Sonny
By the time I actually got to Declan’s house, I was ready to burst into a million glittery pieces. I hugged Lilian as she opened the door and then couldn’t wait any longer to see Declan and so I charged through the familiar house to the living room and flung myself at him.
It was a good job he was sitting on the sofa because otherwise I would have completely crushed him.
As it was, he manoeuvred me down to sit beside him and I wiggled like an excited puppy.
Declan had once been tall and broad-shouldered and, until recently, had done weight training that made his biceps huge and his chest all muscly and… muscly.
I wanted to sigh like a schoolgirl. My man was so hot.
Except he wasn’t my man and he had lost so much weight recently that he looked practically as slim as me. He hadn’t got lines around his face but there was something in his expression, in the paleness of his skin and the bags under his eyes, that madehim look like he was tired and aged. I wanted to wrap him up in my arms and smother him with kisses until he got better.
The happy light inside me dimmed a bit. Declan didn’t want my kisses. Or anything from me except friendship.
I was okay with that, really I was. I’d take whatever part of himself Declan wanted to give me and I’d treasure it all my life. Friendship? I’d be the absolute best friend that ever friended.
“What are you grinning at?” he asked.
I realised belatedly that I’d let my smile out with the sheer joy of seeing him again.
“Just happy to be here. I’ve missed you.”
Declan looked away, fidgeting with his phone, flipping it over and over in his fingers.
It was Lilian who said, “He’s missed you, too. The weather’s been awful and he’s been moping around the house. Now you’re here, you can cheer him up.”
“I can do that!”
Lilian smiled. “I know you can.”
Now I looked at her, I realised that she had the same tightness around her eyes and mouth that Declan had. The tiredness, and the lines in her pretty face had become deeper over the last few months. She’d been just as worried about Declan as I had.
Declan interrupted my chain of thought.
“I’m sorry to go out straight away but I’ve got a physiotherapy appointment.”
“Oh.”
Lilian suggested, “Why don’t you settle into your room while Declan is out?”
I stood. “Nah, I’ll dump my bags upstairs and then go with you. That alright?”
I looked at Declan to see what his reaction would be. Not to be paranoid or anything but I’d been hearing a lot aboutErikforthe past two months, all about howErikthought this andEriksaid that andErikwas making his mobility so much better and…
Okay, I loved that Declan’s mobility was improving, along with his confidence in his own movements.
And I wasn’t going to complain that Declan had other friends, either.
But it sounded to me likeErikwas becoming important to Declan in a way that made me feel all weird inside and I didn’t like it. I’d always been the most important person in Declan’s life and, selfishly, I didn’t want that to change.
Declan shrugged. “You can’t come into the therapy room, it’s too small. You’ll be bored, sitting in the waiting room.”
Did he not want me to meet Erik?
I hesitated for just a second. I didn’t want to stop Declan being happy. Maybe he’d chosen Erik and I should let them fall in love and live happily ever after.
Then my mouth opened all by itself and I blurted out, “I don’t mind. I’ll get to spend time with you in the car. How about I drive you over?”
