By the time Noah arrived at the performing arts center, Violet had fallen asleep against the wall. It looked horribly uncomfortable. One of her knees was bent but the other was straight out in front of her and obviously swollen. So that was what she had hurt.

"Vi," he said softly as he shook her shoulder. "Can you get up on your own?"

Her eyes fluttered open and she rubbed at them before wincing. Some of the stage makeup had rubbed off.

"I…don't think so," she admitted. "I can't bend my knee."

Noah bent down and awkwardly tried to lift her without making her injured knee bend. It worked out in the end but the arms Violet had wrapped around his neck for support were choking him a little.

She was still wearing her costume—a simple white dress meant to look like a 19th century nightgown, white tights, and pointe shoes. Her hair was curled and partially pulled back with ribbons in it.

He suddenly felt really guilty that he never went to see her show. Clara was one of the most famous and sought after roles in the ballet world. He shouldn't have let his unrequited feelings get in the way of being a good friend.

"How did you end up on the floor like that?" Noah asked once they were in the car.

"I pa.s.sed out."

He nearly slammed on the brakes in alarm. She pa.s.sed out?! That would have been a good thing to mention over the phone!

At the next stop light Noah got a better look at her. A light sheen of sweat covered her face and she was grimacing because of the pain. It seemed pretty serious. What kind of terrible boyfriend was Jeremy Ward to not answer his phone when his girlfriend needed him?

Noah had backed away because he thought Violet would be happier getting the romance she wanted and he didn't want to have to see that. But if this guy wasn't going to take care of her he didn't deserve to call himself her boyfriend.

"What happened?" he asked.

She let out a weak laugh. "I landed wrong and felt this horrible pop. Can you believe it? I've jumped exactly like that thousands of times and just had to land it wrong this once."

Ouch. That wasn't a lot of detail but it still sounded pretty bad. Violet had never been injured while dancing before. At least not more seriously than simply being sore from working out certain muscles so much.

What exactly had made her land her jump wrong? Was her mind somewhere else? She was normally so focused when she was dancing.

"People land their jumps wrong all the time," Noah said to rea.s.sure her.

From being around a dancer so long, he knew that was one of the most common causes of injury. Violet was normally more careful than that though.

She had seen one of her fellow dancers sprain her ankle by landing a jump wrong back in middle school. The girl ended up having to miss their upcoming recital. After seeing that, Violet had never wanted to experience the same thing.

Of course it would happen right in the middle of her dancing the lead role too. What rotten luck. Noah really hoped this was something that could be fixed easily and relatively quickly for her sake.

When they arrived at the entrance of the emergency room Violet still couldn't walk so Noah had to carry her in. It was a bit awkward that she had to explain her situation to the person at the desk while still being princess-carried.

She had fainted so she was higher priority than someone who appeared to have a broken arm but hadn't lost consciousness but her case was still considered less important than people with impossibly high fevers or blood loss. They ended up having to wait for nearly an hour in the waiting room before she was seen.

For most of that time Violet didn't even try to initiate conversation. She tiredly leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes, trying and failing to nap.

Noah didn't speak; not wanting to disturb her but also not knowing what to say. He had come rus.h.i.+ng to the rescue like always after weeks of radio silence. What was he supposed to say after that?

'Sorry I was avoiding you but I was trying to get over you since you have a boyfriend you're pretty serious about?' That wouldn't work. He really wished he could think of something to say that would make her feel better. She did look pretty miserable and he didn't think it was entirely because she was in pain.

It was obviously because of him. If the situations were reversed, Noah would have been devastated if Violet started avoiding him out of the blue. As it was, he was still pretty devastated and he was the one doing the avoiding.

Jeremy Ward was different than the rest of Violet's past boyfriends. For one, he moved a lot faster. The two of them also spent so much time together that she practically forgot Noah existed. That had never happened before; even when she liked someone else she always made time for him.

She was twenty-five now; people tended to fall in love for real during that time of life. His mom had fallen for his dad when she was twenty-six and gotten married less than a year later.

Cameron was older than Jennica. Jeremy was older than Violet. She had only ever seen Noah as one of her younger brothers so he had thought it was finally time to try and forget about her even though it hadn't been working. At all.

The guy was a total jerk though. How busy could he be on a Friday night that he couldn't answer the phone when his girlfriend got hurt? He wasn't cheating on her so soon, was he?

No, that didn't make sense with everything Noah's dad said about the guy. He described Jeremy as being married to his work, the way Aaron had been before Keeley came along. Chances are he was probably still at the office.

Aaron was a bigshot businessman but he always put his family first because he loved them. If Jeremy really was working overtime right now and ignoring Violet's calls he probably didn't care about her all that much.

Anger gripped his heart. That man did not deserve his best friend's love.

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