Paper Hearts

12 | together

[ dedicated to wordsloop because she wrote the sweetest review for this book ever. i was on a campus tour when i saw the review and i legit teared up because i never in a million years would've expected to see a beautiful review for this story. thank you so much for warming my heart like that, lovely <3 ]

PAPER HEARTS | 12

warning: contains some mature content

Hospitals made him sick, but it wasn't a sickness caused by any illness passing through the air. When he pushed through the revolving doors, he was immediately hit with a wave of nausea. Micah found himself pausing at the entrance to seize a breath, but he also found that with every subsequent breath, he felt fainter. There was something about catching a whiff of impending death that made his head spin.

His father had been lying on his deathbed for months now, his lung cancer finally taking a toll on him. Micah's mother had come to terms with it - she was well enough that she could now visit the hospital every day without shedding a tear. Really, she was so well that she was already preparing herself to court another man - not that Micah cared or paid attention in the slightest. His father had also passed down the family business to Mitchell, the only one in their line who was willing to run a multi-million dollar company. While Micah had taken a liking to the engineering side of things, Mitchell had always been a businessman in the making - street smart, sly, and money hungry.

Mitchell liked to get the money, and Micah loved to spend it.

Though everyone in his family had seemed to move on forget about his father, Micah found himself driving in every other week to check up on him. If he was lucky, he only cried as his father slept. Under any other circumstance, it was his father who would wipe the tears from his cheeks. However, when even doing that little seemed to weaken him, Micah brought in backup: Ellie. Since she was even more prone to crying than he was, Micah had a feeling he could fake strength for her sake - after all, he would've felt terrible to drag her all the way to the hospital just to make her cry.

And, as it turned out, his father enjoyed Ellie's company more than his own. Micah and his father thought along the same lines, perhaps because Micah had always dreamed to be like him. Like Micah, his father thought Ellie had a knack for storytelling - talking in general actually. That was probably thanks to her writing background. Like Micah, his father found her to be beautiful with her dirty blonde hair and blue-green eyes making for an irresistible combination. It only helped her case that she was a naturally thicker girl too. Like Micah, Mr. Matthews found that when Ellie smiled, the room, and his own damned life, seemed to brighten up significantly. Something about her tinkling laughter and pearly whites were enough to make him believe that, just for a second, it wasn't life support keeping him alive.

On a day the same as any other, Micah wasn't necessarily shocked when his father beckoned for him to come closer after sending Ellie out to check with his nurse when he was due for his meds. However, much to Micah's surprise, his father snagged him by the ear and yanked him forward.

"You're going to marry this girl, right?" his father asked, hopeful.

Micah laughed; he'd never heard anything so ridiculous before. "She's nothing more than a friend!"

His father shrugged. "I'm just saying, buddy. She doesn't seem like the kind to run when things get difficult."

Micah cast a glance over his desk to catch sight of Ellie who, unsurprisingly enough, was making small talk with the petite lady at the front desk. "She's one of the bravest, strongest girls I've ever known. That's for sure."