Forever

Chapter 13

We lock eyes and somehow I can't seem to look away. My curiosity overpowered my fear of being embarrassed.

"Marie? Marie?" Austin says while slightly shaking me to get my attention.

I lightly slap his chest with the back of my hand and point to the familiar doctor discreetly.

"I swear that doctor over there looks so fimiliar!"

"It's probably nothing. Now let's catch up with the others before he catches us staring." He tries to pull me away but i can't stop wondering who that is. He starts walking over to us and we turn away to avoid being embarrassed.

"Hey, wait! Kids." a familiar voice says.

We ignore it and catch up to the group. When Mrs. Whiley was checking out of the hospital, me and Austin went over to a set of chairs in the waiting room and sat down.

"Excuse me." I hear that same, familiar voice say as he taps on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry to disturb you but you two look strikingly familiar to me. Do you remember me by any chance?" He says.

Wait a minute. I look up and down, studying him. No, it can't be. I'm not ready. Well I guess it's too late for that.

"D-Dad?"

"Marie?! Austin?" He gestures to each of us as he says our names. "What are you guys doing here? Is everyone okay?" He asks in a worried tone.

"I don't think that's any of your business 'Dad'," I air quote. "not after what you did."

I glance over to Austin and see him sitting there looking down at his hands twiddling his thumbs.

"Look, I know what I did is unacceptable but I really want to talk to you guys."

"I'm sorry but I don't want to talk to you. You ruined everything and I don't want to chance it happening again."

"Please M," M is his nickname for me.

"It's 'Marie' for you." I interrupted.

"Fine. Marie, can I please talk to your family? Or Austin?" He glances at him.

"No, leave me out of this. This is between you and Marie." He stands up but Dad stops him.

"Please?"

"Look, you left all of us, not just your family. If you want to talk to them, they are right over there. Just don't use us as a go-between for you." Austin nods to me, silently saying c'mon let's go. I stand up and walk away with him.

"Hey sweetie, why were you talking to that doctor?" Mom asks me when we reach them.

"He's..." I hesitate, "not important. He wanted to talk to you but I said you were busy. Well actually, he wanted to talk to all of you."

"What why? Is it about Kora?" Mrs. Whiley chimes in.

"No. It actually has nothing to do-" I get interrupted by a hand on my shoulder. I turn to my right and see my dad. I immediately shrug his hand off and move closer to Austin, who senses I want to get away from him and he moves toward his mom holding my arm to keep me with him.

I look over to Mom and she is complete shock. James seems excited to see his dad again and want to run over to him and give him a hug, but Mom stops him and picks him up. Michael just leaves and sits in the waiting room. Mrs. Whiley walks over to my mom and puts her hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"What do you want Matthew?" Mrs. Whiley says.

"I really need to talk to you all."

"I don't want to talk to you, and this definitely not the place to have a fight." Mom speaks up.