F*ck Fate! (Book 3)

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Digging Up the Past

Andy

I woke up in a hospital bed, confused as to how I got here. The last thing I remembered was going to take a nap after I got back home this morning. Obviously, something else happened.

Kat was sitting in the arm chair off to my left, typing away on her laptop. She was probably doing homework, but I couldn't blame her.

"Kat?" I asked.

She immediately stopped typing and shut her laptop. "Hey," she said. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay," I answered. "What happened?"

She hesitated before answering. "Mini stroke. I called you after class and I could tell. So I called an ambulance and your mom."

"Mom?" I looked around the room, but there wasn't anyone else in the room, aside from someone sleeping in the other hospital bed. "Is she here?"

Kat nodded. "And that boyfriend of yours. They went to get food and coffee."

I sighed, leaning my head back into the pillows. "Shawn. I feel terrible." I can't imagine what he must be thinking. Was he there when the stroke happened? Did someone call him later to tell him where I was? As much as I loved Kat, I didn't think she'd let him know, so maybe my mom called him?

"Who told Shawn?" I asked Kat, looking over at her again.

"He was knocking on your door when I showed up. Kept buggin' me about what happened to you, so I told him. He rode with you and me here in the ambulance."

I let out another sigh. "What do you have against him?" I asked. "And don't tell me nothing because I know you do. I need to know why you hate my boyfriend so much."

Kat put her elbows on her knees and her hands in front of her mouth as she thought. I didn't think the answer would have required so much thought, but apparently it did.

Eventually, she moved her hands out of the way and spoke. "Do you remember my cousin, Patrick?"

I nodded. "Yeah. What about him?"

"Do you remember the guy that sent him spiraling? How he contemplated suicide because some guy shattered his heart?"

I nodded again. This wasn't news to me. I knew Pat had been getting better recently, but I don't know what he had to do with Kat hating Shawn.

"That guy that Pat had been in love with was Shawn. Your Shawn, Andy. He used my cousin and stomped all over his heart. I can't let that happen with you."

I shook my head. "You're wrong. Shawn wouldn't do that." Although, admittedly, it was one of my fears that he was just using me for sex, but over the past couple weeks, that fear had started going away. I didn't think he was just with me to get laid anymore - if he ever was. I honestly felt like he liked me back.

He had also mentioned an ex named Patrick before, but I never expected him to be the same Patrick as Kat's cousin. I couldn't believe that the two of them had actually been together before.

Kat, probably already knowing I didn't believe it, had pulled up an old Facebook picture from Patrick's page. It was him and Shawn, looking a few years younger. The only indication that there was something more than friends between the two was that Shawn's hand was on Patrick's leg. The caption read It's always a good day when I get to hang out with my best friend, Shawn Goodwin.

I was still staring at the picture when my mom and Shawn walked into the room. They both rushed to either side of me, Mom immediately asking me all these questions. Shawn didn't say anything, probably letting my mom ask everything she needed to get out.

"Mom, I'm fine," I stressed. This wasn't my first stroke. It was barely anything anyway. Nothing bad came of it.

"I told you that you needed to eat healthier," she was saying.

I shook my head. "One fast food burger and a couple sandwiches over the past month didn't cause this. And the only reason I did get those was because of Shawn." I looked over at him with a smile, but he wasn't looking at me.

I reached out and brushed my fingers against his hand, unable to fully grasp it. "Hey," I said softly. "Are you okay?"

He finally looked at me. "Asks the one in the hospital bed." There was very little emotion in his voice. It worried me.

I leaned forward a bit more, finally able to grab hold of his hand. "I'm okay, Shawn. Really."

He scoffed, pulling his hand away from mine. "Yeah, okay enough to be stalking my exs on Facebook?" He pointed at my lap, where Kat's phone was. The picture of him and Pat was still on the screen.

Kat spoke up because I could even open my mouth. "Patrick's my cousin. You completely destroyed him when you dumped him the way you did. He almost killed himself because of you."

Shawn shook his head. "No. I don't believe it. There was never anything real between us. Neither of us were out yet, so we pretended to be friends and secretly hooked up in the school's bathrooms. That's all there was between us."

He started heading for the door. I wanted to say something, but I didn't know what. Mom was looking between me and him, not wanting to interfere, but I knew she probably had questions.

Kat ended up being the one to speak up before he made it out the door. "He loved you, Shawn," she said, making him stop walking. "He loved you so much he put himself back in the closet for you, and you had no fucking idea, did you? I watched him gush over you for that entire year. 'Shawn this', 'Shawn that'. You were all he ever talked about. And now you've popped up again, dating my best friend. You are not going to hurt another person I love."

"Kat..." I warned.

"No, she's right, Andy," Shawn said. "I was a jerk back then. I'm sorry about Pat, Kat." Then he laughed a bit. "Your parents name you that intentionally? 'Cause that's kinda funny."

"Yes," Kat said, with no inflection in her voice. "Our moms are twins and thought it would be cute. But that's not the point."

He nodded. "I know. But I'm being completely honest here when I say that I never want to be that kind of jerk again. Especially not to you, Andy."

I gave him a smile and reached out for him again. "Come here," I said.

He came, sitting down on the edge of my bed. This time, he was the one who grabbed my hand, entwining our fingers. I wanted so badly to tell him how much I loved him, but I didn't want to do that here, in a hospital room with my mom and Kat still here. I wanted to tell him when it was just us.

"I'll make this whole day up to you," I told him. "You deserve a much better birthday than this."

Shawn leaned down to press a kiss to my cheek. "When you're better."