By the time dawn broke the next morning, Lisa was worn out because she hadn't slept. She had spent the whole night feeling wretched at the thought that Alan had been waiting for her call, and not knowing about his accident, she was convinced that he had.
 
     From six o'clock onwards she kept picking up the phone, willing it alive, but she had to wait until eight-thirty before she heard the familiar sound of a dialling tone. She keyed in his number, ready with her apologies, only to hear the same message she had heard the previous afternoon. "The cell phone you have called may be switched off, please try later." She listened to the message three or four times before she put the phone down. What had Alan's parting words to her been? “You know I only forget my phone when I want to.” She reluctantly tried to accept the fact that Alan wasn't waiting for her call…
 
 
 
     The Sunday morning welcome back assembly was fairly boring, not that Lisa heard a word of it. As Veronique had predicted, there were a few greenish tinged faces to be seen, especially in the fifth and sixth year. The main purpose of the assembly seemed to be to welcome new pupils and staff alike, the more serious points being left for Monday morning when the school truly began.
 
     After assembly there was a mass held in the chapel, but it wasn't compulsory to go in sixth form as the denominations in that year were very varied. A lot of Lisa's year did go however, being Catholic and conditioned by their previous years at the school. Lisa was just glad to escape to her room.
 
     Her sleepless night combined with the awful turmoil going on inside her made her prefer her own company. She thought for a moment that Alan might have found out the address and was going to arrive unexpectedly, but she knew that was almost impossible. He knew no one who could tell him where she was, and there were dozens of schools in the area. Lisa laughed bitterly to herself, punch-drunk by her lack of sleep. To think she had thought the main test of their relationship was surviving Carla's return- and she wasn't returning until the next day. Alan must have been so sure he didn't want to lose Carla when he left her at the station. She had to give him his due- he'd given an Oscar winning performance. If that was the case, he'd really had her fooled.
 
    Still not wanting to believe he could be so callous, Lisa started analysing what could possibly have stopped him from answering his phone if he really wanted to. She thought for one horrible moment that he might have had an accident, but she believed that wasn't possible because if he had, and he had his phone with him, someone would have heard it and answered it. If he had left his phone at the flat, and then had an accident, then Mike would have answered it, as she had seen him do a few times before.
 
    The only other possible explanation was that he had lost his phone, in which case he could be desperately trying to replace it, in order to receive her call. Lisa hung on to that hope, believing that if he had lost it on Friday or Saturday, he would have to wait until Monday to have it replaced. Lisa was feeling so desperate she decided pathetically that she had hit on the answer, and decided she would give him until Monday night to get a new phone. With that belief she fell asleep on the bed and fitfully dreamt until the rest of the girls returned from chapel.
 
 
                                                                              ...........
 
 
     Alan found Lisa in the field again. Still in the red dress, she was calling him, running through the long grass and shouting out his name. She was still crying, tears running down her face, her beautiful long hair blowing in the wind. He was running behind her, reaching for her, but he couldn't catch her. He called her name, but the words were stuck in his throat. He felt his legs and arms moving, but they wouldn't move quickly enough. In his despiration, he willed them to move even faster….
 
     The nurse in intensive care looked over as he started convulsing, and pressed the emergency button at the side of his bed. She had seen it all too often before…
 
 
                                                                               ...........
 
 
 
     When Lisa woke up, Linda had her cheery face around the edge of her door.
 
     “Come on Dozo, you'll miss lunch!”
 
Lisa stared back at her, wishing everyone would just leave her alone. She wasn't hungry.
 
     “Do I have to go?” she asked, hoping it wasn't compulsory.
 
Linda looked amazed that she could ask such a question.
 
     “No, you don't have to go- but I would seriously recommend it. Sunday lunch is the best meal of the week.”
 
Lisa sat on the edge of her bed trying to get her bearings. She felt totally disorientated.
 
     “I'm sorry, I don't really fancy anything. Do you mind if I give it a miss?”
 
Linda stood in the doorway and wished she hadn't bothered asking her.
 
     “Your loss, honey,” she grunted, before she left, closing the door behind her.
 
     Lisa wished she hadn't had the wine the night before. She felt awful. She washed her face and stared back at her reflection, surprised at how ghastly she looked. Her face was ashen white, and she could see dark circles under her eyes. She tried Alan's number again, just in case, but as she expected-  his phone was still switched off.
 


Linda plonked herself down on a chair beside the others in the dining room. Amy looked at her accusingly because she was supposed to have brought Lisa down to lunch.
 
     “Well, where is she?” she asked, thinking Linda had forgotten.
 
Linda stabbed at the salad organised especially for her, and looked jealously at the roast beef meal the others had in front of them.
 
     “Still in her room, looking God damn miserable,” she replied before she started munching.
 
They all looked at each other wondering if they had picked the right messenger.
 
      “What did she say when you told her it was lunch time?” Chloe asked, annoyed at Linda's apparent indifference.
 
Linda had plunged another mouthful of salad into her mouth, so they had to wait for her answer.
 
     “Something about not fancying anything, and giving it a miss. Beats me!”
 
Amy looked concerned. Lisa didn't seem to be settling in at all. She turned to the others.
 
     “Lisa didn't come down to breakfast either. Do you think we should mention it to someone?”
 
Veronique, being the most mature of them all, thought she knew the answer.
 
     'I think she is, how you say? Pining for someone...”
 
The way Veronique said "pining" made everyone laugh.
 
     “Trust you to think it has something to do with a guy Veronique,” Amy said indignantly, and then she thought about what she had just said.
 
     “You know, you might be right. The first time I met Lisa on the train she was bubbling over an unopened letter she reckoned was from some guy she'd dumped. Maybe she's regretting it now?”
 
     This seemed like a plausible explanation to their innocent way of thinking, and they tried to work out how they could help.

Chloe thought they should set up a rota to keep an eye on Lisa, which they all agreed to do. It was also decided that Amy was the best one to broach the subject of the unopened letter because she had actually seen it.
 
     When they went back upstairs Amy knocked gently on Lisa's door. After a couple of minutes of silence, she knocked again. Lisa was lying on the bed, past caring what anyone thought of her, and when she heard the knock on the door she didn't answer, hoping that whoever it was would go away. They didn't.
 
     “It's only me Lisa, can I come in?” Amy asked, when fed up with waiting, she popped her head around the door.
 
     Realising Amy probably wouldn't take no for an answer, Lisa told her to come in and tried to pull herself together.
 
     Amy couldn't believe the difference in Lisa in twenty-four hours. She looked awful. She teased Lisa about the amount of wine she must have drunk the night before to be in such a state, but she knew that couldn't be the reason because she had been pouring it, and Lisa had only had a couple of glasses.
 
     Lisa decided to let her believe what she wanted. She didn't care anyway. Amy was just about to give up trying to cheer Lisa up, when she had an idea.
 
     “Have you read the letter from your ex yet?”
 
Lisa shook her head miserably.
 
     “No, and I'm not going to,” she replied.
Amy tried to sound unconcerned.
 
     “So it's definitely over between you two then?”
 
Lisa nodded. Nick was the last person she wanted to talk about.
 
     “Yes, I'm afraid so …”
 
Amy thought the 'afraid' indicated some possible regret.
 
     “If you don't mind me asking, what did he do to make you dump him?” Amy asked, hoping Lisa would open up to her.
 
Lisa looked at her miserably. 'I didn't dump him exactly- I haven't even spoken to him for a couple of weeks, but he knows the engagement's off.”
 
     Amy's jaw dropped. She was sure Lisa had just mentioned the word 'engagement.' Now, that was serious stuff.
 
     “Is that why you came to the school-- because you broke off your engagement?” 
 
Lisa thought carefully before she answered. She wanted to tell somebody about Alan, but she couldn't bear the humiliation of everyone knowing that the man she loved didn't even want to talk to her.
 
     “In a way- but I never actually broke it off. That’s probably why he's written to me.”
 
Amy was intrigued, but still confused.
 
     “If you say that you haven't actually broken it off, then how does the guy know it's over?”
 
Lisa didn't want to tell any lies, but she didn't want to tell the whole truth either. She decided that half the truth would do.
 
     “I was supposed to go to the Isle of Man a couple of weeks ago, so that we could announce our engagement, but I got cold feet and I didn't go, so my mother phoned and told him for me.”
 
Amy had this romantic vision of some love-struck guy pining away with a broken heart on an Island somewhere, still waiting for Lisa
 
 “What's wrong with him? Is he dead ugly, or what?” She asked.
 
Lisa remembered Alan asking the same question, and she gave Amy the same answer.
 
     “No, he's actually very good looking.”
 
She just wished Amy would drop the subject of Nick all together.
 
If he was good looking then Amy assumed he must be some impoverished low light with no money, and Lisa's parents didn't like him because of it.
 
     “So what's the problem?” she asked. “Is he broke?”
 
Lisa laughed cynically. Why did everyone think that money made you perfect?
 
     “No, quite the opposite, he's a millionaire…”
 
Amy couldn't believe what she was hearing. Good looking, rich, what more could anyone ask for? Lisa must be nuts. He sounded like every girl's fantasy guy.
 
     “So what's wrong with this rich hunk then?” she asked, desperate to know why Lisa had broken off her engagement.
 
Lisa was about to say that she didn't love him, but was afraid that Amy would think she was shallow for agreeing to marry him in the first place, if that was the case.
 
     “He's sixteen years older than me.”
 
That managed to shut Amy up-- but only for a second or two.
 
     “That’s not too bad, my Dad's twelve years older than my Mum, but the age gap doesn't seem to make any difference. They get on fine, when they're not arguing!”
 
Amy laughed at her own joke, hoping Lisa would lighten up.
 
     “Anyway,” she continued, despite Lisa’s failure to even smile. “They were both married to people the same age the first time round, and my Mum said it was a total disaster because her first husband did most of his growing up after they got married.”
 
Lisa realised that the age thing wasn't going to put Amy off, so she tried another tactic.
 
     “It's not just the age gap. I feel that I hardly know him-- we only met this summer. I can't make that kind of commitment to someone I’ve just met.”
 
Lisa laughed inwardly at what she had just said. She had been with Alan two short weeks, and she’d wanted to spend the rest of her life with him after two days.
 
     Amy decided to go back to the letter. Perhaps if she could get Lisa to read it, then she would realise she'd made a mistake.
 
     “I think you should at least read the letter, Lisa. Why don’t you give the poor guy a break?”
 
Lisa was beginning to get annoyed. She knew Amy was only trying to help, but all she was doing was making her feel guilty about Nick on top of the misery she was going through waiting for Alan to turn on his mobile. She desperately tried to think of a way to get Amy off her back. She reached into her handbag, took out the unopened letter, and ripped it into several pieces as Amy watched on with disbelief. Then Lisa threw the pieces of paper into her bin. That was definitely the last thing Amy had expected.
 
     “As I said, Amy, it's just not going to happen- so will you, please just drop it.” Lisa snapped irritably, as Amy stared back at her open mouthed...