Page 64 of Any Kind of Life

Paige exhaled when she looked down at her screen. It was Hannah calling.

“Hey.” She tried to appear more upbeat than she actually was. “Juliet is awake. I was just getting some fresh air before I called to let you know.”

Hannah gasped. “That’s amazing news. How is she doing?”

Hmm. How did Paige answer that question? Honestly, she thought. It was the only way to approach all of this. With complete honesty. “Hard to say at the moment.”

“She’s probably still feeling a bit out of it. I’m sure she’ll be feeling brighter once the sedation has worn off. Once she realises that she’s okay, you know?”

Paige hoped so, but Juliet had appeared as lucid as ever when she’d said what she had earlier. “Yeah, I’m sure she will.”

“Paige, is there something you’re not telling me? I thought you’d be happier than this.”

Yeah, Paige had thought she would be happier too. And she was, she was thrilled that Juliet was awake. She just wished her girlfriend hadn’t said what she had. She wished this could have all been different today. Paige felt incredibly out of place. “I think things may be different going forward.” Paige swallowed, closing her eyes. “I don’t really know what’s going on, but I don’t know if I’ll be around or not.”

“W-what?” She heard the confusion in Hannah’s voice. It wasn’t a surprise.

“Things happen, and people’s perspective on life changes. They realise they want something different. I don’t know. I’m not really sure what to say, to be honest. But whatever comes of all of this, we’ll still be friends, right?”

“Paige, you’re not making any sense. Why wouldn’t you be around?”

She lowered herself to the floor, pressing her back to the wall as she brought her knees to her chest. “That’s something you’d have to speak to Juliet about. It’s not my place to explain how all of this happened. The attack and things. It’s her private business. Even if she doesn’t want to be with me anymore, I still respect that it’s her business, and I’d never say anything she didn’t want people to know.”

“While that’s very big of you, I want to know what’s going on. Juliet is my friend, and if she’s in trouble, I need to know.”

“It’s not important right now. I’m sure she would love to see you, though. Visiting hours are still the same if you and Caz wanted to head up later today…”

Hannah sighed. “Right. Okay. Caz is working late tonight, but I’ll probably come in and see her.”

Paige smiled. “She’ll love that. I know she will.”

“I’ll let you go. You should be with her, not wasting time on the phone with me.”

All Paige wanted was to be sitting beside Juliet. Talking and laughing. Loving one another. Fighting over who was making dinner. The normal stuff. The good stuff. “She’s resting. I should probably go out and pick a new phone up for her while she’s doing that. It got smashed up during the attack.”

“Still no news on who is responsible?”

The police hadn’t released Cara’s name yet. But Paige had been led to believe that they were close to doing so. “I think they have a suspect or two, but you know what they can be like. They don’t want to give out any names while they’re investigating.”

“And Juliet? She didn’t see her attacker?”

Paige hated this. She didn’t want to lie to friends. “Again, that’s something you should speak to Juliet about.” God, Paige really hoped that Juliet would tell Hannah and Caz what was going on. All of this was too hard to keep up with when nobody knew the reason behind the attack. “I should go and get that phone I mentioned.”

“Okay, well, I’ll see you this evening at the hospital. Call me if you need me to bring anything in.”

“I think she has everything she needs for the time being, but thanks.”

“See you later. Make sure you look after yourself, too.”

Paige scoffed inwardly at that. If Juliet was sure she wanted what she wanted, then Paige didn’t know if she had the capacity to look after herself. Life had been so perfect, so full of promise and excitement…and now it was all gone. Just like that, Paige was looking at a very lonely future. “I-I will. Bye, Hannah.”

As the call ended, Paige stared down at the screen. It was a picture of Juliet when they’d spent the weekend at home just before she left for the European leg of Soraya’s tour. Juliet had been reading, the light flooding through the windows capturing her beauty. Paige couldn’t resist when it came to snapping the moment forever, and now…it was likely all she would have left at the end of this. Pictures and memories.

She brushed a hand across her cheek as a tear fell, then dialled Henry’s number.

“Hey, Paige. You’ve been gone a while. Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Just outside getting some air.”