‘Like you said would happen while you curled up in a ball and did nothing about it.’

A longer silence this time. Three tween girls in skin-tight jersey shorts walked by, giggled, covering their mouths in mock horror. Lena made a savage face, stuck her finger up, made them laugh harder.

‘Anyway,’ Will said at last, ‘they’re going to call again when she’s ready to be picked up.’

‘Okay.’

‘Call me again. The person who actually answers.’

‘I had to turn my phone off for a bit. Hadn’t got to checking since—’

‘Yeah, well. Nurse said Aunty Nic was pretty distressed when they had to ask her for a second emergency contact number because the one on file wasn’t answering or returning calls.’

‘Shit.’

‘Yeah.’

‘I’ll head to the hospital now. Wait there until she’s released.’

‘Honesty, Leen, I reckon you should steer clear for a bit. She was that wild at you this morning.’

‘She was wild at both of us.’

‘Yeah, but mostly you. And now you’ve ignored the hospital—’

‘I didn’t ignore it! I was just dealing with a different—Fuck, Will, I’ve got a lot of complicated shit happening right now, okay? And my phone was, like, blowing up. I didn’t know she’d …’ Except I watched her leave this morning, out of her mind. I almost willed this to happen. Maybe didn’t know, but should have. Definitely should have.

‘Doesn’t matter now, anyway. They’ve got my number. You can just … I dunno, maybe stay at your place tonight or something. Come around tomorrow, see what’s what.’

She agreed. Hung up. Stood and brushed the dirt off her arse, almost spitting blood when a truck horn blared at her. Texted Annie: Any chance I can crash at yours tonight?

Im staying at the olds. If you can get out here I can give you my key?

Lena had never been to Annie’s family home. She’d never been to Annie’s family’s suburb. It would be a train and a bus at least. Maybe a bloody ferry, for all she knew.

It’s ok, I’ll be right

Really tho? Dad just said I can prolly call the desk dude and ask him to let you up?

Annie’s dad. Who knew about—had probably watched … And there was Annie casually discussing her. My poor whore friend with nowhere to stay. How can we solve this without leaving our harbourfront mansion?

Nah, I’m good. Don’t worry about it

Cool. Did you ring that place? Can they help?

Lena turned off her phone.