She wasn’t moving her hand. Why wasn’t she moving her hand?

The needle had gone clean through her finger.

I felt woozy.

“Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, oh, fuck, oh, fuck.”

“Deep breaths,” she said. “I need you to hit Release. And then I need for you to drive me to the hospital.”

The emergency room on the Fourth of July: just where everyone wants to be.

“You don’t have to stay,” Phoebe said for the thousandth time. After waiting an hour amid people who’d burned themselves setting off fireworks and tending to their grills, she’d finally been moved to a bed, separated by a curtain. This seemed like an upgrade, though not when you considered that the TV was playing exclusively metal music videos and the remote was nowhere to be found. The needle was still in Phoebe’s finger. “My mom’s going to come as soon as she can.”

“I’m not going to leave,” I said. “Besides, I’m really enjoying this program.”

“Why would they put this on for people? It’s not exactly soothing.”

“No, but it’s really making me want to come up with a name for my metal band,” I said.

“Prolapse,” offered Phoebe.

“Split Infinitive,” I countered.

“Can I ask you something?” Phoebe said.

“Sure.”

“Why were you in the costume shop today? Why weren’t you swimming with everyone else?”

I shifted in my chair. It was freezing in this place. “Remember when I asked you about Jess Orlando?”

“Yeah.”

“She and Ros… I guess. They’re, like, a thing now.”

“Really?” Phoebe said. “That was fast.”

“Tell me about it,” I said.

“I thought you said Ros wasn’t interested in anyone,” Phoebe said.

“They weren’t,” I said. “Until now.”

I must have sounded obviously miserable, because a look of dawning mixed with sympathy passed over Phoebe’s face, and I knew she knew how I felt about Ros. “Oh, Celia,” she said.

“Don’t you ‘Oh, Celia,’ me—you’re the one with the needle in your finger. It’s totally fine. I’m totally fine.”

“Celia. It’s not fine. That sucks.”

“It’s stupid,” I said.

“What’s stupid?”

I traced the seams of the blanket on Phoebe’s bed. “Having a heart.”

The metal music blared loudly.