----- Chapter Ten -----

"Friend or relative?"

"Friend."

"Through those doors and keep going down the corridor."

"Thanks," Abs leads the way; grabbing my hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. Neither of us have any idea why Scott's in here, or how serious it is. Kerry wouldn’t tell anything when we phoned up.

As we get halfway down a seemingly endless corridor, Kerry appears, rushing towards us.

"Are you here to see Scott?" she asks. Me and Abs look at each other; that question is so stupid it doesn’t even warrant an answer.

"Where is he?" I ask, anxiously.

"Just round the corner," she leads us to a cubicle, and peeks round the curtain, before opening it and letting us in. Scott's on a bed, looking bored, and having a pretty nasty cut over his left eyebrow stitched up. He brightens when he sees us.

"Kerry, can I have a word with these two alone please?" he requests tightly. She opens her mouth to speak but Scott coldly cuts in with, "NOW."

She shuffles out, looking very sorry for herself. Scott looks up at us, "Is she listening outside?"

Abs pokes his head out the curtains - sure enough, Kerry's standing there. He fishes in his pocket for some change, "Go and get us a coffee each, will ya?"

"How did it happen?" I ask Scott worriedly.

"Umm…" he blushes and says quietly, "She threw a plate at my head…and knocked me out cold."

"Oh," I'm lost for words. I mean, I know it's serious, but it could only happen to Scott. Only he could get knocked out by a flying plate.

"She did what??" Abs exclaims, "She's got a serious problem, man, I mean I know she's your girlfriend but it has to be said."

I frown, "What were you arguing about?"

"I can't even remember. Something stupid, probably," he sighs and then stares at me and Abs. Abs drops my hand instantly, and folds his arms. I ignore it and carry on questioning Scott.

"What're you gonna do now? I mean, this has gotten out of hand. She's gonna end up killing you…" I comment seriously. The nurse who was stitching Scott up packs his sewing gear away and raises his eyebrows.

"We'd like to keep you in for a few hours under observation. If everything's okay after that - you can go home!" the nurse tells Scott, who nods and sinks back against the pillows.

"Scott?" I prompt. He looks up.

"She's gonna kill me if I leave her…" he says sadly, with a shrug.

"What's your Dad gonna say?" Abs asks, "He goes mental when there's fans climbing over you and they hardly ever do any physical damage. What's he gonna say when he finds out your girlfriend put you in hospital?"

Scott shrugs again and hangs his head, "I won't tell him."

"What? Say that you walked into a door?" I say sarcastically. I stare at him, peering at his right eye, "What's up with you other eye?"

"Nothing," he answers sullenly.

"Is that where she slapped you the other night?" I realise it must be. She's right handed, but she must have on heck of a strong weak-arm…

"Scott - she's got to go. It was kinda all right when you two were always arguing…then it got a bit suspect when she started hitting you. But now? She's hurting you…" Abs pleads with his friend. Scott raises his eyes and glares at Abs angrily.

"Well you’d know all about being hurt, right? You and your 'perfect' relationship with Dan…she cheats on you so you take her back. Don’t lecture me on ditching people that hurt me…" Scott spits.

Abs narrows his eyes, "That was different."

"No it wasn’t. It was the same. She hurt you just as bad ad Kerry's hurt me. It's not different," Scott counters. He shakes his head, continuing with: "You just don’t know when you got a good thing. There are loads of girls that'd go out with you, and they're prolly all a million times nicer than Danielle ever was, or ever will be! In fact, I know one or two girls that'd do anything to be with you and they're the nicest people I know. And I know for a fact that you'd get along perfectly with them. You're just too sucked in by Danielle to notice. You're too blind to see that someone likes you even if you…"

"Scott…shut up," I warn. I can see where this is heading.

"Even if you spend all your time with them. You're so blind that you wouldn’t notice if someone liked you and they were standing…" he persists.

"Scott, please…" I try and stop him - he's gonna give it away, he really is. Besides, Abs looks really hurt by what he's saying and the last person I want to see hurt is Abs.

"…and they were standing right next to…"

Kerry bursts in through the curtains, carrying the two coffees. I breathe a silent sigh of relief - I have never been so glad to see her in all my life. I thank my lucky stars and take my coffee, handing Abs the other one.

"D'ya think you could get Scott a drink too?" I ask sweetly. I think Kerry's given in. She shrugs and wanders off again. I change the subject, before something's said that shouldn’t be, "Scott. I think you and Kerry should have some time apart at least. She needs to think about what she's done and why she did it. And you need to think about whether all this is worth staying with her for."