Serendipity [Harry Styles fanfic]

Chapter 15

Camilla POV

It had only been 4 hours since I had arrived at the hospital. The room Nathan was located in was on the 15th floor of the building which overlooked the city and gave a clear view of tall buildings along the skyline. I found myself gazing out the window, not really focused on anything in particular, but in deep thought. I picked at my nails all the while, or braided the ends of my hair in a poor attempt at a distraction from my whirling thoughts. I felt almost numb, cold, and exhaustion crept in slowly as I sat perched in a stiff hospital chair. His condition hadn’t changed, and the doctors struggled to keep him in stable condition.

My family was still here, but they were in the cafeteria. While they made an effort to still eat and focus on other things, my stomach churned merely at the thought of even a bite of food. I couldn’t do anything else until I knew my brother was okay. He lay still in his bed, skin a bit pale, yet still handsome. I brushed a few strands of his unruly hair off his forehead when I heard the door creak open. Suspecting it was only my mom, I kept my gaze on Nathan and his steady breathing.

“How are you doing?” The familiar voice sounded. I felt my eyes go wide and my stomach drop as I recognized this male’s voice. It’s been almost two years since I’d even been in the same room with him. Jesse. Honestly, I shouldn’t be surprised. Although we broke up, he was already Nathan’s friend before we even dated. He accompanied him along to NYU and even attended the same lectures and parties.

We didn’t necessarily leave on a bad note, but that didn’t make this encounter any less awkward. We dated for a little over a year before we called it quits at the beginning of my sophomore year of college. He was the first boy I introduced to my whole family, all my brothers and even my dad. You had to truly be special for me to consider that and Jesse was my first love after all. We began dating our senior year of high school and while everything started out perfect, the real world truly took a toll on our relationship when we weren’t prepared for this new adult responsibility in college. It became harder to see each other, and when we did, we had found that we started to drift apart being that our interests began to change. While my changes of interests were hobbies, friends, and foods, Jesse took a different route and took a change of interest in girls. He would flirt and talk to girls behind my unsuspecting back, and I was left devastated at the loss of trust.

He had the nerve to break up with my first even after I found out, which made the heartbreak an even harder one. We never spoke nor seen each other afterwards, which was fine by me. I set myself on moving on and cutting him off cold turkey. Once you lost my trust, it was nearly impossible to gain it back.

I knew he was still close to Nathan, so it didn’t bother me when I found out they still hung out. I was across the country anyway. But as I stared at him in complete shock, I got an overwhelming feeling of the heartbreak I felt when we said our last goodbyes. I was taken back to the days when he was my everything and we spent countless days together. My feelings towards him weren’t there anymore, he simply wasn’t the one for me and I accepted that. I moved on, even if it wasn’t necessarily with anyone in particular.

“Oh, uhh.. I’m okay, yeah.” I struggled not to stumble over my words as he approached the opposite side of the hospital bed, directly across from me. Keep your cool, don’t let him think he has an effect on you. He eyed my expression and crossed his arms, but not in a judging way. Jesse always had a way to read me like a book and this was no exception.