Sophie forced herself to walk to the lunch table. She knew the conversation she had ahead of her, and she desperately wanted to avoid it.
She sat down beside Dex. Her friends greeted her, then started to unload rumors going around the school.
Her face slowly paled as Marella said, "Yeah, apparently one of the baseball players is in the hospital. I don't know who. It was someone in Mrs. Delani's class who heard this. I don't know how he ended up there, but it was something pretty bad."
Sophie's throat felt thick. She felt like she couldn't speak.
"Hey," Fitz asked. "What's wrong?"
"Keefe," she croaked. "That's him. He's in the hospital."
Everyone at the table dropped what they were doing.
"Is he ok?"
She shook her head. "He had a heart attack yesterday morning. I found out after lunch, and Edaline checked me out of school to go see him. He hasn't woken up yet," her voice broke.
The tears started spilling over again. She tried to smear them away, but they were replaced with more. The looks on her friends faces tipped her over the edge. They looked like they just saw a puppy being run over.
Dex wrapped his arms around her. She turned and sobbed into his shoulder. Sophie knew she needed to keep it together, but she just couldn't.
The rest of lunch was spent with her and her friends trying to process what had happened. At the end of the day, she jumped into her car and started driving to the children's hospital, which was thirty minutes away.
When she stepped into the lobby, her legs shook. Everything was trembling by the time she clicked the button on the elevator to go up. She took deep breaths to calm her nerves.
Sophie paused when she got to the door. She counted to three to prepare herself for the horrid sight.
When she opened the door, her eyebrows rose when Ro was already sitting in a chair beside Keefe's bed, with red eyes. She wasn't necessarily surprised she was here to see her brother. She just didn't think she would be here at this time.
"Hey," Ro murmured.
Sophie took a seat on the opposite side of the bed. "Hey. How are you holding up?"
She shrugged. "You?"
She shrugged back.
Sophie gently stroked Keefe's face, avoiding the oxygen mask over his mouth. They stayed sitting in the quiet until Ro muttered something under her breath.
"If he doesn't end up ok, I am going to kill my parents." She looked up. "This isn't even a joke, I'm going to end up on trial."
Sophie frowned. "Why."
"Just... for treating him like crap his entire life." Ro took Keefe's hand and gently squeezed it. She sighed. "I'm going to tell you something, but you have to swear to not repeat this."
She nodded. "I swear."
"Good." Ro's eyes trailed up to Keefe's face. Her gaze softened. "Ok, I'm just gonna say this, we're fourteen years apart. That wasn't on purpose."
Sophie nodded. "I figured that was the case, but I always thought that you were the... well." She cringed.
Ro shook her head. "Nope. They only wanted one kid. They were already in their forties when he was born."
"Forties?" Sophie blurted out
Ro snorted. "They're on a first name basis with the botox lady." Her face fell. "But that's why they're so awful to him. They never even wanted him. And, well..."
"What?" She murmured.
She shifted. "Mom drank a lot when she was pregnant with him, even though she wasn't supposed to. Pretty sure she even blacked out on it once or twice." Ro went back to staring at her brother. "Sometimes I blame that for why he has health issues now. I don't have any direct proof, but..."
"It's plausible," Sophie chimed in.
She nodded. "She seemed to even drink more than she did, usually. Sometimes, I even think she was trying to..." She trailed off, and Sophie had to block the horrible thought from finishing inside her head.
"But," Ro sighed and propped her head in her hands. "I don't have proof for any of it. It's not going to do any good."
Sophie was quiet. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to add to that. She decided to nod her head to leave Ro to interpret it how she pleased.
Eventually, she had to ask, "Is he in a coma?"
"Not necessarily a coma," Ro tried to explain. "But because of how much trauma his body went through, it needs time to recoup before he wakes up."
"When do you think that will be?"
"I'm not sure, Blondie," Ro whispered. "I'm not sure."
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...
