After my shower, I changed into some of my folded clothes that sat on the dresser of the spare room I’d been using. After stripping and changing the sheets, I opened the window to let in some fresh air. I had a new lease on lifeand needed to move around. I wandered the house to straighten up. I would never take my health for granted again. Maybe it should have felt weird to walk around like I lived here, but I felt strangely at home.
“Ah, I’m dangerous. Stay back!” I held up my hands when I discovered Clara, of all people, in the kitchen.
“Calm yourself. Leo said your fever broke,” Clara said.
“Where’s Leo? What’re you doing here?”
“Which of those should I answer first? And sit down. I promise not to get sick.”
I was still pressed back flat against the opposite wall, but eventually scooted along until I sat across from her in the breakfast nook.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“I brought you soup.”
I glanced questioningly at the pot warming on the stove. “I’m not really?—”
“Sadie made it.”
“Oh, yummy.” My stomach rumbled loudly, and I went to scoop myself a bowl.
“I also came to fill you in on the classes I subbed,” she said.
The bowl clattered as I barely stopped it from dropping. “It’s already Monday?”
“Tuesday.”
“Whoa.” I shuffled back to the table and hunched over the soup. The relief of survival was quickly being replaced by the stress of all that needed to be caught up on. Two days of class and rehearsals. Two days of preparation for Cath’s audition. Not to mention the schmoozing and begging for funding I had planned to do at the festival.
“Leo wouldn’t let me near you, but from what I saw at the festival, you were completely out of it,” she said.
“You were there?”
“Yep. He asked me—more like made me—go check on you a few times. I tapped on the window to get you to let me in, but you were passed out, mouth open, snoring loud enough to hear through the window.”
“I am beauty. I am grace.”
She snorted and took a sip of coffee from her ever-present travel mug. I was desperately wondering where Leo was, but I didn’t want to be obvious.
The brush of his strong fingers pushing my sweaty hair off my forehead.
And also, how long had we been at the festival if I had to be checked on? I vaguely remembered it being dark when we left, but that meant we would have been there for hours.
Nothing made sense. Time wasn’t real. We were on a floating rock, barreling through space.
Too far.
“How was subbing? What did you do with my band classes for two whole days?” I asked instead of inquiring about Leo.
She fussed with the top of her travel mug, avoiding eye contact. “Not important. I kept them alive, and that’s what matters.” She waved away the question. “And don’t pretend you don’t want to know where Leo is.”
I narrowed my eyes but didn’t have the stamina to argue with her. “Fine. Tell me.”
“He’s at Devlin’s with Cath. They’re having their first practice. Janice went with them just in case a teacher needed to be there. We weren’t sure. Also, I think she just wanted to see Devlin’s place.”
“They are practicing?” A little flutter of joy suffused me, knowing that Leo took the initiative to schedule their first session.
“I thought it was weird too. Especially with The Burnouts stuff,” she said, misreading my reaction.
