Chapter 20
20
RORY
Damn. Rory hated going to bed on an argument. It was one thing Mum never allowed, according to Dad. Rory shouldn’t have fussed over Elena; she had her own life – they were colleagues, friends. He wasn’t her lover or parent. Now she wasn’t even in her bedroom so they couldn’t clear the air. Elena had done her disappearing act again. Wherever she’d vanished to, it wasn’t his business. Rory cleaned his teeth, pulled on his pyjama bottoms and T-shirt-style top, before crawling under the covers.
Celebrating Christmas, tomorrow? It was too much after a day of putting on a brave face with his dad, after feeling he should have moved on so much further when it came to his mum. Something was holding him back from carving out a full life. It was as if he’d moored himself to her death, with no chance of an Anchor Aweigh! Rory pressed the balls of his hands into his eyes and lay still for a moment.
Sorry Mum. Bit of a pity party here. It’s you who took your last breath, not me . He clenched his fists. He needed to get a grip – especially as a big concern loomed, in the current day.
What was going on with Elena ?
At first, having the roof down on the car, the sushi, drinking the four-year-old Dom Perignon on a whim and getting drunk on a night out in Cariswell had made Rory chuckle. He’d found Elena’s new, carefree behaviour refreshing. But slowly that had changed, from the moment she took a sickie. It was so out of character, followed by her dismissive attitude over Tim’s bungee jump safety advice, and now going into a complete stranger’s house on a first date.
Worse than all that, what really made him shiver, even though he was snuggled under the covers, was her comment tonight, about not knowing what could happen before the real Christmas Day arrived, almost as if she didn’t expect to be here.
Rory sat bolt upright. The day before they’d gone to the pool for that swim, she’d left work early for a doctor’s appointment. It was a Friday. It had been from that weekend on that her behaviour changed, with the sushi at her parents’ place on the Monday.
He wrapped his arms around his knees and sat in that position for the longest time, until cold ran through his body, like a shard of ice. A deep, dark empty pit formed in his stomach, and Rory reached for his journal.
Saturday 30th November
1 realisation. Elena must be really ill. That’s the only explanation for her behaviour this last week, acting as if she’d got nothing to lose. She doesn’t care what happens any more because her behaviour isn’t carefree… it’s actually careless .
Elena is dying.