Justin was in hospital for thirteen days. Unlucky thirteen, his mom would have said, but Justin didn’t feel unlucky. He was alive, and he had Del and the kids. When he was released from the hospital Del drove him home—not to the shitty little house with holes in the wall and blood on the kitchen floor, but to Del’s house—and Justin spent the next few days on the couch, eating soup and sleeping a lot.
Abigail was still staying with Del as well, even though Justin got the impression her parents weren’t totally happy with that. She told Justin she was taking the semester off to help Del set up his social media and being his PR maven, whatever that was, but Justin got the impression she was doing more than that as well.
Del spent a lot of time looking after Justin, and Abigail picked up the
