The door to my room bursts open and I drop my phone. “Jesus!” I exclaim as Grant hurls himself into the space like a hurricane. “What the hell, Grant? I could have been doinganything,” I practically shout. Shock at his sudden arrival has got the better of me. But then I smile, because he’s here.
“Charlotte?” He basically shouts back at me. “Charlotte?”
I look around. “She’s not here, man.”
He closes his eyes as if I’m stupid, steels himself. “No, I know she’s not here. I asked your dad. That’s why I came up.”
I sit up straight on the bed, making room for Grant. But he doesn’t sit.
“What are you doing, Davey?” he asks with concern, all anger dropped from his voice. “What, in God’s name, are you doing? First you quit chemo and then you start up with that girl again?”
“That girl?” I query. “She hates you too,” I state.
“Good. She’s a bitch.”
“Grant,” I warn. “We’re kind of…together.”
“No,” he tells me. “No, you’re not. End it.”
“What?” I splutter.
“Why is Charlotte back?” he throws at me suddenly.
“She…wants me,” I say and realize how stupid that sounds. “She’s nice.”
“She’s not nice, she’s a dick.”
“Funnily enough, that’s the exact same thing she said about you.”
“Davey, she is. The way she flirted shamelessly with everyone when you guys were dating each other was disgusting.”
“What? I didn’t know that. Everyone? Who?”
“People. Me,” Grant snaps.
“You?”
“While you were dating. And after you stopped dating.”
I narrow my eyes. “Really?”
“That girl is bad for you. But she’s determined. I could see that in her eyes from all the way across the parking lot. That fierce determination. You looked good together—just how she wanted. Her architect boyfriend with his own apartment.”
He’s repeating words I’ve told him, but I let Grant have that. “Now I have no job, just cancer, and I live with my parents. I’m not a catch she’s trying to bag anymore. She’s genuine.”
“I doubt it. But, hey, you might as well bang her a few times until you get bored and remember why you dropped her the first time.”
“Grant. What the fuck?”
“I really don’t like her, mate.” He’s whining now. “She’s toxic. If you do get with her, don’t marry her. Jesus, don’t bloody marry her. I won’t come to that wedding.”
“Thanks.” And he has the audacity to callhertoxic?
“I’m going to do two things for you today,” Grant declares. “One is going to hurt like hell. The other…” He shrugs.
“Go on then,” I say halfheartedly. I’m exhausted now.
“Here’s the first one.” He takes a deep breath, looks me in the eye. And then he can’t look me in the eye anymore. “Charlotte and I…we—” He stops.
