Page 66 of Ward D
“Ramona,” I say. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” she says without looking up.
“Are there any… couples among the patients on the unit?”
She stops writing and looks up at me this time. “Are you asking if anyone ishooking up?”
“Well…” I glance across the hall, at rooms 905 and 906, right next to each other. The perfect proximity for a booty call. “I was just wondering about Carpenter and Schoenfeld…”
“Oh!” She laughs. “Yes, those two are definitely an item.”
Wow. Jade lied right to my face. Well, she technically didn’t lie, but she omitted a piece of very important information. She even suggested Cameron and I get together with her and her “boyfriend” without bothering to mention who her boyfriend was.
For all I know, it was Jade’s idea for him to cut that hole in his book and hide his pills inside.
Of course, Will lied about it too. When I was asking him questions, I specifically asked about relationships, and he told me he wasn’t involved with anyone.This isn’t exactly an ideal time in my life to be getting involved with a woman. I need to get myself together first.
Neither of them wanted me to know they were together.
I remember when I was talking to Will in his room, it looked like there was something he wanted to tell me. Well, now I know what it was. Except why would he hide that from me?
One thing I do know for sure:
It must have been Jade’s idea.
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There’s no chance of going back to sleep, so I might as well get my questions answered.
I march over to Jade’s room. I pound on the door with the palm of my hand. I have to pound on it quite a few times before Jade finally pulls the door open. She has an amused look on her face. I try not to picture the way my reflection looked in the mirror.
“Hello, Amy,” she says. “What brings you to the neighborhood?”
I push past her into her room without asking permission, but she’s the one who closes the door behind me. She still has that amused twist on her lips, although most of her makeup has rubbed off by now.
“You never told me Will was your boyfriend,” I say.
For a moment, she stands there in stunned silence. Then she laughs, throwing her head back so that I can see the fillings in the back of her mouth. Jade never got through a dentist appointment without needing a cavity filled. “Oh, Amy…”
“Don’t deny it.” I put my hands on my hips. “He is, isn’t he?”
She smiles and shrugs. “What can I say? You figured out my little secret. But it would have been hilarious if we had a double date and I brought him along.”
I grimace. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
“And he’s cute, isn’t he?”
“He’stroubled.” I frown. “Will not taking his medications—is that your doing?”
She lifts a shoulder. “Why should he take them? He’ssomuch more fun off the medications.”
“So he’s better off hearing voices telling him to kill people?”
“Oh, come on! He’s not actually going to do it.”
“You don’t know that.”
In fact, it’s hard not to look at Will differently now that I know he’s not taking the pills that keep him from hallucinating. Without those pills, what is he capable of? He told me he heard Cameron scream and then he disappeared. But I can’t take anything he says at face value.
