"Why were you sat in the rain?" He asked apprehensively after a while.

"Why were you driving around when you're meant to be in school?" I shot back.

He paused for a minute, probably deciding on whether to tell me the truth or not. He settled on telling the truth. "I saw you rushing out," he sighed, taking quick glances at me, "you looked upset, so I followed you."

I stared at him, not knowing what to say.

"So," he said at my silence, "you gonna tell me what's up?"

I sighed; I knew even before I tried to dodge his questions that he wasn't going to give up. "They dropped me in cheer practice today."

"Oh?"

"Oh? Do you know how high they throw me?!"

"Yes," he said quietly. "But why is that upsetting you so much?"

I exhaled angrily, "because it hurt. And because Ebony tried to blame me for Louise dropping me. I mean, what am I meant to do?! I'm spinning around in the air relying on Louise to catch me! It wasn't my fault she was too busy staring into space! And now I'm the one with a painful ankle and a telling off from Ebony!"

"You hurt your ankle?"

"Yeah, right one -"

"Do you want me to take a look?" I glanced at Gerard who was still watching me with worried eyes.

I shrugged. "Go for it."

He spent about five seconds gently squeezing my foot before he announced that I needed to go to hospital. I tried to reason with him, explaining that I just needed to go home and lie down for the rest of the day, but he wouldn't accept it. He was already on his way.

Of course, my mum worked at the hospital. She was there at that very moment - I just hoped she didn't see me. The last thing I needed was her worrying over a twisted ankle and making me take tomorrow of school.

The huge multistory, multicomplex building loomed ahead and I exhaled sharply, sinking down into my seat. Gerard noticed and glanced at me quickly before returning his eyes to the road.

"What's up?" he asked as he turned the car in towards the entrance to the hospital. I glared at him briefly.

"My mum works in the hospital," I explained, feeling my stomach sink as we neared the welcome sign.

"So?"

"So she overreacts. If she sees me she'll freak."

This didn't deter Gerard. He calmly pulled up into a parking space and stepped out of the car, hurrying round to my side to help me. He threw my arm over his shoulders and allowed me to lean into him as we hobbled over to the building. It had stopped raining now but the air was still thick with moisture and the black clouds threatened to throw water at us at any second. I leaned heavily on Gerard as we hopped up a kerb. He smelled of leather and stale cigarette smoke; I wrinkled my nose - I hated the smell of cigarette smoke.

The automatic doors opened ahead of us and the smell of sterile hit us like a train. The clean smell always reminded me of the many incidents where my mum had taken me to hospital when I was younger - I was a klutz. Broken bones, concussion, cuts, sprains; the typical injuries of children, except more frequent.

Inside the walls were shades of hospital-white and pastel green. Paintings of flowers and fruit hung in frames along the many corridors firing off in many directions. A dark wooden desk stood before us with two receptionists greeting people. Behind them, a trio of nurses in scrubs chatted happily.

"Can I help?" One of the receptionists called. Gerard walked me over to her. Once she saw me limping she asked, "do you want to tell me what happened?"

What do you think happened, blonde middle aged woman? I'm limping along in my cheerleading uniform when I should be in school...

"Someone dropped her in cheerleading practice," Gerard said kindly, but I could detect a hint of humour in his otherwise level voice. I glared at him for that.

"Oh dear," the receptionist said sadly, "take a seat and I'll get one of the nurses to come and see you." She pointed to the sitting area opposite her desk. With my arm still wrapped securely around Gerard's neck, we slowly made our way over to the cushioned green benches. One of the nurses from behind the desk disappeared through a door and reappeared moments later pushing an empty wheelchair. I hoped that wasn't for me...

"Are you the cheerleader?" She asked politely. I stared blankly at her. I know my uniform was drenched, but it was still clear as to what it was...

"Yeah," I mumbled, the sarcastic voice in my head not daring to make an appearance.

"Okay, I'm just going to take a look at your leg for you and then we'll get you to a cubicle. I'm Lucy, by the way." She was smiling kindly down at me. I didn't feel much like smiling, but I felt the need to; she didn't look very much older than me, I was probably one of her first patients.

"Evie," I said simply.

"Okay Evie, which leg was it?"

I pointed to my right ankle and she knelt down, inspecting the damage.

"It doesn't look broken," she informed, straightening up, "let's get you up into a cubicle anyway. Don't worry, your boyfriend can co-"

"He's not my boyfriend," I said at exactly the same time as Gerard said, "she's not my girlfriend." Lucy looked at us through her huge brown eyes and laughed. I took a sheepish sideways glance at Gerard.

"Okay," my nurse said, "are you ready to help me lift her?" She was looking at Gerard. He nodded and they both gently helped me to move into the wheelchair. I scowled with my arms crossed as I was wheeled through the corridors. I could feel Gerard laughing at me; Evelyn McCullagh, one of the most popular girls in school, soaking wet and in a wheelchair. What a sight that must have been...

Once in the cubicle, I was helped onto the gurney and the teal curtains were pulled closed around me. Lucy started talking to me, trying to distract me from what she was doing, no doubt. I was right, she wasn't much older than I was. She was a student nurse on placement and had started a few days ago. That's why, she said, I was given to her - a sprained ankle isn't too difficult to deal with. She managed to get the blue and gold, knee high sock off my leg (with great difficulty), and my very bruised ankle was revealed. Lucy told me that there wasn't much that could be done for a sprained joint other than rest and support, so she showed me how to use an ankle brace and told me that I would need to use it for the next week or two. She also suggested that I stay away from cheer practice for a while, but with Ebony calling the shots, I knew that was impossible.

Lucy offered to wheel me back out to the entrance, but I absolutely refused to sit in a wheelchair again. Instead, she secured me some crutches, which were equally as embarrassing, and instructed Gerard to make sure I didn't fall. I left quickly, not wanting to be spotted by my mum. I also decided that the crutches would be hidden as soon as I got home.

"Forest Street, right?" Gerard asked once he'd helped me into the car and got into the driver's side.

"You're taking me home?" I asked, surprised.

"Well, yeah. Did you think I was just going to let you make your own way home?"

I shrugged, I didn't know what I was expecting. Gerard didn't say anymore and we drove out of the hospital grounds in silence.

"Gerard?" I asked as we neared my house.

"Mm?"

"Why did you do this?" He took a brief, confused look at me. "Why did you help me?"

"Oh," he said, not taking his eyes off the road; it was raining again, "I saw you sitting in a puddle. I thought you'd finally lost it." he smirked and I rolled my eyes. "I joke," he paused, "I guess I couldn't just leave someone, who is so clearly in trouble, sat at the side of the road in the rain." We were on my street now so I instructed him where to go with my hands. "I guess I like you, Evie. You're a good person really, like with what you did for Eve, but you just surround yourself with the wrong people and, what's worse, you try to fit in with them."

"Try to fit in with them?" I asked. Gerard's honesty surprised me, but what surprised me even more was the word 'try'. My friends weren't who I wanted them to be, but I was still comfortable around them.

"It's not too obvious, but to someone like me who spends his days observing people, it's easy to see that you don't belong with them."

"But I'm happy with them," I argued.

"Are you really?" I nodded. "If that's the case, why do you have such an obsession with me?" He was smirking, but his question was sincere.

"I do not have an obsession with you!"

"So why have you been so desperate to talk to me ever since your first day?"

I fell silent for a moment, opening and closing my mouth like a goldfish. "I...I wanted to prove to you that I wasn't what you thought I was."

"A fake whore?"

"Exactly."

"Then what are you? You've admitted that you're not like your friends, but yet you act like them every single day."

I twitched my lips to the side. "Okay, maybe fake, but definitely not a whore."

Gerard laughed. No, wait, Gerard GIGGLED. "Okay, I'll go with that."

I laughed too.

"Now get out of my car you fake-not-a-whore!"

It was a good note to end on, but then we both realised that I needed help exiting the car so Gerard rushed out into the rain to open my door. Just like a gentleman, he even helped me to my house. Of course there was no-one in the house so I stood under the shelter of my porch, rummaging around in my bag for my keys with one hand and waving goodbye to Gerard with the other. That had been an interesting encounter, now to lay on the couch and watch Desperate Housewives.