Page 115 of Accidental Roommates

“I’ve gotta get to work,” Jace says. “See you guys later.” He walks off to his truck.

Maddie’s phone rings.

“Go ahead and get it,” I tell her.

“Hello?” she says, answering the call. Her face goes from confused to concerned.

What is Dan telling her? He was just supposed to ask her to meet, not tell her everything over the phone. Maybe it’s not him. Maybe it’s someone else.

“Dan, I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she says, turning away from me.

So it is Dan on the phone, but what is he saying?

“You do?” she says, turning back to me. “Me too.” She smiles, her face lighting up. “Okay! Yes, let’s meet! What time?” She nods, then says, “Wait. Could you hold on a minute?” She covers the phone and says to me, “Would you mind if I don’t go out with you tonight? I know I said I would but—”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll go out some other time.”

She nods, then says to Dan, “Okay, I can meet! See you soon!”

“Who was that?” I ask as she puts her phone away.

“My ex-boyfriend.” She can’t stop smiling. “We broke up last summer. I haven’t talked to him since, but he just called and invited me to meet him at our favorite restaurant.”

“You think you’ll get back together with him?”

“I hope so. I’ve missed him like crazy. After we broke up, I realized that maybe I was pushing him too hard to get married and have a family. It’s what I wanted, but Dan wanted to wait. I realize now that it was wrong for me to not even consider what Dan wanted. I was going to tell him that, but I thought it was too late. He’s really good-looking and the sweetest guy ever. I figured there was no way he’d still be single.”

“He must be if he wants to see you.”

“Maybe. He didn’t say what this is about so I’m trying not to get my hopes up.”

“I have a good feeling about it.”

“You do?”

“Yeah.” I smile. “You should go talk to him.”

“Okay! Bye!” She takes off, hurrying down to her car.

At least Dan’s night is going to go well. As for mine, I’ll be home thinking about Jace with Nikki. I could call up Andrea and see if she wants to go out, but she’s probably already at a party, or out with Troy or one of her other friends.

I end up spending the night on the couch, watching TV. At nine, the phone rings. It’s a call from a number I don’t recognize.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Calling from—in Cape—hospital. We’re—”

I can barely hear the woman talking and her words keep cutting out. I’m only getting part of what she’s saying.

“I can’t hear you. Who is this?”

“This is—nurse. Your mother—rocks and—arrived here she—” The phone cuts out again.

I sit up. “My mother what? What did you say about my mom?”

I’m not sure who this is, but hearing the words ‘hospital’ and ‘mother’ has me in a complete panic. Something must’ve happened to my mom. Something serious enough to put her in the hospital!

The woman starts talking again in a thick accent. “Your mother fell down a—doing tests to see—don’t know if—”

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