Page 141 of Heartbreak & Cupcakes
“What’s wrong?”
I remained silent.
“I mean…” She motioned down at the hospital bed. “…besides the obvious. What’s wrong?”
I knew what she was asking but there was no way I was going to have this conversation with her here, like this. “Nothing,” I lied.
She stared at me, holding my gaze. “Yesterday, when I woke up. I sensed there was something…different. Something changed. I thought it might just have been because I was high or had a head injury. But I was right. Something is different.”
I opened my mouth to tell her that nothing was wrong and nothing was different, but apparently I had a one lie per hour limit because no sound came out.
“I scared you.” She shifted in her bed, and I noticed her wince in pain. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t.” I shook my head. “Don’t apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But, I did scare you and now…now you don’t want to do this do you?”
I ran my hand through my hair. Why in the fuck did she have to know me so well? How in the fuck could she read my mind? Even Ashley hadn’t been able to do that. In fact, she used to always say that she wanted to know what was going on in my head. But Sadie…Sadie just knew.
“It’s okay.” She pulled the blanket up to her chest as if she was trying to protect herself. From me. “I understand.”
“Sadie, let’s talk about this later. I just want to take you home and—”
“No. You can go. Charli is taking me home.”
“Sadie.” I stepped forward and reached out my arm to her.
“Just go, Alex. I’m fine. Go.”
I stood, frozen, unable to move forward or backwards. I knew that I was fucking everything up, but I had no idea how to fix it. I felt helpless and clueless. This wasn’t how I wanted this to end. Not like this, in a hospital room.
“Good mornin’!” A nurse with bright red hair and a strong southern accent entered the room pushing a wheelchair. “Doctor ordered one more MRI before he releases you back into the wild.”
“Great!” Sadie smiled brightly and I saw a single tear fall down her face. She quickly wiped it before turning toward me. “Goodbye, Alex.”
I wanted to argue with her. I wanted to tell her that this wasn’t goodbye. I wanted to pull her into my arms and never let her go.
But what was the point. It wasn’t fair to convince her that she was wrong only to walk away in the end.
The right thing to do was just to turn around and leave. Which was exactly what I did.
My entire body was numb as I walked down the hallway. I couldn’t even feel the floor beneath me with each step I took. It was as if I had checked out and was functioning purely on auto-pilot.
When the elevator doors opened, I heard a voice.
“What’s wrong?!”
I looked up and saw Charli holding a cup of coffee with panic in her eyes.
She rushed off the elevator. “Is Sadie—”
“Sadie’s fine.” I cleared my throat. “They are taking her to get an MRI before she’s released.”
Charli’s eyes narrowed as she stared at me. “What did you do?”
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“You look like you just got hit in the nuts with a wrecking ball. Guys only look like that when they’ve fucked up royally.”
