“You’re having hard days?”
I blinked. Was that all he heard? “Yes, but it’s to be expected. Iamdoing something hard, after all.”
“Still,” he said. “Have you had a panic attack?”
I winced. “One.”
“Why didn’t you call me? I could’ve come to get you.”
“I handled it,” I said. “That’s what I’m in therapy for. I have to be able to manage these things.”
“But I can manage it for you.”
“I know you can, and I’ll never be able to say how much I appreciate it, but I’m okay.”
“Piper, I?—”
My chest tightened and I knew I had to change the subject. “What about the good things? Can’t we talk about those too?”
“Not when you’re suffering aswell.”
That made me frown. For the first time, I felt a spark of annoyance toward Joey.
But then I shook my head. I didn’t need to feel this way about him. This was my best friend. He was the first person to care about me and try to solve all of my problems.
“I have to be able to take the good with the bad.” I said it as gently as I could. “Besides, it was weeks ago. I’m okay and haven’t had one since.”
“What happened?”
“Does it matter?”
“You know it does. You touched someone, didn’t you?”
I sighed. “Yes. It was an accident.”
“So being in a small town can’t stop that from happening. Just like I said.”
I took a breath to stay calm. I hated confrontation, but I needed to make my piece heard. “There’re still less people here.”
“But it doesn’t stop touching.”
The hand not holding the phone tightened into a fist, but I forced it to unclench.
He just cared about me. A lot.
“Joey,please.Just let me try this.”
“Piper, I don’t even know what kind of people you’re around.”
An idea popped into my head. “That I can help with. I joined their Facebook group recently.”
“Who the hell still uses Facebook?”
“I know, I know. But there’s a lot of stuff in there. The posts are good. It lets me introduce myself without having to meet everyone yet. I’ll send it to you so you can see. You could even join if you want to keep an eye on things.”
Joey was silent for a long time. “That’s ... not a bad idea.”
“See? I can have those.”
