NINE

Wednesday mornings meant one thing to Jayne; Donald Salmon and his blackboard. Well, technically that was two things, but Jayne wasn’t in the technical frame of mind on Wednesday mornings.

Salmon crushed his chalk into the blackboard as he dotted the “i” in “impressionism”. Jayne gritted her teeth and gripped her pen tightly as she tried not to throw it towards the front of the lecture theatre. He was an infuriating man. He stood there, for a whole ninety minutes, scrawling words on the board, occasionally interrupted by his suggestions of “You need to define this” or “This is an important idea”. Jayne was meant to be copying at least some of the notes, but she couldn’t stop wondering what sort of a man would have the courage or stupidity to grow such a ridiculous moustache. She’d just have to borrow the notes from Charlotte. Again.

Jayne just couldn’t concentrate on anything worth concentrating on. She felt tired, hungry and completely drained. It was taking all of her energy just to sit up straight and at least look as if she was paying attention. Salmon could spot a stifled yawn at a hundred yards.

She hadn’t eaten breakfast. She hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday morning, when Jess cooked her a bacon sandwich, and even then she’d left half of it, not quite enough to make Jess suspicious.

She felt funny. All of a sudden, her stomach lurched and she felt a stab of pain as the muscles cramped. She crossed her arms across her stomach, trying to stop the pain, but it still felt like her organs were going to collapse in on themselves. It must have been that bacon she ate yesterday.

Just as she thought she would have to leave the lecture to go outside and scream, the spasm of pain stopped.

Charlotte looked at Jayne out of the corner of her eye, and whispered to her. “Hunger pains?”

Jayne said nothing. She felt Charlotte slip something into her hand. It was a sherbet lemon. Jayne turned her head and smiled at her. She lifted the sweet to her mouth and touched it to her lips, and held it there for a while. She thought about it, and moved her hand back from her mouth, dropping the sweet into her lap as she pretended to push it into her mouth.

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The lecture ended five minutes late. As the rest of the class got up and left, Jayne struggled to muster the energy to move. Her arms and legs didn’t seem to do what she wanted, and even her notebook felt twice as heavy as usual. By the time she stood up, there was nobody left in the lecture theatre except her and Salmon, who was busy wiping the blackboard with his back to Jayne.

She must have stood up too quickly. Blood rushed to her head, and black spots appeared in her vision. The sound of Salmon’s cloth on the blackboard sounded miles away, and beads of cold sweat appeared on her forehead. She really didn’t feel very well.

As she made her way down the stairs, Jayne knew what was going to happen, but it was too late to stop it. She didn’t have the strength to stay upright. Or conscious. She dropped her books, blacked out and fell down the stairs.

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Jayne winced as the anaesthetic wore off and the stitches in her head started to sting. That would look great at the ball. Ginger hair and a scarred forehead; not exactly the look she had in mind.

The doctors wanted to keep her in overnight after she lost consciousness. Apparently that was the normal procedure. Jayne had protested, but Jess had convinced her that it was for the best. Supposedly, Daniel wasn’t a “proper doctor” yet, so she couldn’t be cared for at home.

Jess was sat on the edge of Jayne’s hospital bed. She was in an inquisitive mood.

“So you just blacked out?”

“Yes”, Jayne answered for what seemed like the eleventh time that day. “I just blacked out.”

“What if Salmon hadn’t found you?”

“I’d probably just have woken up a bit later on with a bloody head and my dignity still intact. But we can’t all be lucky, can we?”

Jess smiled. “It can’t have been that bad. At least somebody found you.”

“He might have given me mouth-to-mouth, Jess! I swear I’ve got bits of moustache in my teeth.”

“You’re imagining it. He wouldn’t have done that.”

“No, trust me Jess. I’m trying pretty hard not to imagine it actually.”

Jayne was all too happy to keep entertaining Jess. If they were talking about kissing Donald Salmon, they weren’t talking about why Jayne had fell down the stairs. Hopefully, she could continue steering the conversation down these safe paths until her accident became old news.

“Maybe it was something you ate”.

God, she obviously hadn’t steered it well enough. They were back on the dangerous stuff again. She felt the sudden urge to carry on talking about her lecturer’s facial hair.

“Jesus. It could have been my bacon yesterday.”

“It wasn’t,” Jayne answered quickly. “The bacon was fine.”

“What else have you eaten since?”

Jayne paused for a moment too long before opening her mouth to answer. Jess picked up on it straight away.

“God, Jayne, you haven’t eaten anything, have you?”

Jayne said nothing. She didn’t want to discuss this. Maybe if she said nothing, Jess would carry on having the conversation without her.

“Jayne, have you eaten anything since that bacon sandwich?”

Jayne ignored her. She seemed to lose the ability to lie, so she just chose not to say anything at all.

“I’m going to have to tell the doctors”.

Jayne looked Jess in the eyes. “You can’t. I just didn’t have time to eat anything. I was going to grab something on the way home, I was even going to cook lasagne tonight.”

“You haven’t eaten anything in twenty four hours. That’s not healthy, Jayne.”

“I know, I know. I’ll eat when I get home, I’ll be fine.”

“I still think I should tell the doctors. Eating disorders can be serious!”

“Come off it Jess, it’s hardly an eating disorder. I missed a couple of meals. Everyone goes on a diet every now and then.”

“And everyone faints too, do they?”

“Please Jess, don’t say anything. I’ll see a doctor later in the week, I just want to get out of here as soon as possible.”

Jess went silent as she thought it over in her head. Jayne considered running now while Jess was distracted by her thought processes, but she probably couldn’t run very fast right now. She still hadn’t had anything to eat, and she didn’t fancy her chances of outrunning Jess.

“Fine, I’ll let it go. But I’m getting you some food, and I’m going to sit here while you eat it. Then I’m going to sit here while you book an appointment with your doctor. Got it?”

Jayne nodded. It was going to be difficult getting out of this one.