Tinley yelps out in pain as she rolls over in bed. Never ever again is she agreeing to go out with Dakota to a bar. All that leads to is mistakes and hangovers—awful, horrible hangovers that are excruciatingly painful. On the upside, she’s in her own bed, so no walk of shame, and she’s in love with an amazing man, so no awkward morning conversation with a one-night stand. Good thing for silver linings and all that, but what she can’t get behind is the sun blaring through her blinds. She definitely needs to invest in some blackout curtains.

She flops out flat on her back and assesses the damage done to her body because something is definitely wrong. Starting at the bottom and working her way up, she wiggles one foot and then starts with the other but screams out a list of expletives. The pain radiates from her ankle all the way up her leg, and she curses her roommate and her need to get drunk last night. It’s apparent that they both got way more than they bargained for.

Her bedroom door flies open, and Dakota comes charging in. “What’s going on? Why did you scream?”

She attempts to sit up but loses all strength and flails back down onto the bed. “What the hell happened last night and what is wrong with my ankle?”

Tilting her head to the side, her roommate looks at her in confusion and then steps toward the bed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She lifts the comforter on the bottom half of her body and screams out, “Holy shit! What the hell did you do to your ankle?”

“What are you talking—oh!” Sitting up, she pulls her covers all the way off and looks at the offending ankle. It’s a rainbow of black, blue, and purple and has swollen up to twice its size. “Shit, Dakota. That doesn’t look good at all.”

“You’re right. I’m going to go change my clothes, and we’re going to the hospital.” She picks up a pair of sweatpants and slippers and throws them at Tinley. “Here, maneuver these on and I’ll be right back. We can piece together what happened last night on the way there.”

“Fuck my life.” She reaches for her phone on her nightstand to send a quick text to Marek and finds a few missed texts and one missed call from him.

Serves him right for being too busy when she needed him. If she could have just gone over to his place in the first place, none of this would have happened. Now she has a busted ankle, and who knows how long she’ll be out of commission. Feeling pathetic, she quickly types out a text and doesn’t think before hitting send.

He doesn’t instantly send a reply, which sours her mood even more. Doesn’t he know that she needs him right now? What else could be going on in his life that is so much more important? Nothing, that’s what. Wallowing in her own personal pity party, she gently slides on her sweatpants, avoiding her ankle as much as possible. She whimpers out in pain but continues on. Fortunately, Dakota was smart enough to toss her slippers over, and she easily slides those on.

A couple minutes later, her best friend comes flying back to her room. “Okay, I’ve got the car warming up right now, and I pulled it around right outside the door. I’m going to help you up, and you can put all your weight on me.”

Tinley starts to get up and Dakota freezes. “Wait! You need a sweatshirt.” She runs over to Tinley’s closet and grabs one, throwing it at her face.

She pulls it on over her head and watches as her roommate wears a hole in the floor. “Dakota! Stop pacing. You’re starting to freak me out. Calm yourself down, it’s just an ankle. It’s not like I’m dying.”

She turns toward her and instantly breaks down crying. “I’m so sorry. This whole thing is my fault. If I hadn’t wanted to go out last night, we wouldn’t have gotten wasted, and you wouldn’t be broken right now.”

Tinley can’t remember much from last night, but she doesn’t think they actually talked about whatever has been bothering Dakota. And she has a feeling this breakdown is probably more about that than the fact that Tinley may or may not have a broken ankle right now. Dakota has her breakdown for several minutes before helping Tinley out to the car. Before they take off, she shoots another text to Marek to at least let him know what’s going on.

* * *

“Are you currently pregnant?”

Dakota starts cracking up laughing, and Tinley chuckles along with her then answers, “Uh, not that I know of.”

The nurse looks from Dakota and back to Tinley. Obviously annoyed with the both of them, she asks her question differently, “Let me rephrase that: is it possible that you could be pregnant? You’re about to get an x-ray, and while it’s on your ankle, we still need to take extra precautions if you’re pregnant.”

Tinley looks over at Dakota, whose mouth is hanging wide open. She hasn’t told her roommate about Marek yet or the fact that she’s seeing anyone at all, and now is really not the time to have that conversation.

The nurse sees the reluctance on Tinley’s face and turns toward Dakota. “Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to step outside for a moment.”

“But—”

“It’s okay Dakota, just do what she says.”

Dakota purses her lips but nods. “Fine. I’m going to go get some coffee for both of us then I’ll be back.” She steps out of the room and heads down the hallway.

“Sorry, my roommate doesn’t know I’m dating someone. She actually isn’t too fond of him, and that’s why I haven’t told her. I’m pretty sure I’m not pregnant, but I don’t really know what it feels like to be pregnant. I’ve been sexually active for a while now, maybe a few months or so…sorry, I don’t remember the exact date. I am on the pill though, so I can’t be pregnant, right?”

“Okay, when was the first day of your last period?”

Her mom always told her to keep track of things like that, but it never seemed important enough before. She also wasn’t sleeping with anyone, so it wasn’t a big deal if her period didn’t come every month because there was no way she could be pregnant anyway. She looks up at the nurse and shrugs her shoulders.

The nurse hands her a cup and makes her go fill it up in the bathroom. She knows she should have some sort of feeling about this, but mostly she’s just annoyed about her ankle. Hobbling to the bathroom to pee in a cup is not how she planned on spending her day—not that she really had any plans in mind, but Netflix and a cupcake sounds much better than this. With a rush order placed on the results of the test, Tinley has her answer within thirty minutes, and she doesn’t have time to process before she’s whisked off to get her x-ray.

“Sorry to break it to you, but looks like it’s broken.”

“Was that some kind of funny doctor humor with your pun there? And are you sure? Can I get a second opinion from another doctor? Maybe you’re reading the x-ray wrong.”

He looks mildly annoyed as he puts the x-ray back up on the light box thing and turns it on. Tinley doesn’t really know what she’s looking at other than seeing the outline of her leg and foot.

“Do you see that space right there?” He points to a spot near where she thinks her ankle is and nods her head. Turning back toward her, he says, “You’re not supposed to have a space there. The bone is supposed to be attached in that spot, and your bone is fractured.”

“Well shit.”

He chuckles slightly and shuts the light off. “That’s one way to put it.”

He goes on to explain how long it’s going to take to heal and the fact that she’ll be stuck in a boot for some amount of time, but she ignores everything he says. A tall man with dark hair just walked by her door, and she could have sworn it was Marek, but if he were at the hospital for some reason, wouldn’t he have told her?