Succulents on the Window Sill

Chapter 18

Corinne stirred, hand poking out from beneath the bed covers to blindly flail for her phone on the bedside table.

It was ringing, loud and unapologetic.

She cracked one eye open, squeezing it shut again as the morning sun burned through the fine curtains.

Since Fiona had been admitted to hospital on Tuesday night, Corinne had taken to rushing to answer her phone whenever it rang. She had stopped looking at the caller ID, always assuming that it was Jake or Eric. It wasn't like anyone else seemed to call her these days, outside of her Mum, Dad, or Sara.

She answered with a weak greeting, clearing her throat to shift the sleepiness from her voice. One foot slid across the bed to feel for Zach beside her. He was there, bed-warm and...talking?

"Corinne? Did I wake you?" Corinne ignored the voice coming down the phone, focusing on the second one coming from somewhere in the bedroom.

It was a man's voice, but it wasn't Zach's. He had an accent, as did whoever was suddenly answering him. Corinne couldn't put her finger on who it was, but her hazed brain told her that the voice was familiar.

"Jon?" She shot up in the bed, phone falling to the sheets beneath her. She glanced around the room, before shooting an accusing glare at Zach.

He was half sitting up in the bed, phone in his hands, turned on its side. The voices were coming from it. Corinne pointed a finger at him, and he gave her a guilty look, eyes growing wide and puppy-like, head lowering as if to cower away.

"You're watching the next episode without me, aren't you?"

He gave a small sheepish nod, before mouthing that it was only one. At least she wouldn't have a lot of the TV show to catch up with.

Corinne fell back down onto the bed with a tired sigh, groaning as her back hit the phone she had tossed there. She dug it out from beneath her shoulder blade, raising it back up to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Who's Jon?" It was Sara. Corinne prayed she hadn't heard any more of the few words that she had spoken this morning.

"Snow."

"What?"

Corinne rolled her eyes at Sara, rotating to face Zach. "It's nothing, ignore it." She reached over and hit pause on his phone. With a soft sigh, he moved it to the bedside table, before climbing out of bed.

"Have you a guy with you?" Sara sniffled, and Corinne turned her attention to her, pulling the duvet up over herself to keep out the cold. Zach had left the bed in just his boxers, and if the footsteps on the stairs were any indication, he was more than happy to walk around the house wearing so little. Corinne didn't know how he was doing it. It was freezing this morning.

"It was just a voice on a tv show. What's up?" Sara sounded kind of down, but after last night, Corinne knew it was to be expected.

"I woke up to a text from Zach this morning..."

"Oh?" Corinne's eyes shifted to the phone he had left on the bedside table.

"Yeah." Sara let out a shaky breath. "He's dumped me."

"What?!" Corinne shot back up in the bed. "How? Why?"

Sure, she had been expecting this, but somehow it still came as a shock. Zach had wanted to end things face to face with Sara, after a nice meal. He had wanted to let her down gently. Never in a million years would Corinne have expected him to dump her by text after a massive fight the night before in Corinne's car.