meant to go from that”—I pointed at the image of Logan on her screen—“to a normal bloke off the street? It’s not fair, is it?”
“Exactly. I think you should try to make it work. If not for your sake, then for mine. Please, girl, I need to live vicariously through you.”
I’ve been thinking about what she said since she left, and I know I’ve got to do something. But first, I have other important things to manage. It’s past suppertime now and I still haven’t phoned Yasmine and Kat. I don’t want to worry them, but sooner or later, I’ll have to let them know what’s happened.
I already phoned Mrs. Halliday to let her know I’ll be out tomorrow. She made a big fuss and told me to stay out the first half of the week, just to ensure I’m really taking care of myself. It’s a relief; at least I don’t have to worry about my job at The Day School on top of everything else.
The door to my room opens, and I’m expecting Jada (though I’m secretly praying it’s Logan), but then there’s a blur of balloons and teddy bears and my two flatmates blubbering on about how worried they’ve been about me.
“Yaz! Get out of my way. You’re hogging the doorway.”
“It’s the balloons.”
It’s quite a struggle for them to get inside, and they sort of fall in together like a comic duo. Then they look up and see me in bed, and their eyes go wide in fear.
“OH MY GOD. HER HEAD IS BANDAGED!” Kat says, rushing toward me. “Are you dying?”
“No. It’s just a cut.”
“Yasmine, don’t just stand there! Get her water! Food! Something!”
“I’m fine, really.” I have to bat away the sandwich Kat picks up off my tray and tries to shove into my mouth.
“You poor thing. Are you in loads of pain? Want Yasmine to give you a bit of a foot rub? Yaz? Get to it.”
“I’m fine! I swear. No one touch my feet.”
Yasmine immediately stops trying to untangle them from the blankets.
“Where’s Logan? Down getting you something from the gift shop? Tell him not to bother—I think we’ve cleared out the place,” Yasmine says, dropping a load of things onto the end of my bed. There’s a box of chocolates, a little charm bracelet wrapped in a clear box, and a teddy bear wearing a pair of scrubs like he’s about to go perform surgery—and that’s just half of it. There’re about twenty balloons filling the air, bobbing up and down. I swat one away when it gets too close to my head.
“Are you two both mad?”
“We’re worried!” Kat whines. “You can’t even imagine! There we were, enjoying some wine on a Sunday evening, and then we turned on the telly and there’s our mate, splayed out on the street with sirens wailing around her!”
“They showed it on TV?!”
I thought Mum was exaggerating.
“Yes! It was part of the news and everything! Very big deal. Now, don’t worry. Your knickers were showing for a bit, and in my opinion, they weren’t your cutest pair—”
“Don’t make the poor girl feel worse,” Yasmine groans.
“Right, well, you did look quite nice when they lifted you up on the gurney.”
“Yes! Very brave. And of course, Logan looked absolutely handsome, worrying over you like that. For a little while I didn’t think they’d let him into the back of the ambulance with you, but then he shouted at them all heroic like. Wasn’t that brilliant, Kat?”
“Yes. Like something out of a movie. I cried a bit. And then we rushed here, of course, to be by your side, though I can’t stay for too long. Jay’s expecting me for a late drink, and Yaz has got to run to see Marcus too.”
“Oh good. Abandoning me already?”
“Well we figured you wouldn’t want us around anyway,” Kat continues. “Just getting in the way. Won’t Logan be back soon?”
“No.”
They exchange a worried glance. “What do you mean?”
“He’s gone. Left earlier after we had a shouting match. I sort of took things too far, I’m afraid.”
Kat nearly jumps on me in a panic, grabbing her mobile to shove at me. “Call him! Apologize!”
“I can’t. I mean…I don’t know if I want to. He really made me mad.”
“Who cares?! Swallow your pride and apologize anyway. That man loves you! He was about to fight a paramedic to get to you, I swear it.”
“Fine. I’ll call when you two clear out.”
“Okay, then we’re off.”
“Already?”
“Like I said, we’ll just get in the way.”
“Hospitals sort of