Tough as Nails

Chapter 12

The mood in my room shifted after the initial shock wore off. Cameron is now trying to hide the look that he wants to murder someone on his face. Zander still has traces of sympathy in his eyes. Aspen is doing what Aspen does best... Making me feel normal.

"Alright guys, I've given you long enough to tell her. Now it's my turn." Aspen said looking from Zander to Cameron.

"Someone just tell me. It can't be as worse as what I had to tell you." I said coaxing them.

"Exactly." Aspen agreed. "They've been worried to death about telling you how we got here. I told them you would understand..."

"Aspen, just tell me how you got here!" I said laughing at how carried away she gets.

"Kade." She blurted out. I know my eyes were bugged out but I couldn't help it.

"Ev, were sorry. All we could think about was getting here. All they would tell us was that you were in an accident and we needed to get here. He was there when I got the call and he insisted..." Zander explained trying to keep me from freaking out.

"Shit! Look at me? This is not how I pictured seeing him for the first time in four years." I said burying my face in the sheet on my bed. They all started laughing. "What the fuck is so funny?"

"Is that seriously what you worried about?" Cameron said with a real smile on his face for the first time since they arrived. "Well, I would say it's pretty clear you still have feelings for the guy."

"Shut up!" I said throwing a pillow at him causing them all to laugh.

"Babe, Now that I don't feel like I'm going to throw up from fear, thank you, Everleigh." She said smiling at me. "I'm starving." Aspen said grabbing Cameron's arm. Did I forget to mention Aspen and Cameron are a force not to be reckoned with since they got together a year ago?

"Who's eating alone?" Cameron asked Zander and Aspen

"Why would someone be eating alone?" I asked confused.

"We will not be leaving you alone, like at all." Zander informed me.

"That is such horse shit. I want all of you to go eat... together. I promise I won't go anywhere." I said pointing to the iv pole.

"Ok have it your way," Cameron said as they all walked to the door, "but Kade is staying with you." Before I could object he opened the door and spoke to Kade. "We are going to eat, don't leave Everleigh alone, no matter what." He told Kade as he drug him inside my room and shut the door. They left us in uncomfortable silence.

Kade stood in the corner of the room not sure what to do.

"You can come sit down over here. I won't bite you, ya know." I joked not knowing what to say. He walked over and sat in the chair by my bed. "How have you been?" I asked not knowing what to say.

"Alright I guess. How about you?" He quickly glanced at me. "That was a dumb question. Of course you're not alright. You're in a fucking hospital for crying out loud."

"Kade, it's ok. I'm not going to break. If you think I look bad, you should see the other guy." I joked. He sat staring out the window. "I can see you're terribly uncomfortable. You don't have to babysit me. I'll be fine by myself."

"I know you don't want me here. I'm sorry, but I can't leave you alone. I will stand over by the door so you don't have to look at me." He said standing up.

"Is it because of how I look?" I asked unable to look at him this time.

"What?" He asked freezing in his tracks. "What are you talking about?"

"You can't even look at me. Is it because of the way I look?"

"Absolutely not! I know how you must feel about me..." He paused looking at his feet. "I just don't want to cause you anymore pain. I will never be able to explain to you how sorry I am."

"Honestly, you don't know how I feel because I haven't told you yet." I said waiting for him to look at me. When he did I continued. "Kade, I forgave you 3 years ago. I have missed you. You are the reason I graduated college and am pursuing a career in my dream job. I would like to thank you now for that. My plan was to come home looking a lot different than I do right now, and thank you. What are you sorry for exactly? Is it because you broke my heart when we were immature kids?" I asked studying him. "You blame yourself for what happened to me?  Damn it, Kade. Is that what you think?" He didn't say anything, he just looked away.

"Well I'm going to be very blunt here. You don't get to claim credit for this," pointing to my face," the mother fucker sitting in jail gets that award. I swear I'm going to bitch slap the next mother fucker that blames themselves for what happened to me. You have no fucking idea what he did to me. My face is the nicest thing he did." My voice broke at the end as I fought back tears thinking of my baby.

He sat down on my bed wrapping his arms around me. We both felt relieved from our talk.

   "Everleigh, you can talk to me about anything. I swear it will stay between us." He said holding me.

    "Thank you. I need to talk to someone.  I don't want to right now, maybe when we get home.   There are things I never want my family to know."  I said shaking my head, willing myself not to cry. I pull myself away from him, already missing his arms. "How's Veronica?" I ask remembering her.

"Fine, I guess." He said shrugging.

"Did you guys have a boy or a girl?" I hoped I was hiding the pain in my voice.

"We didn't." He said looking down at his feet.

"I'm so sorry, Kade." My heart broke for them. "How was the wedding. I'm sorry now that I missed it." I said giving him a small smile.

"We didn't get married. She wasn't even really pregnant. Who's been giving you your information?" He asked confused.

"I'm sorry. I just assumed. I was so focused on learning to be happy for you that I never asked. I guess they thought I still didn't want to have anything to do with you or Veronica. Now I feel like an idiot." I admitted laughing at myself. We both laughed and began talking about what we had been up to for 4 years.