It's Terribly Perfect.

8. It's Terribly Perfect: Second Chances?

I sat in the waiting room of the hospital with Arin, tapping my nails against the arm of a chair. My knees were bouncing as we waited for the nurse to inform us when we could go in to see Luke. I found out not even an hour ago he was shot. As soon as his doctor got the bullet fragment out and he was stable, we could see him.

About an hour passed, Luke’s dad never showing up. He was a drunk, so it wasn’t very surprising. His mom died a few years ago. He had it pretty hard growing up.

I walked over to a nurse who had been going in and out of his room.

“Excuse me, ma’am? How’s he doing?” I must have sounded distraught, not to mention exhausted. She looked at me with worried eyes.

“We’re doing all we can for Lucas.”

“His name is Luke,” I said dully. I sauntered back over to Arin, seeing she was falling asleep. I swatted the back of her head, making her jump and claim she wasn’t sleeping, just ‘thinking with her eyes closed’. I laughed, but it sounded empty, broken. I told her what the nurse said. You know he’s in bad condition when they say they’re doing all they can.

It was one in the morning before we could see Luke. He was hooked up to oxygen and an IV. His face was sullen as he slept, his hands twitching from a nightmare. I sat beside his bed, grasping his hand in mine, careful not to disrupt the tubes running liquids into his system. Arin spread out on the pull out couch in the hospital room, dozing off.

I brushed Luke’s light brown hair back, resting my hand on his cheek.

“Please be okay,” I whispered, a tear making its path down my face. “Please.”

I woke up to my hand being squeezed, my eyes opening slowly to a blinding overhead light.

“Kasynne?” Luke’s worn-out voice came out in a breath. I sat up quickly once I realized he was awake. My eyes were wide as I scanned over him.

“Hey are you okay? What happened? Who shot you?” I questioned quickly, looking around the white room, seeing Arin sleeping and no nurses around. He laughed, grimacing in pain as he did.

“I’m fine, don’t worry,” he murmured. I glared at him.

“Don’t worry? Luke, you were shot, and now you’re lying in a hospital bed. How the hell do you expect me to believe you’re fine?”

“Because I’m alive.” He rolled his head over to look up at me. My eyes began to fill, tears threatening to spill over.

“I thought you were going to-“I swallowed, brushing away the tears and clearing my throat. “What happened?” He sighed deeply, which must’ve hurt considering the look that formed on his face. He stared at the ceiling as he explained.

“I came home after school, my dad was drunk and cleaning his gun. He bought it a while ago to go hunting with my uncle. He forgot to put it on safety, so while he was cleaning it he accidentally pulled the trigger and I was in its view.”

“So this is your dad’s fault?”

“It was an accident, Kasynne. He left right after I went into surgery. He was torn up.”

“He was messing with a loaded gun while he was drunk. You’re the one who’s torn up, literally. What did you tell the doctor?” He hesitated for a moment.

“That I was cleaning it and it went off,” he answered, timid. My jaw dropped as I looked at him.

“Are you stupid?” I hissed.

“He’s all I have, Kayse,” he retorted. “Mom’s dead, she’s never coming back, and I lost you.” He kept his eyes glued to the ceiling, fighting hard not to cry.