bought at home because she knew they’d rot her kids’ teeth or give them cancer or send them into hyperactive spirals. Now Gilly dug into the bowl and crunched the sweetness. She gobbled it. She watched the colored cereal turn her milk the color of a tropical sunset.
    Todd appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He wore a loose-fitting pair of sweatpants, slung low across his hips. When he lifted his arm to scrub at his face she saw the tan expanse of his belly, not taut and buff but soft and slightly curved. A long, angry scar dimpled the skin.
    â€œIt’s starting to snow again,” Todd remarked as he looked out one of the back windows. “Goddamn, look at that coming down. Fucking snowpocalypse out there.”
    Gilly filled her bowl again and kept crunching. Famine had replaced her earlier nausea. The sweet cereal made her teeth ache.
    â€œThere’s no more milk,” she said when he entered the kitchen, and waited to see what he would say.
    â€œThere’s five gallons outside in the lean-to,” Todd replied. “As long as it’s cold like this, it’ll stay frozen out there.”
    Gilly felt somehow defeated in her defiance. “You’ve thought of everything.”
    Todd got a bowl from the cupboard and sat across from her to fill it with Lucky Charms. He shrugged. “Didn’t want to get caught needing something I didn’t have.”
    Gilly pushed her bowl away, suddenly no longer so hungry. “You planned this.”
    His spoon stopped halfway to his mouth, then lowered. “I had a plan, yeah. And then it changed. I wasn’t sure what thehell was going to happen, so I tried to make