Beginning Again

Chapter 27 - Never Jump To Conclusions.

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©Sapphiresamo 

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Chapter 27

Never Jump To Conclusions.

Hospitals weren’t exactly my favourite place to hang out. Well, I don’t think they were anyone’s really; probably because of the not very appetising food.

The next morning, I woke up to Mary informing me she had to go home because her mum had called. After saying goodbye to her, I found a snack machine on one of the lower floors and helped myself to a not-so-healthy bag of crisps.

Luca still hadn’t appeared. I had spent half of the night thinking about him and had come to the conclusion he wouldn’t come since he wasn’t a big fan of hospitals. Yet I still hoped that he would come.

Lowering myself onto a bench outside the hospital, I looked around at the few other people that were outside too. It was good to know that I wasn’t the only one who needed a breather from that place.

I had just opened the bag from the vending machine and was about to put a potato crisp in my mouth when I heard someone call my name.

“Hey, I was just about to go up and look for you.” Kayden greeted, sitting next to me.

“Well, you found me.” I said eyeing his fresh clothes and face. “Looks like you had a good morning.”

He laughed and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Looks like you didn’t.”

I shrugged, glancing down at the crisps.  “Sleeping on a stiff chair isn’t exactly comfortable. Neither was sleeping in a wet bathing suit.”

“You don’t smell too good either.” He crinkled his nose.

“Thanks.” I responded flatly.

“Just being honest,” He replied. “Do you want me to take you home for clothes?”

I shook my head. “No, Mary is bringing me some.”

We fell into a silence and I finally got few potato crisps into my mouth, soothing my rumbling stomach. Glancing at Kayden I saw that he was watching me eat and so I offered him some.

“No thanks.” He declined. “How are you holding up?”

Again I shrugged and placed a crisp into my mouth. “About as good as I can with my mum in the hospital.” I said once I’d finished the crisp.

Kayden nodded. “What are you doing out here? Aside from eating?”

“I just needed some air. Hospitals bring up memories I’m not too fond of.”

“Bad memories?” He paused. “Your dad?”

Instantly my throat closed up and my appetite was gone. Taking a deep breath, I tried to push the images of him in the hospital out of my head.

I dropped my eyes to the pavement in front of us. “Yes.”

“What happened?”

I held back the tears that were threatening to spill and turned my attention the people walking in and out of the hospital; all with various expressions on their faces.

Hospitals seemed to be a place of just that, mixed emotion. For some a hospital held answers to their problems; it was a place of miracles and happiness. While others it was a place of doom, a place where they were faced with their own fear and sometimes demise.

Unfortunately, I was there for the latter.

“Do you want to go back in?” Kayden spoke up.

Slowly I pried my eyes away from the people in front of my and focused on my hands that were holding the bag of crisps. “This is my fault.” I said.

“What is?”

“My mum.”

Kayden sighed and shifted beside me. “And how is it your fault?”

“Yesterday was the anniversary of my dad’s death.” I said candidly, a small tremble in my voice.

Normally I was one of those people who kept everything in and never told my problems to anyone, even the person I was really close to. Mary, my only good friend all these years had only recently acquired knowledge of my family life. Whenever the opportunity came up to tell someone about some family issue, I’d push it aside saying someone out there probably had it worse, and so my life wasn’t worth complaining about.

But with Kayden’s simple “So what?” prompt, I felt words bubble up over my vocal cords and out my mouth with no hesitation.

“He was on his way home that day,” I started staring at the floor, holding back the tears that were threatening to spill. “He had a car accident. A drugged up eighteen year old was driving the other car and drove into the wrong lane; crashing into my dad’s car.”

Taking a deep breath I told him about how the other driver was identified as Chris Meyers; Rebecca Meyer’s brother. How when my mum found out about the accident she had calmly gone to the hospital and dealt with everything.

I told him how I acted when I found out; how the shock had instantly consumed me. I explained how the death of my father took a great toll on my mother. How after the funeral she completely lost it. She constantly turned to alcohol to drown her sorrows and then the incident when she hit me. I explained to Kayden how she had said that she would stop drinking and how I refused to believe her.

Throughout my outburst, Kayden just sat there and listened.

I took a deep breath and looked up at him, my vision blurry with tears. “I should have been with her.”

“That doesn’t make it your fault.” Kayden told me. “Yes you should take care of your family, but sometimes you can’t stop all the bad things from happening. You just have to learn to pick yourself up and keep moving in life.”

I looked away, my lip trembling.

“You know, when you’re not full of yourself, you actually say some pretty nice things.” I muttered, peeking sideways at him. He chuckled and shook his head, standing up slowly.

“Kayden?!” A voice yelled.

The both of us turned around to find Kyra walking towards us. As soon as she reached us, her hand came out to poke Kayden’s arm.

“Your dad is worried.”

She already knew his dad? Were they already past that relationship stage?

I looked at the both of them, feeling extremely uncomfortable. I watched as Kayden gave Kyra a look as though he was telling her something. Kyra smirked as she looked at Kayden and then looked at me. What was that about?

Turning back to Kayden, Kyra spoke again. “I’ll tell your dad that you’re fine. He’ll believe me, since I am his favourite niece.” She winked and then strutted away.

Niece?

Kyra was Kayden’s dad’s niece? That made Kyra and Kayden… cousins? My brain processed the new information I had found. So they weren’t boyfriend, girlfriend? Oh…

Kayden looked at me with his eyebrows quirked with confusion. I felt myself blush as he continued to stare at me.

“I thought –” I stuttered feeling embarrassed.

Kayden laughed giving me a cheeky wink. “Never jump to conclusions.”

I could feel my face heat up as he chuckled at me and so I was thankful when Kayden changed the subject.

“Can we go inside now? I’m really started to miss the air conditioning.” Kayden muttered holding out his hand to help me up. I grabbed hold of his outstretched hand and was quickly pulled up, the few crisps in the bag almost tumbled out.

“Sure, this bench was hurting my butt anyway.” I said as I stood up. Kayden laughed and started to walk. With a smile, I crumbled my bag of crisps and trailed alongside him.