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Eve hears what I didn’t say. “My mother told you to bring her here, to me?”
“No. Actually she told me absolutely not to do that.”
Eve’s forbidding expression softens.
“I don’t always do exactly what I’m told,” I say.
“Well, thanks,” she says.
I comb my fingers through my hair. It’s tangled up, even by my standards, which are pretty low. “I should get going.”
“Stay,” Eve says firmly, going all Terra on me again. She winces, looks down, smiles a little. “I mean, please stay, if you don’t mind.”
I grab a chair. “Sure. No problem.” I was hoping she’d say that.
“Tell me, Aislin,” Eve says gently.
“They came to Maddox’s apartment.” Aislin takes a shuddery breath. “I was there. They started banging. Crazy. Threatening him. They broke a window and someone must have called the cops. Which was lucky because they got in. The gangbangers, not the cops, I mean. I tried to … so one of them…” She mimes a punch. She started strong, but now the narrative is breaking up. She’s breathing hard, as if the whole thing’s happening all over again.
“The guy, so he hit me, and I fell down. Kicked me in … Maddox, they had him, the other guys, and they were tying him down. He was yelling for help. I tried. My phone. Then, wham again. A gun and they were pointing it. Maddox. Then the sirens and I ran, I got out of the door and down the stairs and I was going to get the cops to come and help. Confused, because of being hit and all.”
Eve looks at me.
There’s a knock on Eve’s door. It’s Dr. Anderson with the nurse, who’s carrying a tray of bandages and sutures.
“Jeez,” the doctor says. He is wearing a pair of red silk pajamas. His feet are bare.
Dr. Anderson moves Aislin to a spot where the light is better, over by the desk. He peers sideways at her nose. The cut looks bad. The nurse tsk-tsks under her breath.
The doctor pulls on rubber gloves, prodding the wound. “Yep. It’ll definitely need stitches, young lady. But first let’s get a radiograph, make sure nothing’s broken.”
Aislin doesn’t complain. She’s kind of gone somewhere else in her head.
The nurse and doctor help her out the door. “It’ll only take a minute,” the nurse says.
“You stay put,” Dr. Anderson admonishes Eve. “You’ve had enough fun for one day.”
“It wasn’t all fun,” I offer.
Eve presses her lips together, suppressing a smile.
“Should I go?” I ask Eve when they’ve left. “I mean, there’s nothing more I can do, I guess.”
Eve adjusts her sheets. “It’d be okay if you stick around,” she says casually. I can’t tell if she wants me around or not. “I might need backup while I’m reading Aislin the riot act.”
“Yeah, okay,” I say, matching her tone. “I’m totally wide awake, anyway.”
We sit in silence. The mirror has get-well cards taped to it. There are flowers everywhere. Girl things are scattered around the room: a makeup kit, a bottle of perfume, something unidentifiable that’s beige and silky.
Aislin returns with the nurse and doctor. “Nothing broken,” he reports. “Think we can put Humpty Dumpty together again.” He yawns widely. “Nurse, you can finish up. The Ambien’s kicking in again.”
Aislin settles in a leather chair as the nurse prepares her equipment.
“Listen, sweetie,” Eve begins in a lecturing voice. She hears it herself and I can see it makes her uncomfortable. But she has to go on. I want her to go on. Someone has got to tell Aislin what’s what.
“This has to stop, Aislin. You know it. I know it. The whole world knows it. You’re going to end up hurt.”
“It’ll be okay,” Aislin says. But there’s no force to her words. She doesn’t believe what she’s saying.
