Shit.
“When will I hear about the test?” I asked.
“Two days,” he said. “We’ll give you a call.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Dr. Alpern left and I bunched the paper sheet up in a ball. At least this part was over. Hopefully I would be all clear and could forget about Chance and this whole crazy weekend.
Chapter 24: Jenny
The break between the winter and spring quarters approached and I tried to decide how to spend it. My dad in Florida hoped I would fly out, but I really felt it was too late to get a plane ticket. It would be stupidly expensive and probably take off at some hideous hour when a party should end, not when you have to get up. Six a.m. or whatever.
For some stupid reason, once my pictures dropped out of social media, I missed the shock and awe of popping on and seeing myself all over my feed. There was probably a diagnosis for this sort of behavior, but I didn’t care. The thing about being the center of your own world was that you could decide if you had gone too over the top.
I had, and now it was over.
I met Corabelle in the quad on the last day of class before the break. I was feeling fine since my screenings had been all clear. I’d dodged a bullet. It had been two weeks since my collision with Chance, and I was totally over it.
So I kept telling myself.
I lay back on the grass diamonds, my head on my backpack. The weather was superfine, and I had switched to cute little bare-shouldered shortie rompers and four-inch wedge sandals.
I was ready for another man. Maybe, just maybe, I’d actually date this one a little.
Maybe.
Corabelle had her head stuck in a book. She had one last final to go. I’d taken it easy this quarter, and other than World Lit, I had nothing to study for. With only one last term to go, I should sail into graduation in June without too much trouble.
“What are you and Gavin doing during the break?” I asked.
Corabelle looked up. “I think we’re going to stay in Mexico for part of it.”
“With the baby mama?” Corabelle’s husband had a baby with a woman from Tijuana. The little boy was four now.
“No, just hanging out. We try to remember Manuel is from there, and to be comfortable with the culture.”
“You are doing so much better than I would,” I said.
Corabelle shrugged and flipped a page. “You deal with what life hands you sometimes.”
“At least he’s cute,” I said.
A pair of seriously hot undergrads with their shirts slung over their shoulders caught my attention.
“Having trouble choosing?” Corabelle asked.
“No need to have just one,” I said. “There’s time to spare these days.” I peered over my sunglasses at the boys, but they were engrossed in conversation and didn’t even notice me. Drat.
And it was true. With Frankie out of my life, I had too little to do. My classes were easy. I was working barely ten hours a week as the manager started rotating me back into the schedule at Cool Beans.
“You going to see your dad?” Corabelle asked.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “It’s so awkward going there, and he’ll be up for graduation in a couple months anyway.”
She nodded. “You should probably pick up some shifts at Cool Beans anyway, if you really want to keep the job. People will be grateful.”
I shielded my eyes from the sun with an arm over my face. “Uggh, don’t remind me about our grunt job.”
Corabelle pushed at me with her foot. “You should have planned ahead for when Frankie ended the contract.”
“I know,” I said. “It was just so sudden.”
“You didn’t have any idea he was dating someone?”
“I don’t know, I guess,” I said. He had seemed happier there at the end. Didn’t matter. That life was past. Frankie’s movie premiere was in two weeks, and I didn’t even have tickets in the cheap seats.
Now I was really depressed.
Corabelle stood. “I have to get to this final. Let me know when you’re around next week. I’ll only be gone a couple of days.”
I lifted my arm. “Will do.” The sun was starting to get to me. I sat up as Corabelle shoved her arms through the straps of her backpack.
Immediately I felt hot and sick, a blast of nausea rising through me like a tidal wave.
I rolled to one side, panting a little, trying to manage the sudden shock to my system.
Corabelle knelt beside me. “You okay, Jenny?”
I couldn’t answer. I pressed my hand to my mouth. I would not throw up in the quad. No way, no how.
I breathed in and out, wondering when I got so sensitive to the sun. I felt overheated, like I’d been frying myself with baby oil on the beach.
“You look really pale,” Corabelle said. “Did you eat something bad?”
Maybe that was it. The cheese sandwich. The more I thought about it, the hot cheese curdling in my belly as I sat out in the glaring light of high noon, the more certain I felt that this was it.