Page 114 of We Used To Be Magic

‘Sorry,’ I say, peering through the windscreen. ‘Maybe we should have walked.’

‘We’re fine. We’ve got time.’

‘We don’t know when this thing is wrapping up, though. What if—’

But I never finish that sentence, distracted by a girl on the opposite side of the street. I notice her hair, first, so pale that it seems to glow in the mist of the rain.

‘What if …?’ Mac prompts, but I barely hear him, wiping the condensation from the window beside me to squint at the figure in the distance. She’s tall, I can tell, and wearing a green jacket – Audrey has a green jacket. And she’s moving quickly, slipping past strangers …

‘I think that’s her,’ I say. ‘I think that’s Audrey.’

Mac leans over, eyes narrowed. ‘That’s definitely a blonde girl, yes.’

‘She’s going the way we came,’ I say, unclipping my seatbelt and craning my neck to see through the rearview window. ‘What if she left the party to come find me?’

‘Why would she – what are you doing?’

‘Sorry,’ I say, fumbling for my wallet and shoving a wad of notes at Mac’s chest. ‘I’ve got to go after her.’

‘It might not even be her!’ he protests, but I’m already out of the car.

I know, IknowI’m being crazy, but this is exactly the kind of crazy that’s followed me around ever since Audrey and I first met. I can’t just sit still and risk losing her – I won’t, I fuckingrefuse, and so I start to run, feet slapping against the wet pavement, wondering if she knows she has my heart in the palm of her perfect, freckled hand. That same heart is in bad shape, though – I lose sight of her, and it’s pounding hard by the time I spot her again, a flash of blonde disappearing around a corner.

‘Audrey!’ I call, but she’s on the other side of the street, too far ahead for my voice to carry. I glance up at the lights beside the crosswalk – green, and I’m off again, moving—

Then the world turns sideways. Some unseen force sends me flying and I land hard, face first on to the tarmac. My first thought –How humiliating.The second –Did I just get hit by a car?

‘I’m fine,’ I say to no one in particular, dimly aware of a crowd forming around me. I’m struggling into an upright position, so I must be more or less unscathed. ‘It’s fine. I—’

‘You should sue,’ I hear a woman beside me say. ‘That light was green.’

The cab that clipped me shunts forward, pulling up beside me.

‘Shit, I’m sorry, pal!’ the driver says, leaning out of his window. ‘You good?’

‘Fine,’ I say, head spinning – the lights around me are blurred, a slur of colour. ‘It’s fine …’

‘Oh my God!’

One voice carries above the others, and I flinch at the note of concern. A girl is stumbling out of the back of the cab. A blonde girl in a silver dress, whose dark eyes are wider than I’ve ever seen them. It occurs to me then that I might have hit my head.

‘Ezra!’ Audrey says, dropping to her knees beside me. ‘Oh my God, Ezra …’

It’s her. This time, it’s really her.

‘Forget the fare!’ the driver yells, pulling around us and speeding off into the night. The lights have changed and the rest of the traffic is slowly resuming, the crowd dispersing, and Audrey is here, right in front of me.

I force myself on to my feet, then, pulling us both out of the road. Audrey’s hands are on me, roaming my torso.

‘Does any of this hurt?’ she asks, voice wavering. ‘Do you think you broke something?’

‘I’m fine.’ I laugh, feeling mildly hysterical. ‘I thought I was chasing you. You’re everywhere. You’re nowhere and then you’re everywhere.’

‘We need another cab,’ she says, frantically looking around. ‘You need to go to the hospital—’

‘No, no …’

‘You’re concussed,’ she says, eyes wide as she reaches up to brush wet hair out of my eyes. ‘Oh, Ezra, yourface.’

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