When two worlds collide at midnight in the empty halls of New Jersey Private Hospital, Jack and Parker learn that no matter what, the heart wants what it wants.
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I KNEW THIS DAY WOULD COME BUT I DIDN'T THINK it would be so soon, nor did I think I'd feel a little like I'd been punched in the gut. I sat beside Jack in his room, keeping him entertained while we waited for doctors to come and discharge him. There were other people in the room today too. His brother, his coach, a health official from his team, and us.
I sat on his bed, my knees pulled to my chin while Jack and I played a game of chopsticks with our hands, a ghost of a smile on my lips while he smirked cheekily, winning.
I knew he had to be discharged at some point, and go back to playing hockey, and it had been a month, but I didn't want him to go back. I was being greedy, and I wanted to keep him forever.
His younger brother keeps giving us a strange look, flickering his gaze between Jack and I skeptically, as if trying to figure out what was going on between us. The truth was, I didn't even know the answer to that. I'd never had this much male attention in my entire life, especially not from someone like him. I didn't even think it was possible to get attention from someone who's basically a celebrity.
The fact that nobody really knows about us but us makes me feel like I'm someone special, though. Like I'm his secret to keep.
I couldn't help the fear from coming up. That Jack was going to go back to hockey and I'd never see him again. That he was going to forget all about the sick girl he met in hospital and go back to his elaborate life, parties, girls who were—well, not dying.
The thought made me nauseas, and so I pushed it down.
But, Jack was Jack, and he was more perceptive than people gave him credit for, myself included, and he could tell something was up.
"Why are you quiet today my pretty little Parker?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow and tapping my nose.
I scrunched it on instinct, without even having to think about my actions, because he always poked my nose, and his eyes always lit up when I scrunched it in reaction. Like the notion made him happy, or excited, for who knows what reason.
I only shrug in response, not wanting to admit out loud that I didn't want him to go. That I'd miss him, that I'd miss playing sevens and poker and movie nights and rooftop kisses. Maybe that had only happened once, but it still didn't mean I'd miss it any less.
He knocks his shoulder against mine, smiling that breathtaking lopsided smile that makes my heart race. I flicker my gaze to him for a fraction of a second, only because I want to see his face, but I regret it immediately. The way he's looking at me right now, his eyebrows pulled together and his lips in a tiny pout, his blue eyes ridiculously bright and almost sparkling, he knows that face is going to work.
Maybe I needed to work on my own puppy dog eyes to use against him.
I turn my gaze back to our hands, still brushing against each other on Jack's lap. "It's nothing."
