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on the island where it’s available.”
    Ohmuhgud, rom-coms!
Allie’s fingers twitched in a Pavlovian response to her drug of choice, but she hid her hands under the covers and tried not to smile. She forced her head to nod slowly, hiding her excitement.
    “I… I think I need to just lie here for a while and try to eat and sleep.”
    “Of course, you do that. And just let me know if there’s anything else I can bring you.” With that, Nurse Nightengale’s clogs clomped out of the room, as she shut Allie’s door behind her.
    Allie brought the soup spoon to her lips and smile-swallowed. The sick-meals here made her mother’s toast and ginger ale routine seem like prison food. The chamomile hibiscus tea tasted like it had been plucked straight from the tree. If you couldn’t get well and forget your problems here, Allie thought, you couldn’t be happy anywhere. Allie pushed another pillow behind her back and stretched out in bed, enjoying the feel of the temp-adjust sheets warming the soles of her feet and the knobby joints of her knees. It was so comfortable in this hospital that she could almost forget about Darwin rejecting her in the garden last night. Almost. She bit her lower lip hard enough to wince and squeezed her eyes shut, wondering how long she’d be able to hide out here.
    “Pssst! Allie!”
    Allie opened one navy blue eye and turned to the room’s window, where a set of twinkling brown eyes blinked back at her.
    “Charlie!”
    Charlie waved her over to the window and mimed opening it. “I brought you something.”
    Charlie was such a good friend! Who else would botherto track her down here? Allie jumped out of bed, wrapping her shiny oyster-colored robe around her narrow waist, and rushed over to the huge window.
    “You sure you don’t want to just come in the regular way? It’s an infirmary, not a jail.”
    Charlie grinned up at her. “Nah. This is way more
NCIS
.”
    Allie yanked harder and slid the huge pane of glass up. She hoisted Charlie through the window, both girls giggle-grunting as they toppled onto the floor.
    “Um, Al?” Charlie said, once they were in the room together. “Are you even sick? I’m getting a pretty healthy vibe here.” Charlie pulled Allie up off the floor and pulled up a chair next to Allie’s bed.
    “I’m
emotionally
sick,” Allie whined, flopping back into bed and pulling the covers up to her chin. “I needed a place to heal from my Darwin-inflicted wounds.” She lay back and sigh-stared at the ceiling, sneaking a peek at Charlie when her friend didn’t answer.
    Charlie crossed her legs, and then uncrossed them. Then crossed them in the other direction. She looked preoccupied, and her eyes darted around the posh hospital room before they landed back on Allie. But before Allie could ask what was up, the doorknob turned, followed by a sharp double-knock on the door. “Allie, may I come in? I brought you some Tylenol,” Nurse Nightengale’s soothing voice called.
    “Sure, of course,” Allie coughed, back in sick-Alpha mode. She immediately fell back on her pillows, grabbed a fistful of tissues, and blew her nose as the nurse walked back into the room.
    “Take two,” the nurse said, nodding curtly at Charlie and handing Allie two silver tablets.
    “Dank you, Durse,” Allie sigh-groaned, feeling her eyes turn watery and the color in her face drain out until she was a sickly shade of eggshell. Faking sick had always been something Allie was good at, ever since Jordan Janowitz had pushed her face into the sand in third-grade recess and she needed a mental-health day to plot her revenge.
    “Feel better, Allie,” Nurse Nightengale replied soothingly, leaning over her and swiping a credit card–sized thermometer over Allie’s forehead. “You have a slight fever. One oh one point one. Make sure your friend doesn’t stay too long.”
    “Sure,” Allie said, willing her sweat ducts to open up on her forehead and release a hint of clammy exhaustion.