What The Heart Needs - The Heart #3 (Sample)

Chapter 2 - Part 2

An hour later I was still going crazy inside my head. I hadn't managed to ease the emotions Lacey's diagnosis had caused. My parents still weren't home from work and it would still be a couple of hours before my mom would arrive home first.

My phone pinged beside me and the sound startled me. It was a message from Aiden.

I'm on my way to see Lacey.

I'll call you when I'm done.

I was so thankful I hadn't called him. He was only now probably on his way to find out what I had already found out this morning. Being oblivious was something I couldn't go back to no matter how much I would have preferred it.

And soon he would discover how sick our friend was. I had never been close to Aiden at all but with our shared love for our friend I know it would bring us closer while we dealt with her illness.

It wasn't going to be easy. I hadn't even thought the whole thing through and it this how I was affected by it I didn't want to think about it was doing to Lacey or Adonis.

I sat up in my bed and held my phone in my hands waiting for Aiden to call me.

When it began to ring I nearly dropped it.

"Hi," I answered breathless because my heart was racing.

I would finally be able to share my worry with someone and I had been waiting for most of the the day to be able to that.

"Hi." It was in his voice. He knew.

There was a few moments of silence. I didn't want to say anything before he was ready to talk. I remember how I had dealt with the shock and trying to wrap my mind around something so monumental. The least I could do was give him time.

"You know." It was a statement not a question.

"Yeah," I breathed holding the closer, feeling like we were connecting in a way we never had before.

I heard him let out a heavy breath and I closed my eyes feeling the same heaviness in my chest. Letting him take all the time he needed I listened for him to say something.

"I can't quite believe it." His voice was shaky.

"I know...I always thought someone who was so sick would look sick...but she doesn't..." I trailed off unable to say anything else because of the tightness in my throat.

"Yeah, she doesn't look sick."

Although I couldn't stop myself from thinking back to how bad her migraines had been and I felt the creeping guilt return.

"I feel guilty," I admitted abruptly.

"Why?" he asked, sounding surprised.

I swallowed before I could answer him. "I feel like I should have known her migraines were something more. Like if I done something earlier it wouldn't be so bad now."

"Don't do it." His voice was warm and husky. "There's no way anyone of us could have known."

But I knew her better than anyone else. I was the person who she shared her secrets with.

"God," he breathed. "I didn't even know she suffered from migraines."

No matter what he had just said to me I could hear him wrestling with his own guilt. Maybe calling him and dumping my own stuff on him at such a difficult time had been a selfish move.

"I'm sorry," I felt compelled to say.

"Why are you sorry Reece?" he asked carefully.

"I should have given you some time to process all of this and all I'm doing is making it worse for you."