I've been in the hospital with Naomi all day. I've never left her side, literally. I'm laying in the bed with her when Effy comes in.
"What's up with you?" I ask.
"I got suspended." She says as she takes her jacket off and puts it on the chair.
"What?" she tells us what happened with the FSA and Jake. "What the fuck? That asshole."
"I know." She climbs onto the bed with us.
"Tell me." Naomi says after some silence.
"Tell you what?"
"What you're thinking."
"Nothing." Effy says. "Nothing if anything. I'm fine." Naomi pulls herself out of my embrace to push Effy off the bed.
"Fuck off. Get off my bed."
"What did I do?"
"Nothing. You've done nothing. That's the problem. That's the point."
"I've been trying to hold it all together."
"You've been living in a fantasy." Naomi says. "And a real fucking lame one at that.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
When Ana isn't there, I've been sitting at home by myself, hoping that my best friend might come home just to watch TV with me. Because seriously Eff, what else have we got? It's just us now." Effy climbs back on the bed.
"Tell me what we're going to do." Effy says.
"Well Ana is going to have her babies. And I'm going to die. What are you going to do?" Effy sighs.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
X
I have Naomi in her comfortable place, my arms, when I look to the window and see Emily standing on the other side. She looks at me and quickly shakes her head. She's not ready. I get it. I slide away from a sleeping Naomi and go out into the hallway.
"Emily. I'm so sorry."
"You tried. You tried to tell me. And I didn't listen. I'm sorry."
"No, no don't apologize. I should have told you, but Naomi... she didn't want you to see her like this. I'm sorry."
