the apartment across the hall

13

Brooklyn woke before Brian as usual and she started getting dressed to go to the hospital.

"You don't have to look perfect you know? You can go without makeup, everyone will understand." Brian said in his deep morning voice.

"I know." She walked over and kissed him. "Thank you again for coming."

"Baby you don't have to thank me, you'd do the same for me."

They started on their way to the hospital and arrived before 8, it was early for Brian but he didn't mind. They walked into the hospital room and Brooklyn's nonno was lying in the bed asleep.

"How is he doing?" Brooklyn whispered, excited to see him again.

"Surgery last night went better than expected. His old age does put him at a disadvantage but it's not impossible for him to make a full recovery, we're just holding out hope." Brooklyn's mom answered.

"Excuse me, Brian could we have a word outside?" Zio Lorenzo stepped forward.

"Be nice to him, don't scare him away." Brooklyn gave her uncle a teasing face.

"Me scare him? Come on look at this guy." Her uncle joked.

They went out into the hall and Lorenzo's playful disposition changed quickly.

"Brian I want to get something clear with you, my niece is like a daughter to me. Now I don't know you so I'm just going to assume that you have bad intentions, until you prove to me otherwise you're on probation. If I ever find out that you hurt her you're gonna be begging me, her, and god for forgiveness. I got ties... you understand what I'm saying to you?" He spoke in his thick Italian accent.

"Yes sir, I understand. I really like Brook and I wouldn't do anything to hurt or disrespect her. She's way out of my league anyways. I don't know what she sees in me."

"I agree with you there. We'll talk more later." He put his hand on Brian's shoulder and they went back into the hospital room.

Brooklyn smiled at Brian and he made big eyes at her. He sat down beside her and she grabbed his hand and held it. Zio Lorenzo gave Brian a look.

"Hi everyone, I'm just going to take his blood pressure." A nurse came in with a cart.

"Is he okay?" Brooklyn asked her.

"His vitals are good, we gave him some morphine so that he'll rest for a while but he should be okay. We got the bleeding contained and the broken bones are set, they'll take longer to heal because of his age but he should be okay with time." The nurse said and she left the room.

"That's really good news, Brooklyn you could go back to school, Nonno will be fine." Her mom said.

Brooklyn sighed. "Well I do have a midterm coming up, but I wanted to stay until he wakes up."

"You should go back to school, I'll have him call you when he wakes up."

"Okay I love you all, I'll be back soon for Thanksgiving." Brooklyn made her rounds hugging everyone in the room. She walked over to the hospital bed and hugged her nonno.

"Nice to meet you all." Brian waved to the room as he walked out with Brooklyn.

As they were walking out of the hospital Brooklyn ran into an old familiar face.

"Brooklyn! Is that you?" Someone yelled.

She and Brian stopped and turned around.

"I'm sorry to hear about your nonno, your dad too. How are you?" The guy asked, putting his hand on her arm.

She moved out of the way. "I'm fine, thank you."

"As good as can be expected I'm sure. It's so nice to see you again, how long are you back in Jersey for?"

"I'm leaving tonight actually." She answered.

"Oh okay, well how are you liking college?"

"It's okay, and you?"

"It's great, but I miss you a lot." He smiled at her.

"Caleb I gotta go, I don't want to miss my flight."

"Okay, well listen it was really nice to see you. Hopefully I'll see you again if you come back for the holidays." He leaned in to hug her.

She just stood there limply and she and Brian walked out.

"So... are you gonna tell me who the hell that was?" Brian said while in the cab on the way to the airport.

"That was my ex boyfriend." She sighed.

"You had sex with him?" Brian asked.

"Yeah."

"Hm, do you have any plans of seeing him when you come back?"

"Of course not."

"Good." Brian pulled her in and kissed her forehead.

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hi, i know i'm pushing out these few chapters quickly but it's because i'm worried about the next few, people are probably gonna hate them. this chapter and the next are the calm before the storm so brace yourself and thank you for reading.

thank you for reading xx