His Story (ON HOLD)

Chapter 4: The Telling

Foster's POV
"Doctor, believe me when I say this, but Alex has no family," I thought a moment before adding, "besides me, of course." Was I trying to persuade the doctor or myself? Who am I kidding? I'm not his family. I've been meaning to get a divorce for the past 18 months.
He nodded, understanding. I walked back into Alex's hospital room, falling into the chair beside his bed and clasped my hand around his.
"Alex, my dear Alex. I was once in love with you. Many moons ago. So far back, it's almost lost in my memory. I forget when I loved you, but I distinctly remember loving you at a point in time. I miss you. The way we used to be. But if you wake up, if you can even hear me now, I want you to know that I want a divorce." As I am standing up, Alex's hand clenches, and immediately I turn around and look at him. His eyes wide open.
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2 hours before
Alex's POV
The dreams were getting more and more frequent. Like the day I came out of the closet to the world, to my parents. The first weeks I would call Foster in Afghanistan, and he would tell me over and over agin how much he loved me, how much he missed me. The love for my partner was overflowing and I didn't want it to stop. I had missed him so much, my heart ached for him, for him to be near me. But one day, the calls became shorter, the "I love you" and "I miss you" and the laughs and jokes that proceeded stopped. Foster became distant with me. His husband of five years, his life partner, his best friend. He left me without even saying goodbye.
Something happened in the war that changed Foster. He left as my husband and confidant, and returned home as a stranger. This stranger had the same name as my husband, but his personality was different and because of that, his looks were different. My husband had never frowned, was always laughing, and was so optimistic. This new Foster would cry and scream and yell. Would say things like he hated me, like it was a mistake that we were ever married. That he can finally see clearly now, that our "love" was destructive and he didn't want to be a part of it anymore. It all made no sense to me. I thought he was drunk, he was delirious, maybe he was scared of the memories due to his PTSD.
I could barely hear Foster talking to me, it was distant, maybe because I was still disoriented from the fall. I felt his hand in mine, his voice becoming clearer and more vivid, almost as if we were back in New York having coffee on his break from work and he would hold my hand and talk to me like we were sharing a secret. I tried to flutter my eyelids or move my fingers for him to know I was alive and here. So that he would embrace me and tell me once again he loved me and couldn't live without me.
"...I want a divorce," Foster said. It was all I could remember. The worst 4 words I could ever think of. His hand began to move and I used all my force to clench my hand and open my eyes at the same time. It was exhausting. But I did it. Foster looks at me with a shocked expression.
*"P-Pl-Please d-don't leave m-me" I stuttered. Foster came closer to me, and wiped the tears from my eyes and cheeks. I didn't even know I had started crying.
"I had a lot of time to think, Alex. For a long time, I didn't think I'd ever love you the same, that we were too different, and I had moved on. I thought we would get a divorce and I would be happy without you. Ecstatic, even. I told you, just now, I wanted a divorce, and you woke up. And the first thing that popped into my head was not that I wanted to be away from you, but how close I was to losing you and I never wanted to feel that again," I was crying again, and he wiped my tears and kisses my forehead. He kissed my cheeks, my nose, my lips. He kissed my whole face, and told me he loved me and hugged me. He never let go of me.
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Unknown Person POV
Recap::
"I want a divorce" and Alex wakes up

"P-Pl-Please d-don't leave m-me," Alex stuttered. Foster gripped his hand a little tighter and wiped the tears from his face.
"I can't be with you anymore. I don't love you," Foster grabs his bags and walks out if the door before Alex can respond.

Author's Note
*That paragraph was a dream of Alex's. The real event happened beneath the Recap. Sorry for the let down, guys. Lol not really. Would you believe me if I told you this was the end of my short story? No? Well, believe it. Because it's done, over, finished. Lol I'll write another story in a few weeks, but His Story is complete.