“I’ll bring you to your sister,” the nurse said, the words swimming around my head.
“She’s okay,” she continued, looking over her shoulder. “But she has a pretty nasty concussion and a broken collarbone. I believe she’ll be returning from X-Ray soon.”
Relief, pure sweeping relief, made it easier to breathe. And yet…it still felt like something was stuck in my throat. In my chest.
“She’ll recover?” I asked, thinking that maybe I just needed to hear it a second time.
The nurse nodded reassuringly. She stopped by the door to a room, giving me a kind, sympathetic look. “You can wait in her room for her if you want,” she said, gesturing to the doorway before walking away.
My feet wouldn’t move. She didn’t say anything about Juniper. Juniper must be in the room, then, right? She was fine; she was waiting for Gemma. I’d see her in just a few seconds when I finally got my feet to move.
My heart strained against the wall of my chest, pounding so hard that it felt like I was about to have the medical emergency. For every rapid thump, her name repeated in my brain.
Juni, Juni, Juni, Juni.
My feet broke free, rushing toward the hospital room the nurse gestured to. It was empty, and something inside me cracked open. I spun around, desperately searching for a flash of brown hair, but nothing…there was nothing. Chaos surrounded me as I pushed my feet forward, following in the direction the nurse went. The flash of her blue scrubs rounded the corner, and I picked up my pace, shouting after her.
“Where is she?”
The nurse paused and then backpedaled. Her brows furrowed. “Your sister will be back from X-Ray soon.”
I shook my head, wringing my hands together as I tried not to scream. “Not Gemma. Where’s her friend…the one who was in the car with her when they crashed.”
The nurse’s confusion doubled down, and I threaded my fingers through my still-damp hair, pulling at the ends in frustration.
“Juniper,” I clarified, feeling like my knees were about to give out. “Juniper St. James. Brown hair, brown eyes, so fucking pretty. Please tell me someone knows where the hell she is.”
