The Maine Attraction

27. Important

Sawyer

I sat next to the hospital bed, my moms hand in mine. She had a pretty nasty cut on her head that had been stitched up. My dad told me that she'd been standing on a stool to reach something in their laundry room when she slipped and fell. When I asked her why she didn't just ask my dad, she said that he'd been on the phone and she didn't want to wait for him. I couldn't help but shake my head at my mother's excuse, but I wasn't surprised. Even with her growing weaker, she'd always been a stubborn one and didn't like asking my dad for help when she thought she could do it herself.

Doctors had been in and out of her room, asking all three of us questions and writing down things that we'd tell them. My mom had been in and out of hospitals for the last year or so, but this was the first time we'd started getting any sort of answer as to what was actually going on with her.

Any other time she was at the hospital, for various reasons, or even just at the doctors office, no one could figure out what was going on. I don't know if they really didn't know or if they just didn't care to figure out the answers. I'd spend so much time researching things and asking questions, but I was always told that I had no idea what I was talking about. It was beyond frustrating and it was part of the reason my mom's health stressed me out so badly. It would be one thing if I had some sort of an answer, because I could look into things that would help her. But right now, it seemed like we were running in circles with no end in sight.

The doctor had said he wanted to run a couple tests on my mom. I didn't know what they were for, but I was glad that he wanted to run some extra tests on her. She'd gotten her blood drawn and they said it would take a couple of days for it to get back to us. My mom was told to stay in the hospital until the results came back. 

"Did you come by yourself?" My mother asked me, breaking me from the storm of thoughts swarming in my head. 

I looked over at her on the bed and shook my head. "No, Avery is in the waiting room. She was with me when dad called and she drove me here." I told her. 

My mom gave me a weak smile. "Such a sweet girl." 

I nodded in agreement. I was really thankful that Avery had driven with me and even told me she'd stay in the waiting room until I was ready to leave. She didn't have to, especially since she couldn't even come back into the room with me, but I didn't want to tell her to leave so I was grateful when she told me she'd wait without me having to ask. Especially after all of the shit that I'd put her through, she didn't owe me anything and the fact that she was here without question really made me think about how I felt about her.

"Are you two dating yet?" She asked me for what felt like the hundredth time. 

Since my parents came over for dinner, my mom hadn't stopped bugging me about making things official with Avery. I didn't have the heart to tell her to drop it because I couldn't figure out what was going on in my head, so I let her say whatever she needed to say about it.

"I know, but you know I just want what is best for you. You're my baby boy." She started. "Mothers always know best and I can see that she is good for you." 

She gave my hand a weak squeeze. 

Even though she was sitting in the hospital with a bandaged forehead, she was sitting there asking me about my love life. It almost made me want to laugh. 

"Shouldn't we be focusing on you? Not me?" I joked. 

"I might be here for a while, there's plenty of time to focus on me. But right now, I want to talk about you two." She smiled, her gentle mom smile over at me. 

So that's exactly what we did. I let her ask me questions and I did my best to answer those questions. My mom was someone that I'd always gone to for advice and she even offered it when I didn't want it. I wanted to tell her everything about what had been going on between Avery, but I stuck to answering the questions she'd asked. I didn't think now was the right time to go full in with the details.