“Once again, I’m so sorry about this.” I could feel myself listing to the left. “This is obviously not cool. I mean, you are in need, and I am kind of not being helpful right now and I get that.”

There were some more indecipherable noises then. “Okay. You can look now.”

I opened my eyes, cautiously. There was Gilly Henderson. In her bra. With her T-shirt covering her bloody ankle. Looking like a little nervous and. . .

HO. LEE. SHIT. SHE WAS IN HER BRA.

I actually stumbled backward, like someone hit me with a pillow. Or. Something. I could feel myself blushing like mad. “Oh, uh. Yes. Um. Yes, that’s fine.”

And of course because I was being so cool, let’s be honest, I’d been cool this whole time, but now, like, epically cool, then GILLY felt awkward.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Is this a problem?”

“No, not it’s not—”

“Do you need me to put my shirt back on?” Gilly looked around.

Just then the horse let out a massive, loud. . .neigh? Like this guttural metallic horse scream.

“Oh, shut up, George, you ridiculous nightmare horse!” Gilly cut him off. “This is all your fault!”

George responded with something like a wet sneeze that, if it were a word, would be spelled, “PBBTBTBTBTBTBTBBTBTTT!”

“PAH!” I couldn’t help myself. I started to laugh.

It was like the dam broke. For five minutes after that, we were just sitting in the dirt, laughing our asses off.

“Oh my God, I am so weird,” Gilly moaned. “No wonder my horse is such a weirdo.”

“What?”

“This whole day is ridiculous!” Gilly’s shoulders curled forward. “I just took my shirt off!”

“So? It was so I wouldn’t throw up on you!” I said. “Who’s awkward there? Hello? Me?”

“You’re like the opposite of awkward.” Gilly sighed.

“Well, you’re one of the few people who thinks so,” I said, getting to my feet. “Can I help you back to your house or something?”

“Yeah. I mean, thanks.”

“Do you have someone you can call?” I asked.

Gilly held up her empty palm. “I lost my phone?”

“Oh, right! Duh. You said.” I pulled mine out of my pocket. Dead. “Okay, well, that’s not going to work.”

Gilly looked up at me with those blue eyes. Which had flecks of gold in them. Just saying.

“Do you think you can manage the walk?” I asked. “If I help you?”

“Yes.”

It took a few minutes to get Gilly up off the ground, and another twenty minutes of a three-legged crawl to get back to her house, with George trailing, unimpressed, behind us. For most of it, Gilly was surprisingly quiet, which I took to mean that she was in pain, but as we got closer to her house, I felt her eyes on me.

“What? Are you okay?”