For The Love Of The Game

Lacey's POV

Two weeks. Two long, horrible weeks had gone by since Lacey had ended things between her and Aaron. Even thinking his name caused her heart to ache. He was everything to her and she had let him go. She wanted to be angry at herself for doing it. She wanted to tell herself that she had been an absolute idiot for pushing someone who cared about her so much out of her life. But she couldn't do that.

She knew why she had done it. She loved Aaron so much and because of that she had to let him go. But even knowing why she did it, and even knowing that it was the right thing to do didn't make it any less painful. She felt his absence every day and she missed him. And at times it was almost too much to deal with, but she would soon find herself busy with everything that was going on in her life.

The only bright spot in everything was that the doctors finally said that Lacey's dad's heart didn't seem to have suffered any severe damage and it looked as if he would make a full recovery. She was thankful for that at least. The downside was that his recovery was going to be slow and all together take a few weeks before he was even allowed to go back home. Lacey stayed at the hospital nearly everyday. She only went home in the evening to take care of her brothers. In the mornings she would see them off to school and then head right back to the hospital to sit with her dad.

She was glad she wasn't in school to be honest. Going to school would mean having to see Aaron and she knew she couldn't deal with that. He had tried to talk to her. He had called her a few times in the days right after their split but Lacey ignored all of them. She couldn't talk to him, she couldn't see him, because if she did she knew she wouldn't be able to stop herself from taking everything back. She wouldn't be able to not be selfish and let Aaron go and live his life. Because that was what he needed to do and she knew that as long as he stayed with her he would never willingly do it.

"Lacey!"

Lacey jerked her head up and stared into the concerned face of Nicole. "What?" she asked.

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past few minutes and it was like you didn't even hear me," she said as she took a seat next to Lacey in the waiting room.

"Sorry I guess I just sort of let my mind wander," Lacey said giving a small smile.

Nicole let out a sigh and scanned Lacey's face. "Lace you need to go home," she finally said.

"What are you talking about? I can't just leave; what if something were to happen and I wasn't here?"

"What if something happens and you are here? Can you really do anything to prevent it by being here?" Nicole asked.

"At least I'm here," Lacey said turning and looking at the floor.

"You are running yourself into the ground. You can't keep this up. You stay here at the hospital all day and take care of your brothers all night and then start over the next day. You can't keep doing this," Nicole begged.

"I'm fine. Really, I'll be alright." Lacey reached out and grabbed Nicole's hand and gently squeezed it. "Look I wanted to tell you that I appreciate everything that you and DJ and everyone else have done for me. I couldn't have gotten through it all without you guys."

"Oh Lace you know we all love you. We're all like one big family. A bit of a dysfunctional and weird family but a family none the less," she said laughing a bit. "We'll always be here for you, always."

"I know, thanks Nicole," Lacey said attempting to fight off tears.

"You know there is one member of our dysfunctional family that I haven't seen in quite a while," Nicole hinted at. Lacey kept quite, the last thing she wanted to do was to talk about Aaron. "DJ said that's he's been an absolute mess the past couple of weeks." Lacey attempted to hold back her tears. "Care to tell me what happened?" Lacey still kept quiet. Nicole waited a moment before releasing a sigh. "Fine, you don't have to. Just know I'm hear to listen when you do." Lacey only nodded her head. "Well I'm going to head home. You should to and at least get a few hours rest." She nodded and gave a small smile as Nicole hugged her and left.