Page 110 of Loving the Legend

Please God, not him. You’ve taken so much from me.

Ishan’s lips are moving, but my thoughts drown him out.

Five things to hear…

The beeping does a stuttering thing, and my legs give out. I kneel and bracket my head between my arms, rocking in place.

My phone buzzes, and I drop it as I cup my hands over my mouth and wheeze, trying to unblock my throat.

Five things….

Beeping. Beeping…

I squeeze my eyes shut.

Five things…

Three graves…I’ll visit three graves every year if he doesn’t make it.

Five things I see.

Tubes, fucking tubes, machines, Adam’s dying.

If fire takes him, water takes me.

I swear it, God.

I press on my chest bone and suck in air.

Somewhere in the recesses of my memory I hear Adam, “Ty, breathe!”

I suck in another breath, pushing past the ache. Then another, then another, until the ghastly thing lodged in my chest doesn’t hurt so much.

A thumb slides under my chin. I peel my eyes open and meet Ishan's gaze as he kneels in frontof me.

“He’s alive,” he says, nodding around a sad smile and wet eyes. He looks wrung out.

“He’s alive,” he repeats with a mix of desperation and hope.

“H-he’s alive,” I whisper, more for him than me.

“Baby—”

My eyebrows bunch as I track the familiar voice to my phone in Ishan’s hand.

“He was calling…I thought he could help,” Ishan says, handing it to me.

“Baby, talk to me.”

“S-Sid?”

“Yes, I’m here. Are you okay?”

I take him off of speakerphone.

“Sid,” I sob into the phone quietly, too choked again to speak.

“I’m so sorry this is happening. Ishan said Adam’s going to pull through, baby,” he says gently.