The Bad Boy • Jonah Marais

S.2 P.14

I wait nervously in the waiting room, the vet said we were lucky to get Axel in so soon but it would've helped if he got in sooner. This was my fault, I was so focused on proving myself to Kenny, not even mentioning how selfish I must've sounded. I brought my legs up and hugged my knees to my chest, everyone is getting hurt for my own selfishness. I shut my eyes until the tears squeezed out of it and rolled down my cheeks.

I felt Jonah's arm come around me and he rested his head on mine, and he pulled me close. "He'll be okay baby." Jonah whispered and rocked me back and forth. "Wanna talk about what else is bothering you?" More tears crawled down my cheek and I shook my head. He nods and kisses the top of my head, "I'm right here Ava, let it out." He rubs circles around my back and just held me.

"Ava." The vet calls my name out.

Jonah and I get up immediately and I rub my eyes, "Yes?" I questioned her.

"Follow me please." She says and I follow her with Jonah holding my hand behind me. "Now I was told by the head vet to give you an update, Axel seems to have some sort of genetic dysfunction that isn't curable, which explains his odd behavior recently." She tells me then we stop at a door with a glass window, I see Axel sleeping on the bed. "We don't think he'll last much longer, he's definitely a fighter but he's only got so much fight in him." She tells me sadly and the tears started flowing again.

Jonah holds me by my waist and I just cry, "How long do you think?" I asked her.

She shook her head, "You'll have to wait for the head vet to answer that. Wait here." With that she just walks away.

"Oh my god." I whispered as more tears crawled down my cheeks, "Jonah..." I cried out and hugged him, burying my face into his chest. He holds me tightly, swaying me back and forth.

"Ava?" I heard someone call out happily.

I turned and see Kiara with Kenny. Kiara is now barely in middle school and it looks like she doesn't know what went down between Kenny and I. I wiped my eyes dry and forced a smile, "Hey Kiki."

She giggles and runs to me and hugs me tight, "What are you doing here? Does Kenny have a checkup?"

I hesitated looking at the innocent little girl and tears threatened to fall down my cheeks. "Yeah." I said to her and I heard my voice crack and my eyes watered. "He does, he should be out any minute now." I smiled at her. Then I sniffled and wiped my eyes, "You guys visiting your mom?"

She nodded, "Yeah she said to come down, right Kenny?" She turned to her brother.

Kenny looked at me and hesitated before answering, "Yeah she did." He says slowly before assessing what was going on. "Hey Kiara, why don't you go and get Axel his dog treat for him?"

Kiara stood up straighter, "Okay!" She exclaimed and ran back out to the front desk.

Kenny takes a deep breath and walks toward Jonah and I, "Axel okay?"

My eyes watered again and I shook my head, "No, I'm waiting to see how long he has." I said as tears crawled down my face again. I wiped them quickly, "I'm sorry again Kenny, about before." I stopped talking and took a deep breath, "You were right, it was all on me. I shouldn't have blamed you at all, I understand if you wanna just go." I said and then walked back to Jonah who wrapped his arm around me as more tears crawled down my face.

"Hey..." He hugs me again. "I'm right here." He kisses the top of my head softly.

Then the door to Axel's room opens. "Ava?" She questioned me. I nodded and she looks at me sadly, "I'm afraid I have some bad news."