Thirty Reasons Not to Date a Player

32. Despite His Flaws, You'll Love Him Anyway

A/N: Okay guys, this is the last chapter of "Sixteen Reasons Not to Date a Player". It literally took me forever to write but I knew that I couldn't leave the story without an ending. So here it is! Even though this story might be finished, I do plan on starting a new novel sometime soon. Stay tuned! And, as always, thanks for reading! :) 

"AJ!" Rachel waves, from inside the hospital waiting room. "I'm so glad you came!" She runs up to hug me as soon as I step through the glass doors. 

I'm glad I came, too, I think to myself, but out loud, I just murmur the word, "yeah." 

She breaks apart from me for a moment, giving me the chance to remove my gloves and scarf. My dark hair sticks to the fabric of my jacket and I run my hands through it once or twice to remove all the static. 

My mom follows behind me, and greets Rachel kindly. "I'm sorry to hear about your brother, dear," she says. Rachel gives me an awkward glace. My mom never really knows how to treat my friends. 

"When can I see him?" I ask, mostly to fill the silence. Until Rachel called to tell me about the accident, I was sure that I never wanted to see Ryder again. But, the fact that I could've lost him forever really puts everything into perspective. What if Ryder had died? I'd have to live with that for the rest of my life.

"The doctors say he's stable and conscious," Rachel tells me, "but they're only allowing family to see him right now." 

"I'll wait then," I say firmly, taking a seat on one of the chairs in the hospital lobby. 

"It could be hours," my mother warns me, skeptically. She doesn't seem to remember that Ryder was the name of my boyfriend, and I'm not about to remind her. 

"You can pick me up later, then." 

She raises an eyebrow, but sits down next to me anyway. "This is really that important to you?"

I nod, suddenly feeling a lump in my throat grow bigger with each passing second. "We were fighting," I choke out, "I was angry at him for so long...but I've been so stupid!"

Rachel gives me a sympathetic look and pats me gently on the shoulder. "It's okay, AJ. Don't beat yourself up about it. Ryder's gonna be fine." 

"He better be," I mumble under my breath, "because I don't think I could live with myself if anything ever happened to him." 

I blink a couple of times to keep the tears at bay, but it isn't much use. They fall anyway, because I had been trying so hard not to cry. All this time, I forced myself to be numb to the pain. I forced myself to think that it didn't matter.

But it does. It matters so, so much. 

Rachel bites her lip rather awkwardly for a moment, as though she doesn't know what to say. "I'll see what I can do," she decides finally, before heading off to talk to the lady at the reception desk. 

My mom wraps her arms around me and allows me to cry it all out.

"You really love this boy, don't you?" she asks, once the tears have finally stopped. 

"Yeah," I reply, after only a moments hesitation, "yeah, I do." 

I've never admitted it out loud before. But I can't deny it anymore—I'm in love with Ryder. And maybe it did take a month and a life-threatening accident for me to realize it, but it's the truth. 

I just hope I'm not too late. 

Thirty minutes later—which honestly feels more like hours—a nurse in a blue and white uniform asks me if I'm here to see Ryder.