Page 26 of Insta-Love

“Sponsored athlete.” Sounds so much better than Instagram model to the kinds of people who just don’t get it.

“What sport?”

“Bodybuilding.”

“Oh.” He lifts both eyebrows, mouth turned down. “Interesting choice.”

I jam my hands in my pockets and rock on my heels. What the fuck do I say now?

“I hope you have a plan for your golden years,” he states bluntly. “I’m guessing that kind of career has a short lifespan on it.”

Guy really pulls no punches. “It does.” I choose not answer the actual question, because I can’t.

I don’t have a backup plan. I kind of fell in to this with no real long-term goal for it. I don’t have any other qualifications. I’m a failure at school, low grades on my record. Learning was never a priority when I spent so many school days not there.

“Bowen?”

Ava’s dad and I both turn our heads to where her mum calls from the bedroom.

“Did Lily say what story she was after? Ava just has ‘book’ on the list.”

I dive at the opportunity to get away from the scrutiny of her old man and follow her mum’s voice. “Alice something? Does that sound familiar?”

I step around the corner of the hall and come to a grinding halt when I find her mum. The reality of Ava’s situation hits me square in the face when I’m confronted with the room she clearly shares with Lily.

Two beds are jammed in to what is clearly only big enough to be a single room. Boxes are stacked between the heads of the beds, meaning whoever uses them has to scoot to almost the end to get out. The wardrobe overflows with clothes, although Ava’s clearly done her best to keep it tidy.

“Ah. Here it is.” Her mum stashes the paperback in the Iron Man backpack she has in hand, and then steps over a stack of soft toys to pass it to me. “I hope that’s enough to make her comfortable tonight. Lily hasn’t been in hospital before.”

“It’s not that bad.” Once you’re used to it. “The staff will do their best to cheer her up, I’m sure.”

“Thank you.” She smiles up at me, hands on my arms just above the elbow. “Hopefully this means we might see a bit more of you,” she teases. “I told Ava she should go say hello when you moved in. Pity this is how you two had to be introduced.”

I can’t help but grin as her mum walks away. Did she now? Interesting bit of information to have.

“I’m not sure what time visiting hours are over,” I say as I re-enter the living area where her dad still stands with his coffee. “But I’ll stay with Ava and drop her home afterward.”

“Isn’t she lucky we’ve got such a lovely neighbour,” her mum teases Terry, giving him a swift elbow to the side.

He pushes his mouth into a fake-as-fuck smile and nods. “She sure is.”

I follow Ava’s directions once I get back to the hospital and find her beside Lily, in her new spot next to the window. A grin splits the kid’s face as she devours a chocolate pudding cup. Her ward is shared with three others, yet two of the beds sit empty, only a young boy diagonally across from her when I arrive.

“Hopefully I’ve got everything,” I say, lifting the bag as I enter.

“Fantastic.” Ava springs from the chair and rounds Lily’s bed. “Visiting hours are up in, like, ten minutes,” she says with a roll of her eyes, “so I’ll just help her into this and then we’ll go, okay?”

“Yeah. You do what you have to.”

I take a seat on the lonely chair butted up against the wall between the two rows of beds, and pull my phone out while Ava curtains off Lily’s area. The soft sounds of the two of them negotiating their way through how best to get Lily’s pyjama shorts over her leg fill the silence left as I scroll through my feed.

It’s been hours since I last checked in, and for once, I don’t really mind.

Normally, I’d be driven to distraction wondering what’s going down with my accounts, anxious to get the hell out of whatever I’m tied up in so I can check stats and make adjustments if necessary. Fuck—it’s been the cause of a few dramas in the past, when I’ve lost my shit at being unable to log on.

But this afternoon … I guess I had something, or someone, more important to worry about.

“All done.” Ava drags the curtain around the rail.

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