“Look,” said Noelle, exasperated. “I am not going to get a concussion. And if anything else happened, I’d tell someone you were here. OK?” Ellie saw that Noelle was losing patience, that she should drop the conversation right now and eat in silence, but what she’d just said, that she would tell someone she was here, this was new and transcendental and extraordinary and thrilling. This couldn’t be ignored. “Would you really?” she asked, slightly breathless. “Of course I would. You think I’d just leave you here to die?” “But what about…” She picked her next words carefully. “Wouldn’t you be
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