I shiver.“Paramedics?”
“Yes.Your dad is coming too, but he’s already called for an ambulance.”
I stand up, feeling weak at the knees, and do what she says.It feels as wrong as can be to walk away from Colin, but I have to.
Ms.Barnett is out on the corridor in her dressing gown.Later, I can’t remember what I said to her.Or what she says when the first doors open and the other girls look out to see what all the fuss is about.
Ms.Barnett sends a couple of them down to find the paramedics.All I can think of is Colin, but my hope that he’ll have woken up dies silently as we walk back into my room.
He clearly hasn’t responded well enough to the glucagon pen,so Nurse Petra is now putting a drip into the back of his hand.She passes me the plastic bag containing a glucose infusion.I have to hold it up.I know how it works, and so what if my shoulder’s throbbing and black spots are dancing in front of my eyes?Nurse Petra checks again, but the glucose meter doesn’t give a reading.
“Is it broken?”Ms.Barnett asks, looking over her shoulder.“I can send someone down to the sick bay to—”
“No need, Maxine.He’s so severely hypoglycemic that it’s not registering.”She sounds anxious.“The alcohol in his system is making the pen less effective.I’m concerned that his body can’t release the sugar reserves on its own, hence the infusion.”
Colin’s lips are white.I want him to wake up and call me Olive Garden, crack one of his stupid jokes and wind me up.I want to be certain that nothing and nobody can harm him.Not even this disease.I want to undo the events of tonight and I don’t want to see him like this.I don’t want to think about what’s happening.If I left it too late.If I should have got help the minute he woke up.If I shouldn’t have waited until he was so low, he was totally out of it.If I should have acted earlier when he was so drunk but I hadn’t taken in what that could mean.
The ambulance gets here before Dad, and nothing has ever felt worse than stepping away from Colin.I start to shake as I pass the drip bag to one of the paramedics.Ms.Barnett turns to me as my knees give way and I stagger backward into my wardrobe.There’s concern in her eyes, but before she can speak, someone puts their arms around me.
Some muffled sound emerges from my throat as I see Tori.Behind her, on the corridor, is Sinclair with wild hair and a guiltyexpression, ready for a sermon from Ms.Barnett.But that’s not at the top of anybody’s priority list.
“Shh,” says Tori, hugging me tighter.“It’s going to be OK, Livy.”
You can’t know that.
Just look at him!
But I say nothing.My lips don’t make a sound, or not until I realize that the paramedics are getting ready to take Colin away.What was I expecting?Apparently not that they’d take him to hospital—but the realization that I won’t know what’s happening to him is doing my head in.
Dad arrives.They send us out.I hear nothing.
“Go back to your rooms—there’s nothing to see here.”Ms.Barnett shoos the others away.Whose room should I go to?The one they’re carrying Colin out of?Dad follows the paramedics, then comes over to me.And then I see it.
“They’ve intubated him?”I ask, horrified.
“The journey will be safer for him that way, love.”
I lean against the wall.“Why?I mean...Is it really that bad?”
“Colin is in a critical condition.He needs to be taken to intensive care so that they can intervene in case of acute metabolic complications.”This is serious then.It’s always serious if Dad drops into medical jargon, forgetting I have no idea what he’s talking about.“We can’t risk that happening here in the sick bay.”
I nod, struck numb.In case of acute metabolic complications.I don’t know what that means, but it doesn’t sound good.It doesn’t sound good at all.
“But he—” I gulp.“He is going to wake up, isn’t he?He will, right?”
Dad hesitates.“The paramedics are keeping an eye on his blood sugar, and I’m sure he’ll come round soon.”
I give a careful nod, then Dad squeezes in front of me as I go to follow them.“Dad, I...”
“I’m sorry, pet, but no.”
“Dad!”
“I’ll go with Colin to hospital and keep you posted.You don’t need to worry.”Dad gives me a look that can’t be argued with.I hate it.I just hate it.Then his face softens.He hugs me.“Oh, and, happy birthday, love.”
31
Olive
