Syn's Deep In My Blood - Book 2

You and The Night and The Music

"...and that's how it went. When we saw her father there, I thought, yeah, I lost my only company to come here. But then she reacted totally opposite. She witnessed with her own eyes her father there to get help, just like me, something she had expected us to do for years. She begged him to do it, and he never listened. That night had changed her. And had changed me a little bit too, I confess. When you wake up, I wanna take you there, okay? You're gonna like it." I was holding Jimmy's hand strongly, expecting to feel that little grab that I felt that time we played for him.

Now I always had an acoustic guitar hidden in the closet of his room. When it was past midnight, his favorite time to listen to or make music, I'd play a few songs quietly with the highest hope he could respond. But usually, I didn't get more than a few accelerated heartbeats, expected variations as the doctors said. It meant the world to me.

That night I finished playing earlier, placed the guitar back in the closet, and sat there, staring at nowhere, feeling that all my attempts to reach him were useless so far. A few tears formed in my eyes, and that killer silence surrounding the room wasn't making it any better. I missed his unique and soft voice echoing through the room or close to my ear, the strangest ideas he had and shared only with me in the still of the night, his gentle and sweet way of treating me. God, the sound of his voice was vanishing little by little from my conscious, but I never wanted it to disappear. He was more than a month in that bed in complete silence. Everything I knew about him was disappearing slowly, and that was freaking me out completely.

When I was about to head to the bathroom to shed some more tears, I heard a knock on the door. I narrowed my eyes in that direction, cleaning the water from my face as quickly as I could. If that was one of his parents and Pauline didn't let me know, I was completely screwed. But to put a sudden end to my fear, Brian opened the door. And he was alone, thank god.

"Hey, Em, I told Pauline not to call you here cause I thought you might be asleep, so..." he whispered from the door, and I rubbed the tears from my eyes as he came in. I didn't want him to think there was something wrong.

"No, not really. I'm always awake here. Most of the time, at least." I answered, getting up from the couch and closing my robe. I was only wearing a silky sleeping shirt and didn't want to pass the wrong impression.

"I can see you need to sleep." He probably noticed my tired red eyes.

"No, I'm here to keep him company. I can't do that if I'm asleep."

"I can stay here a few nights too. I always come during the day but... I can take turns with you if you want." He still seemed to want to take care of me even when I had been giving him a cold treatment all this time. How persistent can he be?

He stepped closer, and his face softened. He licked his lips, and my breathing went fast in an involuntary response to his closeness. His voice got even quieter as if he didn't want Jimmy listening to him.

"I'm here cause... I want to take you out tonight. I think you need some time off from this place and you need one night to relax. And I have a few stuff to show you, and one surprise or another. What do you say?" his lips showed me a beautifully disguised smirk, and I got a little hypnotized for a few seconds. Then I started to think straight again.

"I... I don't think it's a good idea you and me going out together. We need to focus on him now, Brian. We can't... We are apart, and we need to stay that way, okay? For the sake of his health." I went straight to the point. I didn't want to keep holding him back.

"Why is it always about him? Why is it never about me? About us?" he tried not to raise his voice, I could tell, but he was altered now.

"You are being really selfish now, Brian." I tried not to lose my patience too.