Everyone was charmed by Leo's bright smile but behind it all, he could barely keep it together inside. From taking care of his sick mother to suffering mental and physical abuse from his father to keeping up his perfect grades in school.
King was th...
I couldn't look at Leo for the next two days. The guilt was too much any time I looked into his eyes. The pain he was going through, no feeling in his left leg. It was my fault. All of it was my fault, and I couldn't bear it. I didn't deserve to be in this room with him or spend the rest of my life with him, but I couldn't leave without freaking out. I thought Leo would be asleep again when I returned, as if he had never woken in the first place. Was I dreaming? Would leaving the room wake me up?
"You need to eat and sleep," Leo said. His voice had less of a gravel sound now that he had been talking more. "Take a hot shower and relax, then pull out the bed in the chair and sleep for a few hours. I'm not going anywhere. I'll probably fall asleep soon anyway."
The thought of leaving him for more than five minutes made my skin crawl. "I'll do that once you're sleeping. Do you need anything?"
Leo scuffled at my lie. "No, you won't. King, I'm worried about you. Do you really want me to worry about you while I'm trying to recover?"
His words took the air out of my lungs. Of course, I didn't want him to worry about me. "I'm fine." I wasn't the one who nearly died more than once or had bullet holes in me. I wasn't the one paying for my mistakes. He was. He should be worried about himself, not me. My shaking hands laid on his. "Please don't worry about me, baby. I'm fine."
"I will stop. Once you eat more than small junk food, take a long hot shower, and get more than two hours of sleep. You look worse than I do, and I'm scared one of these days you'll drop, and there is nothing I can do to help you because I can't get out of bed. Please. I beg you to go to the cafeteria and get real food before they close in an hour."
Panic took over as my heart jumped into my throat. Leave? I couldn't leave for that long. My stomach clenched. I could barely handle walking down the hallway to the vending machine for 3 minutes. What if something happened while I was gone longer than that? What if he needed help and I wasn't here?
"King!" Leo's voice boomed around my already hazy head. My eyes stung dry and most likely red as I looked at him. "Breathe. Talk to me. What's going on?"
It's like my ability to keep everything to myself snapped. "I'm scared to leave the room. I almost lost you four times already. What if you go back to sleep and don't wake up? I'm too afraid to sleep because what if something happens while you sleep, and I don't hear it or see you struggling? My stomach is in knocks, and I can't eat because everything, all of this, is my fault." My vision became blurry as I tried to blink away the hot tears, and I turned away from him. "Mr. Scott wanted me to join him, but I refused him. He ordered Rex to start hunting down people I cared about and take over my Uncle's territories, so I had nowhere and no one to turn to but him. Nothing would have happened to you if I had joined him that night. All the people Rex killed would still be here."
"King," Leo's voice grew softer as his hand tightened around mine. "If you had done that, I never would have had the chance to fall in love with you. You never would have saved me from Charlie or my dad or when I overdosed. I would have died a long time ago if it weren't for you, but I'm alive. I'm alive today because of you, King. I love you."
Choking on a sob, I pulled his hand to my lips. "I love you so much, Leo."
"Good, now go get me a muffin, then shower because you stink," Leo chuckled as I playfully gasped at him, wiping my eyes.
"I do not. I've been showering; it's just fast ones." It felt like I hadn't smiled for years as my cheeks pulled. "And you're not allowed to eat muffins yet."
"But I can watch you eat it. It's the same thing." He smiled as he laid his head back against the pillow. "Hurry. Blueberry muffin."
Taking a deep breath, I stood. My hand was still shaking in his, but I couldn't keep making him worry about me. "Okay. I'll go down there and check if they have any, but it's after dinner, so they might not have any this late. I'll look for a ham and cheese sandwich, just my case."
His face lightened as I went to the door, and I fought every urge to chicken out and be by his side while he was awake. I wanted to make him happy and keep the smile on his face. I didn't want him to worry, and I knew he would if I didn't do it.
When I returned to the room, I could tell he was tired. He gave me a lazy smile as I ate my sandwich, promising him I would get a muffin in the morning. By the time I got out of the shower in his room, dressed in new clothes, and towel-dried my hair since we didn't have a hairdryer, he was fighting to keep his eyes open.
I did what he wanted, pulled the chair next to his bed into a small, uncomfortable bed, and laid down. I held his hand as best as possible, and we watched some old movie I didn't know the name of until we fell asleep.
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Shorter chapter! Only two more chapters left until the end of the story! Thank you so much for reading!!
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