What are you doing today? his question had been carefully crafted, or rather, he'd written several different questions first, like 'are you okay' and 'please how can i help' and deleted them all. What are you doing seemed neutral enough that she might not snap under the emotional pressure of answering it. The others, not so much.
Skipping uni, Zoe messaged back. She didn't have any room left in her to feel guilty about skipping, right now.
Are you home by yourself? he couldn't make that sound any less worried than it was, but couldn't word it any other way either. He needed to know she wasn't alone.
Liz is taking the day off too.
Ok. I'm sure Danny'd want to stop by too. If he couldn't be there, then he hoped Danny could be. Knowing she had more than one person looking after her made him feel safer, on behalf of her.
I don't want Danny Zoe sent back even though everything in her was telling her to STOP. I want - she didn't finish her sentence. She deleted the I want. It was too much. It was just too much.
There was a very, very long pause between replies. At least, it was to Zoe. All she could hear was her heartbeat in her ears and even that felt sluggish.
Ok replied Cai. I'm glad you have Liz.
Zoe made a small noise of it's all too much and let go of her phone like it was a spider.