He must have answered this time because there was a long pause before the teen said, “I fell on the obstacle course.” She was quiet for another few seconds before she said, “They are taking me to urgent care.”
While she was still on the phone, Ava heard a siren.
Blake must have heard it too because she said, “The ambulance is here, can you just go to where they’re taking me?”
She nodded as she responded, “Okay, okay. Love you.”
Then Blake handed the phone back to Ava.
The paramedics made quick work of getting Blake on the gurney after taking her vitals and when they started rolling her away, Blake wouldn’t let go of Noah’s hand.
“Can you ride with me?” she asked Noah with desperation in her voice.
“Yes,” he immediately agreed.
Ava wasn’t sure what the protocol was in situations like these, but she could see in Noah’s eyes that not even the Hulk could stop him from getting on that ambulance with her.
“Can you come, too?” Blake looked over at Ava.
Ava touched her chest. “You want me to go to urgent care with you?”
Blake nodded. “Just until my dad gets there. He said he’s twenty minutes away.”
“Of course.” Ava nodded.
As she followed behind the ambulance, Ava couldn’t help but think that she was about to see Asher again. She knew that this wasn’t about her, but the thought kept popping up in her mind no matter how hard she tried to ignore it.
Once they arrived, Ava sat in the waiting room and tried not to think about the fact that she wasn’t wearing any makeup. Her hair was piled up in a bun on the top of her head, and the camp shirt that she was wearing wasn’t exactly the most flattering.
No, she chastised herself each and every time her mind detoured down Vain Avenue. This is not about me.
Asher texted a few times to give her his ETA and ask how she was doing. Ava told him that they were working on her and that she would let him know when she knew anything.
She was scrolling through Pinterest when a nurse walked toward her. “Blake is asking to see you.”
“Me?” Ava touched her chest again.
On the way back to the room the nurse explained that they’d x-rayed Blake’s foot and given her something for the pain, she was just waiting in the bed for the doctor so he could assess if she needed surgery or just for her ankle to be set and put in a cast.
“Has my dad called?”
“He texted about ten minutes ago. The road is blocked by a fallen tree but he’ll be here soon,” Ava explained.
“I wish I had my phone so I could...” Blake gasped. “Oh no!”
“What?!” Ava and Noah both moved closer to the bed.
“I can’t do the stupid dance-a-thon thing with him now.”
“I’m sure you can still go,” Noah offered helpfully.
Through context clues, Ava deduced that attending the event wasn’t what she was upset about since she’d called the dance stupid. Viv had told her about the fundraiser because the cop that was at the front desk when they’d gone to the station had asked her to be his partner. Apparently, they had to dance in eight hour shifts and people donated money for each hour they danced.
“I don’t care about going, I care that I’m not going to get my phone back!” Blake’s bottom lip quivered as tears filled her eyes and she explained, “That was the deal we made. That I do the stupid dance thing with him and then I get my phone back.”
“This wasn’t your fault. I’m sure that he’ll come up with something else so you can earn your phone back.” Ava had no idea why she’d just opened her big mouth and said that. She had no clue if Asher would do that and she shouldn’t have made any such assurances.
“Will you do it?” Blake asked Ava with desperation tinging her words.
