Dr. Stewart nodded.

“Sounds good. Oh, and I’m sure he’ll get this instruction multiple times, but the concussion means he should avoid screens for a while.”

Maddie looked down at the phone in her hand, and then up at the TV in the corner of the room.

The doctor smiled.

“Exactly those kinds of screens. They’ll just make everything worse. We’re going to let him rest and go check on some other patients, but someone will come back in a little while to give him a few more tests.”

Maddie nodded.

“Okay, thank you. I’ll be here.”

She started to step outside the room to call Alexa so she wouldn’t wake Theo up. But Theo had gone back to sleep still holding her hand tight, and she couldn’t let go. She pulled her phone out of her pocket to see missed calls from a bunch of numbers she didn’t recognize, along with two from Alexa. She clicked to call her back.

“Peter told me you were at the rally. Are you with Theo? How is he?” Alexa had a note of panic in her voice that Maddie hadn’t heard in a long time.

“I’m with him in the ER. He woke up sometime between getting in the ambulance and me getting here. The doctors didn’t say much to me, but they said someone will be back to give him more tests soon.”

Alexa let out a sigh.

“He woke up. Okay, that’s a good sign. Oh thank God. When I called you and called him and didn’t hear anything . . . I was panicking a little.” Maddie should have thought to call Alexa earlier, at least just to let her know she was heading to the hospital. But she’d been so panicked herself, she couldn’t even think that far. “I’m chained to my desk because my phone is ringing off the hook. Text Drew anything the doctors say; he’ll be able to tell us what they really mean.”

Maddie looked down at Theo, but he was still sound asleep with a faint smile on his face.

“I will. Do you have Theo’s brother’s number? Someone needs to tell him what happened before he sees it on the news. He can call their mom. She’s . . .” Maddie stopped herself before she told Alexa that Theo’s mom was on vacation. Alexa might wonder why the hell she knew that.

Luckily, Alexa seemed distracted by everything going on and hadn’t seemed to hear that part. She wasn’t kidding about her phone ringing off the hook; Maddie could hear it in the background as they talked.

“Yeah, I’ll text it to you so you can let him know. You know more than anyone else right now.”

Maddie suddenly realized that Alexa—and Ben, if Theo hadn’t told him what was going on between the two of them—would probably wonder why the hell she of all people was the one there at the hospital with Theo, the one talking to the doctors, the one who knew more than anyone else right now.

“Um, okay, sure, I can get in touch with him. I’m just here because I went to the rally today because you guys kept talking about it, and then when he got hit I thought someone should be here with him, and everyone else there who knew him was working, so . . .” “Sure, right, of course. I’m glad you’re there. I have to go, but please text any updates.”

I’m glad I’m here, too, she thought, but didn’t say.

As soon as Alexa sent her Ben’s number, Maddie clicked on it to let him know what was going on, but she got stuck right after, “Hi Ben, it’s Maddie.” It turned out that texting the brother of the dude you’d been sleeping with for months to tell him in the least alarming way possible that his brother had been hit over the head and was in the hospital was difficult. Theo and Alexa were the ones good with diplomacy; Maddie was decidedly not.

“Damn it, where’s Theo when I need him?” she said out loud.

“Right here,” he said. She almost jumped and turned from her phone back to the bed. “What do you need me for?”

She put her phone down and touched his face, making sure to stay away from the bandage on his head.

“Hey. How are you feeling?”

He tried to sit up and gave up quickly.

“My head hurts. What do you need me for? And . . . what happened? What are we doing here?”

He’d forgotten. She’d just told the story of what had happened to him and the doctors a little while ago before Theo had fallen asleep, and he’d already forgotten. The doctors had said that might happen, but it still freaked her out.

She picked up the water jug next to the bed and offered him the straw. He drank gratefully before he pushed the straw away. He was still holding on to her hand.

“We were at the rally. There was a protest. Someone hit you.”

“The protest. Right.” He shook his head. “Damn it, this is all my fault. Everyone kept saying something like this would happen, but I refused to listen. Disaster.” He sighed. “How’d the rest of the rally go?”

Maddie almost laughed. What a Theo question to ask.

“I don’t know—I’ve been with you the whole time—but I know they kept going. I need to text your brother to tell him what happened. I was just trying to do that without freaking him out.”

Theo looked down at her phone.

“Don’t worry about it. My brother’s an asshole sometimes but he’s great in a crisis. Where’s my phone? Do you have it? And my glasses?”

Maddie looked around the room and found a plastic bag in the corner with what looked like his clothes in it. She let go of Theo’s hand to pick it up.

“Here’s all your stuff, but you shouldn’t have your phone. The doctor said no screens or reading for now.” She dug through the bag and handed him his glasses. Then she gasped. “Oh no. Your clothes! They’re all cut up! They must have cut your clothes off you in the ambulance. I loved that shirt.”

Theo looked as horrified as she felt. She reached for his hand again.

“I loved that shirt, too,” he said. “It’s my favorite shirt. That’s why I wore it today.” They both went silent, mourning Theo’s perfect navy and white pin-striped button-down shirt.

Maddie forced herself back to the matter at hand.

“I need to text your brother before he finds out from someone else.”

Hi Ben, it’s Maddie, Alexa and Theo’s friend, we met last year at Theo’s birthday party. Theo got hit over the head during a protest today, I’m with him in the ER right now. He’s awake —

She looked over at Theo and saw he’d fallen back to sleep.

—on and off but they’re still giving him tests. Text me if you have questions, I’ll be here

There, that seemed as unalarming as she could make it. She pressed send.

Thirty seconds later her phone buzzed.

Yeah someone told me they heard a news report and they thought it was about Theo, so I was texting him but he wasn’t responding. Glad you’re with him. I’m in SF, going to go home to get my car and meet you there, keep me posted about where to go and what’s going on. You’ll stay with him?

She texted back.

I’ll text when we know anything. Can you stop at his house first to pick up a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt so he has something to go home in? You have his key, right? I’ll be with him, don’t worry.

He sent the blowing kisses emoji in return. She had to laugh, even though he hadn’t answered any of her questions.

After a while longer of sitting next to a sleeping Theo while texting one handed, she reached into her purse to get her portable charger. Thank God she’d had it in this purse; her battery was draining quickly.

“Maddie.”

She looked up at him, but his eyes were barely open.

“I’m here.”

He smiled and opened his eyes wider.

“Just checking to make sure. Glad I didn’t dream you.”

She smiled and patted his hand.

“Why don’t you ever put your hair up?” he asked.

Now she wondered how bad his concussion really was.

“Why don’t I what?”

He lifted his hand to his face and made a gesture like he was pushing his hair back. She laughed at how familiar it was.

“You do that all the time, so I know you don’t like your hair in your face, but why don’t you just put it up in a ponytail?”

She started to push her hair back again and then stopped herself, suddenly self-conscious.

“Oh. It gives me headaches. Ponytails, I mean. Sometimes I do, like if I’m at home, but I do it really loosely. Otherwise my head will hurt for hours. Why are you thinking about that now?”

He reached for her hair, and she leaned in closer to him so he could push it off her shoulder for her.

“I think I was thinking about it earlier. I don’t know why.” He brushed his fingers against her cheek. “Glad you’re here.”

She ran her hand up and down his arm.

“I’m glad I’m here, too.”

He smiled and closed his eyes again.

About an hour later, Alexa appeared at the door of his room. Maddie dropped Theo’s hand and stood up. Had Alexa noticed her holding his hand? No, she must not have; she was staring up at the machine with Theo’s blood pressure and heart rate on it.