"Lisa!"
Jennie watched in horror as Lisa's feet shot out from under her. Lisa flailed her arms wildly, trying to regain her balance. She reached out to try to break Lisa's fall, but her reflexes were too slow. She stood by helplessly as Lisa's head hit the corner of the slate tile shower seat with a loud crack.
"No!" Jennie cried out, kneeling beside where Lisa lay limply on the floor. "Lisa! Lisa, are you ok?"
Lisa's eyes were closed and she made no response as Jennie cradled her head in her arms. Lisa's face had gone slack. Peaceful. If it weren't for the stream of crimson blood that poured out from the back of her head, Jennie might have thought she was sleeping.
"No," Jennie whispered. Lisa wasn't waking up. Oh no, she wasn't waking up. No no no no no. Was she breathing? Jennie turned her head and brought her cheek next to Lisa's mouth, letting out a brief gasp of relief as she felt the faint whoosh of air being exhaled.
Still breathing, but the blood... so much blood. Lisa looked so fragile, crumpled naked on the tile shower floor.
"Please wake up," Jennie whispered to Lisa's motionless body. "Please Lisa."
It was her fault. It was all her fault. She'd sprayed the water at Lisa. She hadn't meant for Lisa to fall. Oh no, Lisa. She hadn't meant to hurt her. She'd been upset before - angry and upset - but she'd never meant to hurt her. All of the bitterness she'd felt earlier had evaporated the moment she saw the blood. If Lisa was hurt... if anything happened to her....
"Please Lisa," she whispered again. "Please be ok."
She needed to get Lisa to a hospital.
"Phone," she said to herself. "Where's the phone?"
She dashed out into the bedroom and picked up her cell from the bedside table, but it hadn't charged enough to turn on before the power when out.
"Dammit!" she swore, as she flung it back down on the bed and began looking helplessly around the room.
"Phone phone phone," she chanted. Where was Lisa's phone? She didn't see a landline. She had to find Lisa's cell. Where had she left it? It could be anywhere! The room was strewn with discarded clothes.
"Phone phone phone," she said aloud again, keenly aware of the precious seconds ticking away. She felt herself beginning to panic. She closed her eyes for a moment, forcing herself to take a deep breath and think.
The living room! They'd both heard it ringing in the living room, just before the power went out. Lisa must have left it out there. She dashed into the next room and her eyes landed on the blazer Lisa had been wearing last night, balled up on the floor next to the couch. She crossed the room to it in two steps and jammed her hands into the pockets, letting out a cry of relief as she felt her hand close around the familiar rectangular shape of an iPhone.
She flicked it on and punched in 911 as she dashed back to where Lisa had fallen. Her face was white as a sheet. The blood had formed a dark puddle of sticky red beneath her head, but she was still breathing. Jennie could see the rise and fall of Lisa's chest as she knelt back down beside her.
"911. What's your emergency?"
"Help! I need an ambulance!"
"Please tell me your location."
Location location location... Jennie's mind whirred uselessly, suddenly blank. Lisa's address. What was her address? Jennie had just given it to the cab driver this morning, but for the life of her she couldn't think of it now.
"Ma'am? Ma'am, are you there?" the operator said on the other end of the phone.
"Yes, I'm here."
"I need an address."
Address address address. A memory clicked into place.
"3120 Ledgewood!" Jennie cried out.
"Can you say that more slowly, please?"
Jennie took a breath and forced herself to speak slowly and clearly.
"3120 Ledgewood Drive. In Hollywood. Please! Please hurry!"
"The ambulance is on its way now. What's your emergency?"
"My..."
Jennie broke off for a second. My what, exactly? My lover? My ex-lover? The person I love more than anyone or anything on the face of this Earth?
"My friend. She fell in the shower. She hit her head." Jennie said at last.
"Can you tell me if she lost consciousness at any time?"
"Yes, she's unconscious. She's bleeding. Please hurry!"
"The ambulance is on its way. Can you tell if she's still breathing?"
"Yes, she's breathing. Oh God, she's bleeding so much!" she sobbed into the phone.
"Ok ma'am. Do you have any sense for how long she was unconscious before you found her?"
"I didn't find her. I was there. I was there when she fell." Jennie responded.
"You were in the bathroom?"
"I was in the shower with her. "
She heard a loud knock at the front door before the operator could say anything further.
"They're here! OK, OK, they're here!" Jennie said into the phone.
Jennie raced to the front of the house, hastily wrapping a towel around herself as she flung the door open as wide as it would go.
Her eyes fell first on the ambulance parked on the street in front of the house. Then on the two paramedics standing before her at the door, carrying a stretcher.
And just beyond them, racing up the front drive, at least half a dozen paparazzi - flashbulbs blazing.
