The Word Love

IX

"I've noticed," Mia took a seat next to me.

"Notice what?" I asked.

"How you and Douglas have been avoiding each other for a week now," she answered and I groaned.

Of course, she would notice that.

"It's none of your business," I told her.

"I know that, but you know I'm a nosy person," she said and I nodded in agreement. She really is a nosy person.

"So what's the story?" she asked.

"We kissed, " I revealed to her and her eyes widened, "And he told me he likes me, but I told him that I didn't like him."

"But you do like him," she took notice of that bit too.

"Yeah, but a relationship will interfere with everything I planned," I sighed.

"You sound too old for your age," she rolled her eyes, "Trust me when I tell you that you need to live as much as you can while you're young because you will get old."

Her pager beeped and she sighed, "Go live your life."

She ran out of the hospital cafeteria and then Douglas walked in. Rose was with him today, and she waved when she saw me. I saw Douglas trying to argue with her when she was pulling him towards my table. She won.

"Hey Aimee," she smiled and sat down. Douglas was frowing and avoided my eyes, but he sat down anyway.

"Hey," I greeted back quietly.

Then there was silence. I played with my fingers and looked at anything but the siblings in front of me. It's so weird because I felt this urge to kiss him. I told him that I regretted our kiss, but now I want to kiss him.

The cafeteria door opened and Mia ran in. Her eyes landed on me, and when I saw the frantic look in her eyes, I knew it was about Ty. It was the feeling.

I jumped out of my chair and ran over to her.

"What happened?" I asked while holding onto the cafeteria doors for support.

"Ty moved his fingers for a few seconds," she informed me and my heart skipped a beat.

"H-How do you know that?" I asked.

Her smile slowly faded, "Someone was in the room with him and saw it happened."

I ran to Ty's room. I could hear her yelling after me, but I didn't stop. I opened the door to his room and there she was. She looked up when she heard the door open. I walked inside and closed it behind me.

"I know I shouldn't be here, but I couln't ju-"

I cut her off, "It's fine."

She squeezed her eyes tightly together and tears rushed off her face. I sat down next to Ty and held his hand. I wanted to feel his fingers move but nothing happened.

"I miss him," she whispered.

The door opened and I turned around, expecting to see Mia, but I was shock to see Douglas. He stood at the doorway, and he looked shock too when his eyes fell on me and my brother.

"I-uh- Sorry, wrong room," he stammered and quickly left the room. I ran after him.

"Douglas!" I shouted and he stopped. He turned around to look at me, his eyes wide open.

"It makes so much sense now!" he exclaimed and ran his fingers through his hair stressfully, "You have a boyfriend in the hospital. Wow, I did not see that coming!"

"He's n-"

"I'm going to go," he cut me off, not letting me explain, "I- bye."

"But he-"

He ran off, leaving me standing here.

"Not my boyfriend," I said to myself and shuddered. To think of my brother as my boyfriend. I shuddered again.

I walked back to Douglas's room and Iris looked at me with less tears in her eyes than before.

"Who was he?" she asked.

"Just some guy," I shrugged.

"I'm sorry," she apologized.

I frowned, "For what?"

She sighed and looked down at Ty, "I caused this. I started a fight with him that night, and he drove off in an angry state. I shouldn't have let him, but I was too angry to care. I am a horrible person."

"You shouldn't blame yourself, Iris," I told her, "No one is to be blamed for that accident."

"Why? Why don't you blame me like your parents?" she questioned and took a hold of Ty's other hand.

"Because I know what it feels like to have someone hate you for something you couldn't have possible seen coming and stopped it before it could happen, " I glanced up at her, "It was a terrible accident that no one saw coming. We all went through a traumatic experience and we are still going through it."

I remembered the horrible nightmares I had when Ty got into the accident. I had to go see a therapist and drank medicine because I suffered from panic attacks. Panic attacks that came randomly or when I thought about the accident. Once, I held a razor to my wrist so that I could end the pain, but I couldn't find the strength to actually cut. No one knew what I went through because all of my friends left. My parents worked and worked.

"You deserve to be here because you were once his fiancé, whether my parents like it or not," I told her.

"Thank you, Aimee," she smiled softly.