Night On Set ❁ COLIFER

Chapter 83 ❁ The guy from gate thirteen

❁ It's been 84 years... sorry it took so long, jeez 😂 I really struggled with this chapter for some reason. But it's hereeeeee 😉 ❁

Jen's POV

I barely say a word as we drive to the hospital, and the silence between us is getting heavier by the second. But not as heavy as my heart. When we get to the Children and Women's Health department of Richmond Hospital, I've said exactly four words to Colin: No, I'm just fine.

It's in no way an explanation for the reason why I went from agreeing to get married to all of a sudden refusing to look him in the eye, but until I can make sense of the mess in my head, it'll have to do. And until I can stop picturing him at the altar saying "I do" and then turning around to sprint out of the church, leaving behind a woman in white that is not me, I can't look at him. It's like he's suddenly a totally different person with a past I know nothing about, a past he never shared with me.

He's the guy from gate thirteen again. Nothing but a stranger with a pink bunny suit.

Why didn't he tell me? I can see why it wasn't the first thing he told me when we met in the airport on Christmas Eve, but couldn't he have mentioned it sometime in the two and a half years we've known each other? Isn't an engagement supposed to be the kind of stuff you tell each other about when you're past the are-we-friends-or-are-we-more-than-that stage?

And why, of all people, did he tell my sister but not me?

The more my brain gets the opportunity to spin around the idea in my head as we're walking through the quiet, light hallways of the hospital, the more I feel physically sick. I've never liked hospitals, but this has nothing to do with the strong smell of hand sanitizer and nitrile gloves. This is all Colin.

The rational part of my brain knows the solution is as simple as stopping him right here in the middle of the hallway and confronting him with what Julia told me, but the irrational part won't let me. My feet keep moving and my heart keeps hammering inside my chest.

Skimming the doors for the number of Ginny's room happens in a daze. I almost trip over my own feet when something pink catches my eye, sending a jolt through my chest and up my throat, and I have to stop myself for a moment.

It's not until Colin positions himself right in the middle of my field of vision that I realize the pink fluff that almost gave me a heart attack is nothing but a little stuffed bunny, sitting in the window sill in one of the hospital rooms.

"Jen, I know you said you're fine, but are you really?" Colin asks, before I can see the room with the stuffed pink bunny is actually Ginny's room. For the first time since we left city hall, I look him in the eye, and I can hear myself saying everything's fine and that he doesn't need to worry, but it doesn't sound like me.

Colin knows that damn well. He's not an idiot, but there's simply no time to ask more questions, because Josh has spotted us and he's bolting out of his seat to great us.

"You guys made it!" he bellows from the room before Colin gets the chance to ask me what the hell is going on. "I knew you would!"

I blink away the look in my eyes and push past Colin, forcing myself to stop thinking and focus solely on Josh and Ginny and their brand-new baby. I spread my arms as I walk into the room to hug Josh, crying "Congratulations!" at the two of them. Before I've even made it to the bed, where Ginny is smiling at me with a bundled-up newborn in her arms, my emotions officially take over and I burst into tears.

"You guys, I'm so, so happy for you," I say, covering my mouth (and half of my face, which is already getting destroyed by my running makeup) with my hand. I'm not sure which part of my emotional outburst I can blame on seeing the new baby and which part is caused by the Colin-running-out-of-the-church scene that is still playing in my head, but neither Josh nor Ginny seems aware enough of their surroundings to be alarmed by my strong reaction.