Life as I Know It by Melanie Rose

Author:Melanie Rose [Rose, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-440-33875-8
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2009-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

chapter nine

I must have dropped off eventually, because I woke to hear whispering coming from somewhere nearby. For a moment I wasn’t sure where I was. Had I woken as Lauren or was I Jessica?

I opened my eyes and saw Clara sitting in a corner of my bedroom with Dan crouching next to her. Their heads were bent together and they were murmuring conspiratorially.

“We’ll give her another few minutes,” Clara was saying. “I know it looks bad, but when she did it the day before yesterday in the office she was as right as rain when she woke up in the hospital. I really don’t think she’d want to go to the emergency room again.”

Dan glanced over at me. His face was gray and his eyes heavy with concern. When he saw me looking at him, his features lit up as if a ray of sunshine had come out from behind a cloud.

“Jessica!” he exclaimed, hurrying to the bed and taking me in his arms. “What happened?”

“I’m so sorry!” I cried, burying my face in his shoulder. “I should have warned you this might happen again. It’s something to do with the lightning strike. I’m so, so sorry.”

He held me close as I burst into tears of relief. After a moment I looked up, feeling all wet-faced and runny-nosed.

“I don’t suppose you’ll want anything to do with me now,” I murmured.

“Don’t be silly,” he said. “You won’t get rid of me that easily. I’m hooked, can’t you tell?”

I glanced over to where Clara was watching us rather uncomfortably.

“How did you get to be here?” I asked her.

“This man of yours went through your address book,” she said, wagging her finger at him in mock disapproval. “He remembered you telling him about your friend Clara, and, fortunately for him, you’d filed me under my Christian name.”

“Weren’t you at work?”

“I certainly was. But I had my mobile switched on, and I came right over. It was nearly home time anyway.” She glanced meaningfully from Dan, then back to me again. “I can see you are making good use of your sick leave, girl.”

“Thank you so much for not taking me to the hospital,” I said, ignoring her comment and wiping my nose on a tissue. “I’m not usually gone for long.”

“You make it sound like you just popped out to the shops,” Dan exclaimed. “How often does this happen?”

“It’s only happened twice out of the blue like this,” I said truthfully.

“This is ridiculous,” Dan said, getting to his feet and starting to pace up and down beside the bed. “Is it like some form of epilepsy?”

“It didn’t look like any sort of fit to me,” Clara said. “She just goes to sleep, and nothing and no one can wake her until she’s ready to come back.”

“And it never happened before Saturday?”

I shook my head. Saturday. Only five days had passed since then, but it felt like a lifetime ago.

“Do you think I should stay with you tonight?”

I hesitated, not knowing what to say.

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