Free A Long Thaw by Katie O’Rourke

halt abruptly.
    Juliet pushes the door open slowly and is unprepared for what she sees. Abby’s lying on her back with a hand covering her face. There’s blood everywhere, all over her chest and pillows and sheets.
    Juliet feels her knees weaken as she takes a sharp breath. She tries to will herself to speak, to step into the room, but she’s frozen in the doorway.
    Abby begins to laugh. ‘It’s just my nose,’ she says, her voice muffled beneath her hand and a wad of sopping red Kleenex. ‘It’s just a bloody nose.’
    Juliet’s lungs release the breath they’ve been holding. She walks closer. ‘I thought I heard you crying.’
    ‘I was.’ Abby laughs again. ‘It was so disorienting to wake up this way. It must have been bleeding for a while before I woke. My God, I must look like I’ve been shot or something.’
    ‘Yeah.’ Juliet rubs her eyes. ‘Sit up.’
    Abby looks at her sceptically.
    ‘It’ll never stop bleeding if you lie back like that. It’ll keep running down the back of your throat.’ Juliet sits on the edge of the bed.
    ‘Eew.’ Abby sits up. ‘Are you sure? I thought they told you to lean your head back. That’s how they do it in all the movies.’
    ‘Yeah. In all the movies.’ Juliet takes the soiled tissues and hands Abby a clean one. ‘Now, pinch.’ She walks down the hall, returning with a wet washcloth, fresh pillowcases, and the bathroom trash can.
    ‘You don’t have to do all this,’ Abby says. She’s sitting cross-legged in the bed, holding her nose. Her dark hair is sticking up in the back and she looks small.
    ‘I don’t mind.’ Juliet collects the used tissues.
    She is small, Juliet realizes, with an odd surprise. In the years since they were thirteen, Juliet has grown inches and stands close to five-eight. She had a substantial growth spurt during her freshman year of high school. But Abby seems not to have grown much at all. Of course, in a way, Juliet must have noticed it before. But this is the first time she feels aware of this difference between them, experiences herself as somehow larger than Abby. She’s petite , Juliet thinks. Especially now, with her face puffy from sleep, letting Juliet care for her, she seems childlike.
    ‘Does blood freak you out?’ Abby asks, taking the washcloth and wiping her neck.
    ‘Not if I know it’s coming from your nose.’ Juliet rips the top sheet off the bed and tosses it onto the floor. ‘The blankets look okay. Pass me your pillows.’
    Abby does as she’s told. ‘I feel like I’m five and I peed the bed.’
    Juliet helps Abby wipe her hands clean, a task she’s been struggling to do one-handed. She bends to gather the bloody sheets and takes them to the bathroom to soak in the tub.
    ‘It’s so weird,’ Abby calls after her. ‘I never get a bloody nose.’
    ‘Probably the change in the weather.’ Juliet walks back in and holds her hand out. ‘Tissue.’
    ‘The one I’m using?’
    Juliet nods.
    Abby hesitates, but eventually releases her nose. She waits, holding her palm open beneath it. ‘It stopped?’
    ‘Uh-huh.’ Juliet stands at the foot of the bed and tosses a new sheet over Abby. It balloons above her and settles. Juliet tucks in the corners.
    ‘Wow. That was fast.’
    Juliet lays a towel over the clean pillowcases. ‘In case it starts again.’
    Abby lies back as Juliet piles the blankets on top of her. She closes her eyes and murmurs her sleepy thanks. ‘You’re the bestest, Jules,’ she says, in the language of their childhood. She can’t know that no one has called Juliet that since her father left.
    Juliet’s hand strokes the top of Abby’s hair. ‘Sleep tight.’

Abby
    ‘So who is in the lead?’ Jasmine asks, hanging her coat on a hook by the door. She unwinds herself from her scarf and follows Abby into the living room.
    Jasmine has filled out an Internet dating profile for Abby, who is now seeing two guys at once, which she has never done before.
    ‘The lead?’ Abby shakes