After therapy, I wandered back to my room. It was small but cleaned daily, with a single bed underneath a window that overlooked a tidy courtyard. There was a small writing desk and a TV on the wall. We weren’t required to stay on grounds, but I’d only left a handful of times in the past few weeks, just to grab myself a pizza or more toothpaste. I’d enjoyed the solitude here, the time to think and reflect on how I’d gotten to this point in my life. All I’d thought about for months were the choices I’d made and the choices I needed to make in the future. Part of me was scared to leave the safety of the clinic, but the real world hadn’t stopped while I’d been gone. I knew that. It was time to re-join it. And it was time to claim back the love of my life.

I sat on the bed, the springs beneath me protesting. I might not have had my shit together completely, but I’d done all I could here. It was time to move on and get my life together outside the safety of the clinic.

A yellow slip of paper on my desk caught my eye and my heart skipped a beat. I stood and crossed the room to pull the little square of paper off the desk, its sticky backing providing little resistance. I skimmed the words, my breath leaving my body in a whoosh. For a second I’d thought she’d been here. Which was stupid because she had no idea where I was, and I hadn’t turned my phone on since I’d called my grandparents and the racetrack the morning after I’d arrived. The nurses wouldn’t have allowed her into my room while I’d been at a session anyway. But for a second, I’d hoped...

The note was just a message from reception. Please return your grandmother’s call. Urgent. A flicker of worry shot through me as the words sank in. Gran wouldn’t have called me here if it wasn’t important. I’d explained everything to her over the last few weeks. I’d taken to slipping down to reception after hours, when it was quiet and dark, to keep her updated on what was going on. It was enough to keep her worry at bay, and there was no reason for her to call and check up on me. I’d only just spoken to her last night.

I dropped the note and jogged down the hall to the reception desk. “Can I use a phone, please?”

The receptionist nodded and pointed to the other end of the desk where a phone sat in its cradle.

The phone rang once before Gran answered. “Low?” She didn’t even say hello. My heart sank and nerves churned in my gut. She had to have been waiting with the phone in her hand to answer so quickly.

“It’s me.” My voice cracked and I coughed to clear it. “What’s wrong? Is Pop okay?”

“He’s fine. Your friend Jamison called.”

Jamison? Why would he be calling my grandparents? He knew of them, but as far as I knew they’d never met.

“I didn’t tell him where you were. I didn’t know if he knew and that’s not my business. But he asked if I could get a message to you, and I agreed. Only because he sounded so worried,” she added in a rush.

“It’s fine, Gran. What’s wrong?”

“He said you need to come home. Reese…” Her voice trailed off and in the silence my mind raced.

“Reese what? Is she okay?” Panic shot through me. It had to be bad if Jamison had tracked my grandparents down just to get a message to me. I ran my free hand through my hair, every muscle tensing, ready to grab a set of keys and fly down the highway to Reese’s place. Fuck! I didn’t even have a car here, and I wasn’t going anywhere with this damn landline keeping me tethered.

“I don’t know. Jamison just said she wasn’t in good shape and he thought you should know.”

I paced around in tiny circles, which was as far as the short cord on the phone would allow. The linoleum squeaked under the soles of my shoes. “What does that mean? Have you seen her?”

I imagined my grandmother, sitting on the edge of her flowered lounge, shaking her head.

“No, love, I was waiting for you to call me back to see what you wanted to do. Maybe you should call her? Or I could go over there and check on her for you.”

“No, it’s fine. I need to see her and make sure she’s okay. Thank you for calling. I love you.”

I hung up before she could argue and sprinted out of the office, down the hall, and skidded to a stop in the doorway of a room identical to my own. I didn’t waste time knocking, taking the liberty of opening the door myself.

“Will!” I yelled as I barged in. Will and Tim, who were sitting on the single bed, jumped apart looking guilty. I raised an eyebrow at Will but didn’t bother questioning them over what they were doing in here alone together. It wasn’t my place to judge.

“I need your car.”

“What?”

“Your car keys, where are they?” I asked, scanning his bare desk and the bedside table that looked much the same way.

He stood up and opened the drawer on the bedside table, and pulled them out. “Where are you going in such a rush?”

“Reese.”

Will gave me a grin and dropped the keys into my outstretched hand. “’Bout time, brother. Go get your woman.”

I frowned. “You’re an idiot. Who talks like that?” Then I punched him in the arm to let him know I was joking. “Thanks, man. I’ll bring it back as soon as I can.”

I ran back down the hall to my own room, snatched my wallet and my useless dead phone, and sprinted out to the parking lot. Will drove a Ford that had seen better days, but all I cared about in that moment was if it had a phone charger and enough petrol to get us back to Sydney. Sliding into the driver’s seat, I leant across to rifle through the glove box and almost cheered when I came up victorious, phone charger in hand.

Impatient, I started the car with one hand while shoving the charger into the cigarette lighter with the other. Connecting my phone proved more difficult, with me jabbing at it uselessly, before I took a deep breath and calmly plugged it in.

The way I drove out of the car park was anything but calm, though. I navigated my way through the back streets on my way to the highway, continually glancing over at my phone, willing it to have enough charge to make a damn phone call. I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel and told myself to calm down and take a breath. I didn’t even know what was wrong with her, and I wasn’t going to be of any help to anyone if I got myself killed on my way home. Plus, Will would kill me if I wrote off his car. Trees and buildings whizzed by in my peripheral vision, but I concentrated on keeping the car moving down the highway without breaking the speed limit too much.

The ding from my phone, signalling it had finally turned itself back on, broke the tense silence that seemed to crackle in the air around me. And then the messages came flooding in. Message tone after message tone. Goddammit, turning your phone off for two months created quite the backlog. Though I supposed that could have been avoided if I hadn’t just up and left and had maybe told someone where I was going. Guilt washed over me. I couldn’t believe I’d just left Reese without a word. And not even just Reese, messages were pouring in from Jamison and the rest of the crew as well. I’d make it up to all of them. I just had to get to Reese first.

“Siri, call Reese,” I commanded when the message tone fell silent and hoped like hell my phone would understand me for once. “You fuck this up and I swear I’m switching to Samsung,” I muttered under my breath.

“Calling Reese,” Siri said in her overly polite voice.

“You live to see another day, iPhone.”

Reese’s phone went straight to voice mail. “Fuck!” I yelled and slammed my finger on the cancel button.

Jamison was next, and unlike Reese, he answered right away. Like Gran earlier, he didn’t say hello either. He wasn’t quite as nice as she had been, though.

“Fuck you, asshole. I’m not even going to ask where the hell you’ve disappeared to. Are you coming back?”

I cringed internally at the seething anger in his voice. I was going to have to do some major apologising to him later.

“I’m on my way. What’s wrong with Reese? She’s not answering her phone.”

“I know. I’ve been calling her for a week now. She hasn’t been at work either. B said something about her family. But she’s not talking and she won’t let any of us in. You’re a last resort. We thought she might hate you enough to at least open the door and punch you.”

Her family. Shit, something must have happened. “Is she at her place?”

“I don’t know, probably. B, Riley, and I have all gone over there multiple times and she won’t let any of us in. We’re pretty sure she’s in there, though. We didn’t know who else to call.”

“Okay. Thanks, Jam. And I’m sorry. I’ll explain later, but I need to sort this shit with Reese out first.”

Jamison’s voice softened. “I’m still pissed as hell, and I’m probably going to throat-punch you when I see you. Just so you know, because you fucking deserve it.”

“Fair enough. I’ll take it graciously.”

Jamison snorted. “Just go see if you can get Reese to talk to you, will you?”

“I’m on it. I’m halfway back to Sydney already.”