A wave of relief washes over me as I leave his office. Once I’m safely out in the hall, I pull my phone from my purse so that I can text Declan and let him know what happened, like I promised I would when I found out about the meeting. My heart skips when I see he’s already sent a few texts while I was in with Mr. Brooks.

DECLAN: Let me know how it goes. If the dean gives you a hard time, I’ll happily have a word with him. He should know it wasn’t your fault.

DECLAN: Sawyer already gave me the lecture, just like I predicted.

DECLAN: Still worth it. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

A smile spreads across my face, warmth blooming in my chest at his words. I tap to write a reply, but as my fingers start to move across the keyboard, my vision suddenly flickers. This has been happening off and on ever since that really bad migraine I had, and I’ve been getting headaches more often too.

I blink rapidly, trying to brush it off as my eyes adjusting, but as little halos start to form in the corners of my vision, an uneasy feeling prickles against the back of my neck.

It’s the absolute last thing I want to deal with after all of this drama with Aaron, but I know I need to get checked out. I’ve been hoping this would just fix itself if I ignored it, but whatever is going on has been bothering me for days now, and it’s clearly not resolving on its own. Which means I need to go to the doctor.

Dammit.

A shiver of dread races through me at the thought.

There’s nothing I hate more than going to the doctor’s office, even for something routine. My entire family has enough medical trauma to write a book about after everything we went through with Casey, and I’ve avoided hospitals at pretty much all costs ever since we lost him. But as the flickering in my vision continues, I have to admit that I don’t really have a better option right now. So I’m just going to have to push past the fear and see if I can get a last minute appointment with my doctor.

Better to be scared and getting treatment than the alternative, I remind myself, although my heart is already beating faster.

I take a deep breath, trying to calm the anxious energy churning inside me as I call my primary care physician’s office. I doubt this is anything anywhere near as serious as what Casey dealt with, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried it could be. Between the migraines increasing in both frequency and intensity and the way my vision has been acting up, it could be any number of things wrong with me.