Everything in Between

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Time?"

"4:58 a.m."

I stared vacantly at the hospital bed as they pulled the sheet up. The doctor finished writing what was needed on his clipboard and gave me a curt nod.

"We'll give you two a few minutes." Ten seconds and one sympathetic smile later he was gone.

After all of this, Cassidy was officially brain dead. There was simply nothing left that the doctors could've done. Or so I was told.

She'd been in a coma for almost a year since the crash now and had had no sign of recovery. Her brain activity seemed fairly normal; she hadn't had much positive activity but then again she hadn't had much negative either. A few weeks ago was when the doctors' really started to notice the lack of activity. Before I knew it, she was slowly slipping away from me and there was nothing they could do; it was just happening for unknown reasons. The sad part was that she was only two days shy of her 19th birthday.

I glanced over at her motionless body in the bed and pulled my chair closer. Running my fingers through her blonde curls, I thought about how this wasn't fair. How was it fair that Cass ended up in a hospital bed, unconscious for over a year, and the driver who hit her got to walk away with barely a scratch? How was it fucking fair that her whole life was gone while he was spending only a few years in prison?

I was trying to stay strong and not let myself cry in front of her, which was pretty damn hard. Just looking at Cassidy made me fall apart. Her skin was too pale, paler than usual, and her hand wasn't radiating with heat. Her eyelids were closed, and the bedside lamp was casting such a glow that made her long eyelashes cast a shadow over her freckled clad cheeks. Cassidy was truly something beautiful, inside and out. Her personality could make a room light up and nobody could laugh like her.

The knock at the door pulled me out of my reverie and caused me to wipe the tears that I didn't even know were falling, off of my cheeks.

"Patrick?" I looked back to see one of the nurses from earlier standing at the door. "Your Aunt and Uncle are downstairs in the lobby. They wanted to talk to you."

I turned back to stare longingly at Cassidy. I couldn't just leave her here. And as if the nurse could read my mind, she spoke softly, "I'll watch her if you'd like. I won't let them do anything to her."

I nodded, more to myself than to her, and wiped my tear stained cheeks one last time.

"I'll be back soon, Cass," I leant down and planted a kiss on her forehead but not before brushing her bangs aside.

Down in the hospital lobby was where I found my Aunt Mary and my Uncle Carter. They had always been the best parents to me, but they were completely different to Cassidy. Apparently it had to do something with the fact that they already had a daughter and they didn't need another one, something that never made any sense to me.

When Aunt Mary saw me coming towards them, I saw her face shift into something that somewhat mirrored remorse - sort of.

"Oh Patty," She stood up and loosely wrapped her arms around me in a makeshift comfort hug. I hugged her back with just as little effort; her sympathy wasn't exactly something that I wanted right now, especially with how she had treated Cassidy all these years.

When I broke the hug, I stepped back and glanced around the waiting room, only just now realizing that Ashlyn hadn't come with them.

"Where, uh, where's Ashlyn?" I kind of already assumed where she'd be. She spent every living moment with her friends getting drunk, partying, and getting high. She would do anything for the popularity and although I always gave her the benefit of the doubt, I at least expected her to show up when her cousin was on her death bed.