Falling In Between (Falling Novels #1)

Chapter Seventeen

I woke up early the next morning feeling refreshed and luckily, free of that horrible neck pain. For the first time ever, Chance didn't come to spend the night with me. Guess he picked up my 'get lost' hint from my nap after all. I slipped out of the room before Sophie awoke and headed down for an early breakfast. Robert would still be swimming, like he did every morning, so I didn't have to worry about running into him in the cafeteria.

On Mondays, I would usually catch Sophie in the hall between second and third and again for lunch, but I took an alternate route and went to the library for lunch. She was only gonna drool over what happened with me and Robert and the almost sex-capade, and I just didn't want to think about anything Robert-related right now. And I couldn't tell her why.

After school, I hopped straight on the bus that would take me to the hospital and breathed a deep sigh of relief. I had made it through the entire day without running into anyone. And no one would expect me to go to the hospital today 'cause it wasn't a normal volunteer day for me.

As I departed the bus and entered the hospital's lobby, I snatched an abandoned paper off a bench and headed down the familiar hall that would lead me to my old ward. I didn't see Margaret at the nurses' station but I did see Michelle, another nurse that took care of me last fall. Her eyes popped with curiosity when I neared.

"Jenna, we weren't expecting you today," she said cheerfully.

"Yeah, I know. Is Margaret around?"

"She doesn't come on till four."

That left me about an hour until she came. "Alright. I'll just go hang out at 34B until then."

Michelle shook her head and said, "Bless her heart. She's always trying to get one of us to go talk to that poor kid. Glad you're willing to do it. It'll get her off asking us today."

"You're welcome, then. Will you let her know I'm here when she comes in?"

"Sure thing."

I found myself taking several deep breaths as I crossed the room to Chance's, er, Evan's, bed. He looked the same as he did yesterday; still pale, but serene.

"Hey," I said, stroking his cheek and running my fingers through his hair. "Still haven't come around, huh? You know you'd be doing me a huge favor if you would. Then if you were still in my dreams afterwards, I'd know for sure I was just imagining this nightmare."

I whipped open the newspaper and flipped until I found the sports section. "So who do you like? I know you like soccer, but how do you feel about basketball?" I casually read him stories from the paper, trying not to utterly bore us both. About an hour and a half later, I heard footsteps traveling towards us and folded down the newspaper to confirm it was Margaret. I smiled warmly at her as she pulled the curtain aside.

"See, it's refreshing to just talk to someone and not have them talk back, isn't it?"

"I don't know," I jested. "Boys in general seem to keep their mouths shut conversation-wise, so this is kinda like talking with my boyfriend." She hooted and hollered over that as she began recording his vitals in the binder she was holding. "I just hope he can hear me, 'cause otherwise I'm reading these boring sports stories for nothing."

"If anything, I'd think he'd find it comforting to have someone sitting beside him."

"Yeah." I inhaled a deep breath through my nose, summoning the courage I was about to need. "So what's his birthday? I wanna read him his horoscope. Personally, I think he's a Libra."