Cursed Love

Nineteen

TW - language, grief and *panic attacks*

"Kiran Chandan is in the hospital. Her acute myeloid leukemia is back. Your grandmother is in critical condition."

*Aru didn't register what was happening around her. There was no way her grandmother was in the hospital.

She just saw her. She was alive. She was happy. She was healthy.

How could everything change that fast?

"Hello? Arundhati?" the nurse said from the phone Aru had dropped.

Aiden picked up the phone, "Hello?" he said

"Hi, who is this?" the nurse asked

"Hi, this is Aru's boyfriend. No offense, but I'm going to hang up because I need to talk to my girlfriend and then we'll come to the hospital." Aiden replied. He didn't mean to sound rude, it's just that he didn't give a sh*t. His girlfriend came first, not this random lady.

"I, uh, of course."

Aiden hung up.

He then proceeded to toss the phone to the back seat.

"Aru? Hey, look at me."

The girl was hyperventilating and had tears threatening to escape her eyes. "No, she's not in the hospital Aiden. I just saw her a couple days ago. I just talked to her earlier today. She's not in the hospital."

"It's just someone trying to get to me. Yeah, that's it. Someone is trying to knock down Tara." A desperate Aru started to reason.

"Oh god, what if it isn't a trick. Oh my-. She's in the hospital. She's my grandmother. We- we thought. Oh god. We thought we beat it. F*ck." Aru started hyperventilating again. "Oh f*ck. F*ck me."

"Aru, I'm going to touch you, okay?" Aiden warned and when Aru nodded he took her hand in his and placed it on his chest, near his heart.

"Aru, I need you to calm down. Okay? Just listen to my heartbeat. Okay? Listen to the heart you've stolen. Multiple times over."

"I want you to breathe with me."

Aiden breathed in, exaggerating his chest rising and falling. After a couple seconds, Aru started to copy him.  "That's it."

The two young adults just sat there, breathing together for a few moments. After ten minutes, Aru's breathing finally started to even out. *

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Aru barely whispered

Aiden hesitated. He truly didn't know if Kiran was going to be okay. He knew that AML was one of the most common and dangerous cancers for adults. Who knew what could happen?

"'Better terrible truths than kind lies.'" Aru said just as Aiden was going to say everything was going to be alright.

"I'm not sure, Aru. I'm not sure."

"Step on it."

"Sorry?" Aiden wasn't sure if he heard her right.

Aru's red eyes and tear streaked face turned to him. "Step. On. It. We're going to the d*mn hospital."

"Aru, are-are you sure? Don't you think this might be overwhelming? Don't you want to talk to your mom or Noah or someone first?"

"Yes, if there's a chance this is a joke, I'm shooting everyone in the hospital and then committing arson. And if I wait, more people are going to end up dead."

"Let's go then."

"That's what I thought. Let's go."

The two young adults drove in silence.