----- Chapter Eleven -----

Scott's thinking about it, his face the picture of misery. He's just about to answer when my phone rings.

"Hello?" I answer. It's Marie.

"Hello!" she squeaks, "What're you doing today?? I thought we could go shopping or something…see a film…whatever!! I need to get out!"

"Umm…" I start, "It's pretty difficult at the moment."

"Are you at home?"

"Nope."

"Where are you?"

"I'm in the hospital…" I say quietly. Marie gasps.

"Why?? What's happened? Are you all right?"

"Yeah yeah…" I reassure, "It's…umm, it's Scott."

Another gasp, "Oh no! Not Scott - what happened?"

"I don’t know if I'm supposed to say…" I lower my voice even more and slip outside the curtains, "It's Kerry…she threw umm something at him and knocked him out stone cold. He had to have stitches on his head…"

"…his beautiful face?" Marie asks then sighs, "Can you tell him to get well soon from me please?"

"Yep, hang on…" I step back into the cubicle. Abs and Scott are both sulking. I clear my throat: "Scott. It's Marie. She says get well soon."

"Marie?" he looks happy, "Can I speak to her please?"

"Ok," I hand the phone to Scott and motion for Abs to leave him alone. We're standing outside the cubicle now and Abs does not look happy. He's looking at the ground with a really sad expression on his face.

"I can't believe he said that…" he mutters, "I was only trying to help…he didn’t have to say all that about Danielle…"

"He didn’t mean it…" I offer, "He's just saying it because he's upset."

"He did mean it," Abs insists, "He did."

"Nah he didn’t…trust me."

"Yeah well you'd know, wouldn’t you?" he says bitterly. I looked up at him.

"What???"

"You and Scott - you getting all worried cos he was in here…" Abs says.

I give him an evil, "Yeah well I'd be just as worried if it was you in here…" god, too right I would! "Scott's my friend…of course I'm gonna be worried!" I say a little gentler. Abs shrugs.

"Whatever."

"Hey you guys?" Scott calls, "I'm done!"

We walk back in. Scott's hung up the phone, and he hands it back to me, grinning from ear to ear.

"What're you so happy about?" I ask.

"Marie's coming to see me later - as soon as she can get here!"

"Oh. What're you gonna do about Kerry, Scott?" I fold my arms.

After a moment, Scott nods slowly, "She's gonna hate me…"

"You don’t have to tell her - we can do that. We'll take you home, so you don’t have to worry about that either," I decide.

"Oh," he agrees, "But be nice!"

"Kerry, I need to have a word with you…" I've managed to get her away from Scott to have a little chat together. Marie should be here any moment and I don’t want Kerry to see her. I don’t want Kerry to like knock Marie out too or something. And I wouldn’t put it past her. I shudder as I realise that I've left Scott and Abs together - Scott's bound to let something slip if they start arguing again.

"What?" she demands, folding her arms and glaring at me. For a moment, I almost felt sorry for her. This is gonna be easy.

"Basically…Scott asked me to tell you that he thinks you two should spend some time apart," I explain hurriedly. Kerry narrows her eyes,

"You made him dump me! You talked him into it…" she starts, "Why can't he tell me himself?"

I grab her arm, "Dammit Kerry, he's SCARED of you! Every move he makes, he wonders what you're gonna do to him. It's screwing him up inside…"

"That's crap," she counters defiantly. I stare at her evenly and slowly state:

"Kerry. You put Scott in hospital. You knocked him out cold. He doesn’t wanna see you at the moment - it's not the end, he just wants some time apart!"

"You just want him for yourself. You can't stand it that he's with me and not you!" she hisses.

"Oh fuck off… I don’t need this. I just came to tell you how it's gonna be. Go home, and leave Scott alone for a few days. He'll call you when he's ready to," I tell her.

"You can't make me leave…"

"I can't make you leave, but me and Abs are gonna be here til Scott leaves and we can make sure that he doesn’t hafta see of talk to you."

"But…but…" she stammers, "His got stuff at my house!"

"I'll pick it up when Abs takes Scott home…I tell ya what - Mick [Scott's Dad] ain't half gonna kill you when he finds out…" I warn. Kerry's eyes widen.

"You wouldn’t tell him…"

"Nope. But Scott might," and with that, I leave her standing pathetically on her own.