‘No. We didn’t get down to any detail, really.’
Vic sat upright in her seat. ‘Fuck!’
‘What is it?’ Joti looked alarmed at Vic’s reaction.
Barry Sharpe’s insinuations of Albie not being his suddenly echoed around Vic’s mind as if they were yesterday.
‘I take it you have slept with my brother?’
‘Err… umm… what sort of question is that… Why?’
‘Fuck!’ Vic reached for her phone and, realising it was out of battery, leapt up. ‘I have to call Mum.’
Joti screwed her face up. ‘You’re being odd. What is it?’
‘Wait there – I won’t be long.’
Victoria started running towards the main road. Then, as if she was in some kind of weird dream sequence, to the sound of an incessant bike bell, a scream, then a thud, she hit the pavement with force and went out like a light.
She woke up in a hospital bed to five pairs of worry-filled eyes staring down at her. Thinking she was in the midst of some terrible nightmare, or even that she may be dead, she shut her eyes again. Why on earth would her mum, brother, Joti, Orla and Mandy all be here with her? And why was she here in the first place?
‘You had an accident,’ Joti said calmly. ‘A cyclist knocked you down, but you’re OK.’
‘Oh, my darling’ – Kath Sharpe squeezed her daughter’s hand – ‘Albie scared the life out of me when he told me you were in hospital.’
‘I’m not dying, am I? I don’t feel like I’m dying. Saying that, what does that even feel like? Did I bleed a lot?’ Vic suddenly panicked. ‘And if I’m not dying, why are you all here?’
‘No. You bled hardly at all,’ Joti added gently. ‘You were knocked right out, luckily, with just a bump on your head and a few bruises, but nothing broken. They’re keeping you in tonight in case of concussion.’
‘And we are all here,’ Albie interjected, ‘because I didn’t give Joti a chance to explain what had happened. You know what I’m like: the minute she said you were in hospital, I immediately hung up, called everyone, bundled Mum in my van and got on the motorway.’
Vic put her hand to where a manageable pain in her head was coming from. It was tightly bandaged. ‘The painkillers must be strong,’ she said woozily.
‘We were worried that it was something else.’ Orla grimaced as she said it. Mandy poked her in the ribs. ‘You know – just something else connected to something else.’
‘The HIV, you mean,’ Albie said boldly.
Victoria took a sharp intake of breath at her brother’s unexpected revelation.
‘HIV?’ Joti questioned. ‘Oh, Vic, bless you.’
‘Yes, that awful virus thing she’s got,’ Kath Sharpe repeated,causing Victoria’s face to screw up in futher confusion and shock at how her family knew. Tears started to run slowly down her mother’s face. ‘I’m so worried about you dying, darling, about this awful thing inside of you. When Albie told me, I didn’t know what to do. He clearly knew you didn’t want anyone to know, so we’ve been looking out for you, darling. I even researched it at the library and got a leaflet for a drop-in centre in Slough and popped it on my doormat for you to find.’
Vic couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She eased herself to sitting with tears in her eyes. ‘Oh, Mum, you did all that for me?’
‘I promise you, my darling, I am here for you every step of the way.’
‘I’m not going to die, Mum. Not if I can help it. I am being regularly monitored in a top London hospital and as soon as I need to, I will start on drugs that will keep me alive. I promise.’
Joti spoke up. ‘Vic’s right. The treatments are getting better every day. There is so much research around HIV and it’s not the death sentence it once was – or just a “gay virus”.’ She bracketed the words. ‘We all need to spread the awareness and not be frightened of it, like so many people seem to be.’
‘I want to know everything,’ Albie added. ‘So we can support you. OK?’
Everybody nodded. Orla added, ‘We all feel that way. The more we understand, the more we can be there for you.’
Vic looked at her brother. ‘How did you find out?’
‘I listened to every word you said to that copper that night I was in trouble. It broke my heart so bad but I valued your privacy. I love you, sis. And, well, it was a gamble telling the old dear.’ He looked at Kath. ‘But it paid off. Mum, we’re so proud of you for keeping sober for this long.’ Tears began to fall down his cheeks, too.
