Memories

Chapter 9

As I walk down the corridor towards Savannah's room, I look for Dr Peters. She'd said that she wanted to talk to me, I think to myself, but she's nowhere to be seen. I knock on her office door, but there's no reply. I continue down the hallway, until I bump into a nurse, literally.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I say, bending down to pick up the sheets that she was carrying. "Have you seen DR Peters, by any chance?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but no. I think that she has the rounds on paediatric this afternoon, but I'm not certain."

"Ok, thank for your time," I finish before adding, "and sorry for bumping into you."

She starts down the corridor in the way that I'd just come without another word.

I make it up to Savannah's room without causing more havoc. "Sorry that I had to rush off earlier and leave you alone." Savannah waves her hand at me like it's nothing. "Have you seen Dr Peters?" Her face falls at the question, but she shakes her head. "Oh, ok then. It's just that she wanted to talk to me when I left this morning." She nods her head slowly. "What? Nothing's going on between us. Remember what I told you this morning? That I love you more than anything in the world?" She nods her head faster this time, with a wide grin on her face. "I love you even more when you smile." It grows even wider on her face, which I don't think is humanly possible, but she manages it. She points to the paper bag in my hand. "Oh, I bought this for you," I say, before handing it over. "It's a custard crown, they used to be your favourite." She puts her hand in the bag and pulls out the pastry before lifting it to her mouth. As the sensation of pastry and custard hits her tastebuds, her face lights up: it looks as it is visibly glowing. She brakes it in half and holds one of them out to me. I push her hand back. "No, it's all for you. I've eaten too many of these in the past couple of months." I hear the faint murmur of a laugh sneak out of her lips. "What?" She shakes her head. "Okay then." I look down at my hands for a couple of moments. "I'm going to tell you the rest of the story from this morning. As usual, we woke up early, before the sun was up even."

***

Yawning groggily, I rolled over towards the warm body lying next to me. It had been nearly a month of waking up next to her, but I still wasn't used to it. I could tell that she wasn't either by the way she occupied most of the space by the time I woke up most mornings. Remembering faintly that it was only a Sunday and that I didn't have to get up for school, I tried to switch off my over-reactive brain and return to sleep. I was nearly there when Savannah stretched, and her ominous eyes opened.

"HeyHndHey there, sleepyhead," I murmured, just loud enough for her to hear, but not so loud that I would startle her.

"What time is it?"

I twisted my head to look over my shoulder at the clock behind me. "Early, five-thirty."

"You're a poet –"

"Stop that garbage, I'm not a poet and it doesn't rhyme anyway," I interrupted.

"You're really going to argue with a girl with a hangover?"

"No, I'm going to do this instead," I said, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her towards me. I placed a gentle kiss on her lips and ran my fingers up and down her spine, enjoying the blissful peace; we didn't often get to have mornings like this as I had to get up earlier than Savannah and when we were both awake, it usually involved Maisie jumping up and down or lying between us.

"That feels better already," she breathed as she brought her lips to mine.

I rolled so that I was lying on my back and she was on top of me. It was then that I realised that she had no clothes on. "What did we get up to last night?" I asked, ruining the moment.