Sophie smiled, seeing Keefe in English class. He was absent the day before for his cardiology appointment. She went to go take her seat next to him.
"Hey," she said to him.
He didn't respond. Rather her crossed his arms over his chest and hunched into himself.
Something didn't seem right. Had the appointment gone bad?
"How did the appointment go?" she tried to ask him.
He shrugged.
"Ok..." He clearly didn't want to talk about it. But she still wanted awnsers. "Is everything alright? Is everything ok with your heart?"
"I'll tell you later," he mumbled. "I don't feel like explaining it twice."
"Oh."
Sophie was pretty sure that couldn't be good news.
He went to pull out the homework from his book bag. She noticed something poking out from his shirt. She pointed to it.
"What's that about?" It almost looked like whatever it was was sticking to his skin.
Keefe sighed. "I promise. I'll explain everything at lunch. Please, just... drop it for now, ok?"
Sophie agreed.
But she couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't going to like whatever it was. Still, she continued classes as normal.
The class before lunch was math. Sophie was sitting with Biana when Keefe trudged into the classroom and plopped across the table from her.
"Someone's grumpy," Biana snorted.
Sophie made the cut it out sign at her. Biana tilted her head with a puckered brow.
"Is something happening," she whispered.
Sophie shrugged. "I don't know. He's not telling me anything. All I know is that I think it has something to do with his appointment yesterday."
"Oh." She murmured. "That doesn't sound good."
Sophie definitely agreed.
Finally, when they got to lunch and everyone was sitting down with their trays, Sophie said, "Ok, Keefe. What's going on? What happened at that appointment yesterday? You're scaring me."
Keefe groaned. He rested his head in his hands.
"I'm going to have to have another heart surgery," he eventually muttered.
Various questions were shouted throughout the friend group. Linh was the one to ask the most sensible one.
"When is it."
Keefe lifted his head back up. "Ok, I guess it would've made more sense to say later, I will. When I'm about eighteen, nineteen, twenty. That age bracket. The reason why they're saying I will is because I'm having another growth spurt right now. And the way the trend is going, by the time I'm done growing, my heart will have outgrown the pig valve they have in place. So now that means I have to go under again so they can replace it. Yippee."
He flopped his head onto his folded arms.
"I'm so sorry," Sophie murmured. She reached out and rubbed his shoulder.
The table went dead silent until dex asked, "Wait. You said something about a pig in there?"
"Yeah? They replaced the one I was born with with a pig valve. They shape it somehow to fit. I'm not sure how that works, though. But that's exactly why it has to get replaced. It was tissue from a dead animal that can only get so big. When the heart gets larger than the valve is , it won't grow with it."
"Huh," Dex murmured.
"But that's not even all of it," Keefe continued. He sat up and pulled the collar of his shirt down to reveal a lanyard around his neck, exposing a larger amount of his rough scar than he was usually comfortable with. At the end of it was a machine about the size of a small calculator. Attached to it by wires was stickers attached to different parts of his chest.
"It's a Holter monitor," he explained. "They're using it to monitor my EKG for the next two weeks so they can see how it is on a day to day basis. So, of course, I have to wear THIS stupid thing now. I'm only allowed to take it off to shower, and then it immediately goes back on."
He adjusted back the lanyard and wires so none of the machinery would be visible.
"Well, the good news is," Sophie told him, "you don't have to worry about it for a few more years."
"Yeah, I guess." She wasn't sure he could've sounded any less convinced.
"Just... why won't my body do what it's supposed to?" he complained, leaning back in his seat. "It has ONE job. Keep me alive and running. But nope, can't even do that right."
Sophie scooted closer to him, taking his hand. "I don't know, either."
She had always wondered the same thing. She never understood how her brain could just short circuit on her. She often felt let down by it.
Seizures really sucked sometimes. The ones she had wearn't harmful in its nature, but the way they happened could have extremely dangerous outcomes. She learned that much in swimming.
But even at that, she could still crack her skull open from falling unconscious. She had to stay alert at all times every day to map out a plan in case she had one.
Was there an adult nearby? Would she fall? Could she lay down? Sit?
Sometimes, she really missed being in the classes she was in elementary. At least then she didn't have to worry about that. It was exhausting at times, always having to have a plan of action. It was nice when other people could handle it for her.
Keefe looked down at their intertwined hands. A sad smile quirked up one side of his lips.
"Well, at least one good thing came out of this. Makes all of it worth it. Wouldn't trade it even if i could not have aany issues." He looked up and met her eyes.
Sophie chuckled at that, a soft smile etching her lips. "Me too."
No matter what went down with her seizures, she would always be glad to have for the simple fact of Keefe being in her life.
Something warmer hummed in her heart. It was... different than what it was before. A type of understanding they had with each other. Type of bond it felt like no one else could compare to.
Sophie couldn't put a name to it. Maybe someday she'd find the right word. The only thing that mattered at the moment, though, was Keefe staring into her eyes with... the same emotion she didn't have the name for.
He squeezed her hand. "I know its still a ways out but... will you come with me whenever it's time for the surge-"
"Of course," she promised. There was no doubt that she'd be there.
He let out a relieved sigh. "Thank you."
He leaned his forehead down onto her head. Sophie could see his eyes closed. It was the most relaxed she'd seen him all day. Maybe even all month.
And she felt the exact same when Keefe reached out for her other hand. Holding on tight.
No one else existed besides them anymore. It was just the two of them now in their own little bubble.
She almost felt sorry for everyone else. They'd never be able to understand each other has much as Sophie and Keefe did. But simultaneously, she liked that. It was their special thing.
Nothing would be able to rip that away.
YOU ARE READING
Broken Heart/Broken Mind
Random(Human AU) Sophie and Keefe met in the children's hospital when they were little. Because of how long they were confined to the four walls of the hospital, they became very close during their stay. As the years pass, they wind up being in the same c...
