Love Song (LGBTQ+) (COMPLETED)

64. Cheater

Alone in the hospital room with the door shut behind me, my mom sat on the hospital bed across from me. With only a bra and a bandage adhered to her shoulder, she brought her feet to the floor and stood still in front of me. Even after what felt like the going through the longest drive of my life, I still didn't have any idea what to say to my mom, though it may have been more accurate to say that I didn't have any idea on where to start. What was I supposed to bring up first, her being stabbed or Chris? How I held a gun towards the person I originally thought was my dad?

Before I was able to look all the way up, my eyes were met with the bare skin of my mom's stomach as she pulled me into her arms. I didn't have any way of knowing if she could sense my hesitance or if it was just something she felt the need to do, but what I knew was that I could feel it. Her warmth and the metaphorical drill she was putting through my head, the way she was probably trying to predict my every feeling and every emotion, and probably every thought that was passing through my mind.

Unless Chris spoke to her before me, then had she known that I knew about him and who I was to him? Did Chris lie to me to temporarily calm me down, to take my mind off of what I was so close to doing? If she was cheating on my "dad", then why didn't she leave him and stay with Chris in the first place? It was obvious enough to say that there was a lot I didn't know about, and there wasn't any telling if it was something she wanted to keep in the past or not. The worst part was my mind playing a game of pretend with how different my life would've been if it was Chris instead of him who raised me.

"What happened?" my eyes caught the blood stain on the shirt hanging off of the table as she continued holding onto me. "Do you have any idea how scary it was for me to hear that I might've lost someone else?"

"I don't know, exactly. I was outside of having a glass of wine and getting a little fresh air while waiting for Chris to come over, and the next thing I knew I was being slammed against the door with a knife in my shoulder." my mom let go of me of and stepped backwards as she pointed at the bandage over her shoulder. Her fingers lied on top of the bandage, right above her her collarbone but underneath her shoulder. Glancing at me with an almost concerned pair of eyes, she continued. "I just started rambling and hoped that someone would help. Those two boys next door pulled him off and held him until the cops and Chris came. I really didn't want or need to come here, but Christ kept insisting that I go just in case there was something on the knife."

As I hesitantly reached out with the same shaky hand I gave Chris, I retracted it and found myself gazing at the clean tile beneath me. How could I be the one to start crying when it was all my fault? If anything, she should've been the one crying after getting pierced by a knife that carried the intent to kill, but she barely seemed phased by it. Instead, she stood in front of me with strength and a smile, both of which were things I perpetually lacked. There wasn't any fear in her eyes, there was only a pair of glowing eyes that were now locked onto me.

"I'm sorry. If only I was there to take it. . ." I virtually whispered as I tried to keep my composure. "It's all my fault. I should've been the one who got stabbed, not you. He wa-"

With a blinding white flash coming over my sight, it took me a moment to realize that I was on the receiving end of a open-palmed smack across the face. A smack that said everything it needed to say.

"Who or what that drunk was after and his reasons for doing what he did don't matter at all. If all it took was me getting stabbed in the shoulder to protect you or Grace from getting hurt, then I would do it again and again and again. As long as it keeps you safe, I'll always take that knife or bullet for you." she brought her hand to the cheek she smacked moments earlier and began to stroke it. "Please stop talking like that. None of this was your fault, and it isn't even close."