My Heart and Other Black Holes (My Heart #1)

Chapter 32

"Hazel's just got in a taxi from the station," Louise informed Zoe. Zoe, who was sitting on her laptop, smiled.

"That's great. I can't wait to meet her," Zoe said.

"Who's Hazel?" Rowan asked. She was watching episodes of Grey's Anatomy that she had forgotten about.

"She's our friend. Mainly yours though, you see each other all the time," Louise answered. Rowan grinned.

"Really? What's she like?" she asked excitedly. Louise opened a new tab on her laptop and brought up Hazel's YouTube channel. Rowan looked at it with disappointment. "Is everyone I know a YouTuber?" she asked.

"Erm... mostly," Zoe said.

"Right... this Hazel person seems very negative," Rowan continued after clicking one of her videos about tube etiquette.

"She prefers the term cynical, but negative is good as well," Louise stated.

When Hazel eventually got the house, Rowan looked at her with absolutely no recognition. She felt like she'd never met her before. But Hazel's eyes filled with tears when she saw Rowan and she hugged her very tightly.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Rowan," Hazel said softly. She was Irish. Rowan hadn't noticed that in the video she had watched. Hazel took a box out of her suitcase and handed it to Rowan. "This is your memory box. I'm not sure what it has in it but I thought it help a bit," she suggested.

"Why don't you go and look through it now Ro?" Zoe asked. Rowan sighed but did what Zoe said because she knew the three of them wanted to talk about her. Rowan left the room and Zoe turned to Hazel and Louise. "I need your advice,"

"What with?" Hazel asked.

"Should I tell Rowan that she left or should I just leave it? I mean... she'll probably remember eventually and if she doesn't then it won't really matter, will it?" Zoe asked.

"Not... not really. But she's gonna start asking questions. And we'll have to tell her about her life at the moment," Louise said slowly.

"But why? Not much has changed, right? She doesn't have a boyfriend and the one friend that isn't on YouTube lives in France now," Zoe tried.

Hazel and Louise looked at each other slightly. Zoe didn't know about Jack. Rowan had obviously never told her... but it wasn't really their right to... "Well, I mean... she must have other friends, at work and stuff," Hazel asked. "And what about her job?"

Zoe massaged her temples. "She's... she still acts like a teenager... obviously she knows she isn't but... what am I supposed to do?" she asked helplessly.

"It will be okay chummy. You're a great sister and for now, Rowan doesn't need a job. Besides, her memory will probably come back over time," Louise answered.

"There's something else..." Zoe added slowly.

"What?" Hazel asked warily.

"Just before Rowan woke up, her doctor came in and told me... he told me that... um, he said that she was pregnant in the crash but that she – lost... lost the baby," Zoe explained, tears falling down her cheeks. "But she didn't know, she wouldn't have drunk alcohol if she knew,"

"Oh, Zoe," Louise said.

"I don't know if I should tell her? It wouldn't make her feel any better. And I have no way of knowing who the father is," Zoe replied.

"How... um, how many weeks was she?" Louise asked.

"Twenty," she replied. Louise seemed to physically breathe a sigh of relief. She was sure Jack and Rowan hadn't started dating until a while after that. And she didn't think they'd had sex yet anyway. Hazel, on the other hand, didn't reply. That added up to roughly the same time the two of them had gotten together and had drunken sex.

Rowan walked into where Zoe, Louise and Hazel were sitting. "I have a question," she stated. Zoe looked up and nodded. "Who is Jack and why has this ultrasound got a note addressed to him on the back?" she asked.