Page 65 of Save the Last Dance
The nurse opened the curtain but the only person Ally saw was Ethan. His gaze flicked to Rachel first, but then moved to Ally and…stayed there.
Tall and broad-shouldered, he’d always looked older than everyone else at school. Now, she could see a maturity that went along with his appearance. Underneath his good nature and easygoing smile, Ethan was a strong, capable guy.
“Thank you so much for coming.” Ally had texted him as soon as she’d arrived, too worried for Rachel to be concerned about whatever awkwardness or bad feelings lingered between her and Ethan. “You’re Rachel’s friend and?—”
“I am.” He met her gaze levelly, and she felt like a first-class jerk for giving him a hard time about his relationship with Rachel. “But I came for you.”
She rose to her feet, shaky from the hours of worry. Even before the hell of the accident, there’d been her dad’s revelation. Ethan’s show of support now—even when she didn’t deserve it—was about the nicest thing she could imagine.
Flinging her arms around him, she hugged him tight. It wasn’t the kind of first embrace she’d imagined for them, but she needed it like nothing else. By the time Ethan’s arms went around her, she was already crying against his shoulder. Tears flowed like someone had turned on the faucets, all the stress of the past week overflowing.
“I’ve been so horrible.” She kept her voice low, knowing people in nearby curtain stalls could hear her if they cared to listen. She’d already eavesdropped on all kinds of dramagoing on in the lives of the faceless strangers on either side of Rachel’s tiny space.
“No, you haven’t.” Ethan eased back to look at her face, his expression so open and caring.
Easy for him when he hid no secrets.
Ally released him, knowing she needed to come clean, and the sooner the better. She wanted to smooth things over with him before Rachel woke up. Then maybe together they could figure out why the girl had asked for Ally in her delirium.
“About a week ago, I overheard Rachel say she had a date with you.” If only she could take back what had happened afterward. She realized now that she needed more outlets than just Gram. And if that meant regular therapy sessions, she was going to find a way to get them, even after she left Heartache for good. “And I didn’t handle it well.”
She shoved up her sleeves to show him the healing scratches. He’d noticed the bandages the day after, but now that she was letting them “breathe” as Gram had suggested, he could see exactly how revolting they were.
“What do you mean?” He stared blankly at the marks. For a second. Then he looked back up at her, his expression stunned. “You did that to yourself?” His voice was a shocked whisper.
She closed her eyes so she wouldn’t see his face, but it showed up even behind her eyelids.
“I’ve done it other times, too. It’s a stress thing.” A dumb, embarrassing stress thing. Yet Gram told her she could fight it. She opened her eyes again. “But I’m working on it. I mean, I’m fixing myself. So I won’t do it anymore.”
“Ally, I’m so damn sorry.” His hazel eyes were full of regret.
“You didn’t do this to me. I did.” She definitely didn’t want to unload her baggage on him.
“Does Rachel know about this?”
A voice murmured sleepily from the bed. “I do now.”
Whirling, Ally hurried over to her side with Ethan on her heels. “Hey, Rachel. How are you feeling?”
“They didn’t call my mom, did they?” Wide blue eyes stared up at Ally, and she noticed some of Rachel’s blond hair was stuck to the bandage at the top of her forehead.
She had a cut on her lip and a big splint on the leg that had been surgically repaired to fix a fracture. Her leg was now propped on pillows and an IV full of fluids had been attached to one arm. Ally couldn’t even imagine what a crap relationship Rachel must have with her mother that she didn’t want her here right now.
“No. You’re eighteen. The nurse told me they can’t call her because of privacy laws.” Ally picked some of the hair out of the bandage with gentle fingers, knowing she’d want someone to take care of her if she was in the hospital.
She’d had a few someones, actually. For all her issues with her parents, her parents had been there every second. It was a weird moment to realize she should text her mom and make sureshewas okay after whatever had happened between her and Dad.
“I don’t feel so well.” Rachel ran a hand over her stomach. “The meds are—ugh.” She closed her eyes again. “Ethan, I was going to tell her. But will you, like, tell her for me?”
Confused, Ally turned to him.
“Yeah. Sure. Just focus on getting better, okay?”
“Right. Um. Guys, I need the nurse. And I totally don’twant you to see me gagging, so, like—go be in love somewhere.”
Ethan scrambled away fast. He fumbled with the curtain for a second and Ally could hear him calling to someone.
“Rachel, I’ll stay with you. You can’t be alone.” She had no idea what was going on between Ethan and the girl that Ally had been so jealous of, but she knew now that her jealousy had been very wrongly placed. “I’m so sorry we argued before you left the fair?—”
