Page 143 of Ace My Heart

“Who doesn’t want to see you, Stink?”

I almost tipped down the stairs, I leapt to my feet so fast. He stood in the stairwell, arms across his chest.

I gaped. “What are you doing here?” I asked.

Joel’s lips twitched downwards. “I … heard you’d been sent home today. I just wanted to check … you know, that you have everything you need, and maybe talk rehab for your shoulder.” He looked behind me to the police tape over my door. “What’s happening in there?”

“Apparently there’s some important evidence they need to gather. And then they have to do a full sweep of my apartment. No idea why – they won’t tell me anything.” I shrugged, then hissed at the pain in my shoulder. “So, I’m temporarily homeless.”

Joel snorted. “You’re ridiculous, Stinky. Let’s get your shit and get down to my car. Mum will be delighted to have you.”

And what about you?I thought grumpily as I grabbed my overnight bag in my good hand, while Joel juggled Connor and all his stuff.How delighted will you be about this?

The silence in the car on the way back to Joel’s was awkward. Silence had never been awkward between us before London.

“How’s your head?” I asked to break the tense quiet. I’d seen the stitches just below his hairline. I peeked at him out of the corner of my eye. His hair was shorter. It suited him.

Oh, Mel, who are you kidding? You’d love his hair no matter how he wore it!

Joel ran two fingers over the stitches self-consciously. “It’s okay. How’s your arm?” Joel asked, the way an old school acquaintance would ask you how you’d been when they bumped into you in the street. I gritted my teeth.

“It’s been better, but you’d know that already if you’d …” I trailed off. Joel’s mouth twisted, but he didn’t say anything. I pursed my lips and turned to face the road again.

God, why can’t I just tell him the things I feel; get it over and done with?I silently asked. As usual no answer appeared magically out of thin air.

Joel took Connor straight into my usual guest room, leavingimmediately. I slammed the door behind him, gritting my teeth because the movement hurt so much.

I opened Connor’s cage and he leapt out and scuttled under the bed, tail up like a bottlebrush.

There was a knock on the door.

“What do you want?” I snapped.

No answer. I groaned and got to my feet, reaching the door and wrenching it open. Connor’s litter box was outside. Joel was nowhere to be seen.

I sighed and dragged it into the bathroom. I stripped my clothes off and ran the shower cold. I needed something to soothe the hot anger that was racing through my veins.

I strained in the mirror to see the hole where the bullet had entered me at the back of my shoulder. They’d stitched the hole shut, but they told me not to wear a dressing on it anymore – it needed to breathe. The black stitches stood out against the angry red wound. I was going to have one doozy of a scar there. I sighed. Nothing I could do about it.

I climbed into bed naked and with wet hair. I was so tired I felt like I would sleep for a century.

So of course, I couldn’t sleep at all. Anger pulsed under my skin. I tossed and turned.

It was about three when I gave up. I pulled an oversized t-shirt out of my bag and dragged it over my head. It fell almost to my knees.

The house was silent, sleeping. Why could everything else seem peaceful, when I was full of turmoil? It didn’t seem fair.

I filled a glass with water from the tap in the kitchen and guzzled it in one breath. I filled it again and padded quietly out towards the patio. The door slid open silently. I curled up on a love seat that overlooked the garden and pool below.

The moon was full and it lit the night better than any artificial light. I pulled the t-shirt over my knees. The neckline was so stretched that it slipped off my left shoulder. The cool air on my wound actually felt nice. I didn’t pull it back up.

“I’ve never seen a bullet wound before.”

I jumped, spilling the glass of water down the front of my t-shirt.

“What are you doing?” I hissed crankily. “You’re supposed to be asleep!”

His mouth tweaked. “So are you.”

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