Trinity woke like she fell asleep: between Harlan and Victoria in the large hotel bed. They were each pressed tightly to her, as that was the only way they could have all fit. Victoria faced the wall. Harlan faced Trinity, his arm linked unconsciously around hers. Trinity stared up at the ceiling.

Something rose in the back of her throat, and she had to get it out. Bile.

She sat up and pulled her arm out from where it tangled with Harlan’s. Images flashed through her mind of the dreams that led her to wake up. Dreams where she could and did say what needed to be said. Dreams where Dot knew, where Marsh knew what had happened. Worst of all, dreams where Harlan knew what she had done.

Harlan had been nothing but kind to her. Trinity could hardly bear having betrayed him. And for what? Soon Victoria would be gone. Trinity didn’t even have a shot at having whatever Victoria and Harlan had for herself. It was a moment of passion behind the hot dog place, not a lifetime like those two had ahead of them together.

Acid burned the back of Trinity’s mouth, and her stomach ran circles like on a hamster wheel. She climbed over Harlan as quickly as she could and evacuated to the small hotel bathroom.

Her knees hit the cold tile flooring. Her arms rested on the edge of the toilet seat. She recoiled, wracked with the strength of all that wished to escape her.

Tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she vomited harder than she had in years.

Harlan appeared in the bathroom doorway. “Trinity? Are you okay?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t mean to wake you,” she insisted between bouts of retching.

“It’s not about that. You’re having a bad time, and it means more to me to help you than it does to sleep.”

She could see why Victoria latched onto him in the first place, if Victoria liked agreeable people as much as it seemed she did.

“Go back to bed. Don’t let me ruin your vacation.” Any more than she already had, but he didn’t know it.

“It would ruin my vacation to go back to bed while you endure this on your own.” Harlan walked to stand right beside Trinity, then knelt right beside her. “We’re in this together, as much as we can be.”

“Stop making this hard,” Trinity pleaded. She rested her forehead on the toilet seat, momentarily free of the need to throw up.

“Hey, hey, we’ve got this, together. I’ll be right with you. There’s something inside of you that needs to come out, and once it’s out, you’ll be okay. I’ll be with you until then.”

Tears dripped from Trinity’s eyes. “Harlan, I…”

A fog descended over Trinity’s thoughts, covering them and holding them in like a weighted blanket. There was something inside of her that needed to come out, all right, but for the life of her, she couldn’t grasp at what it was. She couldn’t grasp at anything.

“It’s okay. You’ll be okay.” He brushed his hand gently across her back.

Her eyes widened. Her reverie broke. “No, no, no, that’s going to make it worse.” The rhythmic motion stirred her stomach to leap, and leaned in over the water in the bowl and ejected more of the previous day’s lunch.

“I’m not going to eat the hot dogs there anymore,” Trinity complained.

But, Harlan wasn’t sick, nor Victoria. Maybe Dot was, but she wasn’t in the hotel for Trinity to know that about.

“Or maybe it was what was put in my drink. Or the drinks. I don’t know. I just feel bad.”

“You’ll feel better soon, darling.”

Trinity wondered idly if it was habit that led Harlan to call her that. Maybe he was used to taking care of Victoria, too. But, Victoria always seemed so capable, and Trinity couldn’t imagine her bent over a toilet bowl going through hell.

“I don’t know if I will.”

“It’s better to get it out. It doesn’t feel good at the time, but once there’s no more to release, it’ll be over with.” Harlan took Trinity’s nearest hand in his. It was cold. “Do you want a shirt or something? It’s not warm in here, is it?”

Trinity nodded. “Thank you.” She hadn’t prepared to stay in the hotel overnight, and thus hadn’t brought any pyjamas with her to change into when they all decided to go to sleep.

Harlan left the washroom and returned a moment later with a large light brown cotton t-shirt. Trinity slipped it on over her head, then poked her arms through the holes.

“Better?”

“Warmer. I’m sorry if it smells like bile later.”

“It’s a shirt. It can be washed. There’s no problem with that.” Harlan smiled.

Trinity wondered what Victoria would have said if she had gotten out of bed to see what was the matter instead. Maybe she’d berate Trinity for having ingested something that caused her to throw up. Maybe she would have hypnotized her so she could go back to bed. One of those would have been irritating, and the other would have consumed Trinity’s thoughts for a week, and she knew exactly which was which.

But Harlan found her. And he was quiet, and gentle, and kind.

After a while with no expulsion of anything from Trinity, Harlan helped her up from the floor, wet a hotel face cloth laid on the pristine counter with water from the sink, and passed it across Trinity’s face. Once she was clean, they made their way back to the bed together, Harlan waiting until Trinity was secure until he put himself also beneath the covers.

Trinity fell asleep with ease. Not because the activity of her mind slowed, but because with Harlan’s breath against her face as he tried to return to sleep, and with Harlan’s shirt covering her body, she felt she had little choice but to tell him that she and Victoria had…

Her mind went so blank that sleep found her and claimed her quite soon after.

***

“I’d like to visit Charter’s Hill today,” said Victoria, idly, as she brushed her teeth in the morning. She left the door to the washroom wide open so she could carry on conversation with Harlan and Trinity. “What do you think? The trails would be nice to take a walk on.”

Harlan asked Trinity, “Do you think you’ll be up for a walk, after last night?”

Trinity sat on the end of the bed munching on a slice of toast. “I think so.”

“I’ll send a message to the group chat,” Victoria announced, spitting out water as she said it. She tapped her toothbrush against the edge of the sink, then shoved it into the pocket of her smart black dress pants.

A moment later, Trinity’s cell phone buzzed from on the nightstand near Victoria’s side of the bed. She didn’t remember putting it there, but the whole night was a bizarre blur. She took up the phone and sat back down on the bed, ignoring the half piece of toast that remained in favour of the conversation.

Victoria: Are you all available today?

Trinity pressed to react to the message and settled on an emoji of a white check mark in a green square.

Dot: Victoria? It’s like seven in the morning, your message just woke me up :0

Victoria: Vacations don’t last forever. Time is not for wasting ;)

Trinity smirked at her screen, stifling a full laugh.

Dot: Can Marsh join us today too? They don’t have another exam until tomorrow

Harlan: Of course. I really look forward to meeting them! :)

Trinity put her phone down beside her on the bed.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. The chat was awash with conversation. Trinity leaned back on the bed and listened to the phone go off.

Victoria returned to the main part of the hotel room and flicked her head up. “Trinity. They’re asking about you.”

“Are they?”

“Dot’s going to have a conniption if you don’t confirm to her that you’re alive, well, and not in the hospital.”

Trinity picked up her phone again.

Trinity: I’m alive, well, and not in the hospital.

Marsh: What happened to you yesterday afternoon? You just stopped looking at my messages, but Dot told me you didn’t go to the bar until later. Did something happen to you before that?

Trinity was usually all about finishing a conversation before putting her phone away. No wonder her sudden absence alarmed Marsh. Guilt coursed through her veins, running to her hands as she tried to type an explanation.

Trinity: V

Trinity: Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Dot: ?

Victoria cleared her throat. “Earth to Trinity.”

Trinity rose from her haze. She couldn’t explain that Victoria had found her and interrupted their texting. She couldn’t explain that Victoria had led her outside. She couldn’t explain any of it.

Trinity: Very bad stomach ache. Had to really concentrate lol

Victoria nodded slightly in approval.

Victoria: Don’t strain yourself too hard today. Wouldn’t want you to end up feeling any worse.

Trinity shuddered. If Victoria knew Marsh knew something was up…

She opened her direct messages with Marsh.

Trinity: Watch out today. Just be careful, okay? I have a bad feeling I can’t tell you much about.

Marsh was smart. Marsh picked up on things quickly. If Victoria tried to hypnotize them, they’d notice right away, the shift in her words, the shift in her demeanour. But Marsh had little reason to be suspicious of Victoria or her hypnotism, and they were already one day steeped in the envy of having had to miss seeing Harlan and Victoria to write an exam.

If it were Dot that had received the message, maybe she would have responded with some quip about wondering if being drugged gave a person psychic premonitions. But fortunately, it was not Dot, and it was Marsh, that Trinity texted.

Marsh: Got it. I’ll be careful.

Trinity exhaled in relief.

She finished her toast, lifted herself from the bed, and changed out of Harlan’s shirt and into her sweater and jeans from the day before. She felt she needed a shower, or to flat-iron her hair until it looked a little better, but instead she just fished in the pocket of her jeans for a hair tie. When she found one, she pulled her hair into a tight ponytail.

“Thanks,” Harlan said when Trinity tossed the shirt back to him.

“Thank you. It made the morning a little less cold.” And exposed. But there was no way Trinity would have been able to fall asleep properly for the night in her day clothes, especially jeans. She’d tried sleeping in jeans before, and it wasn’t the most pleasant experience.

“I’m glad I could help.”

Dot: I’m almost ready if you’d like to meet up soon. I’ll pick the hotel crowd up at the hotel, and then I’ll swing by your place, Marsh

Marsh: Bringing any guitars today? >:)

Trinity: Don’t get us banned from any more restaurants, please.

Victoria held up a couple of shirts, still in her ultramarine cotton nightgown. “Silver satin today? Or pinstripes? I think I’ll go with the pinstripes.” She set down the silver satin shirt in her travel bag again, then disappeared into the washroom with the black buttoned shirt with white vertical pinstripes. Trinity looked down at her phone, so Victoria would know she had privacy to change.

Marsh: Where are we going today?

Trinity: Victoria said she wanted to go on the trails near Charter’s Hill.

Dot: Ok, so I’ll bring good shoes for walking. At least it’s a nice day out. No fog :D

Trinity walked to the small window and slipped her fingers in between a couple of bars in the blinds. She pried them open and peered out.

Sunlight rolled over the grey of parking lots and office buildings. It was the first sunny day in weeks, and it looked like a dream.

It was a better dream than Trinity had started the day with.

“Okay,” said Harlan. Trinity looked back at him, noticing he wore the shirt he lent her earlier, alongside a cream-coloured cable-knit cardigan. “Let’s head out so we don’t leave Dot waiting for too long.”