Thieving Florida

Epilogue

I didn't want to leave Xander. Like, ever. But as we were just laying next to eachother, hand in hand, there was a knock on the door. I sighed, knowing my time was up.

"I have to go now," I said. I had silently been crying to myself, so I knew that my face was red and streaked with tears.

"I wish you didn't," he said quietly. Even now, after about only an hour or so's time, I could hear that he was weaker. It broke my heart.

"Me too," I whispered back. I gave him one last peck on the lips. "I'm going to visit you everyday, you know."

He shook his head. "You can't. You have to live your life like normal, like it was before you met me."

"But I don't want to," I said. He laughed weakly.

"Jes, your time with me was literally shit," he said. "How could you want to live like that?"

"Because it wasn't all shit," I said. "When you weren't being a dick to me, it was actually pretty fun. Why do you think I always came back, or helped when you came back to me?"

"Thrill?" he guessed. "I thought you only like the feeling of adventure since you were such a goody-goody."

I glared at him. "No, dumbass. I built a connection with you, and shockingly Eden too, and I just... I didn't want it to go away."

"Hey, don't call me a dumbass. I'm dying for crying out loud," he joked.

"Shut up," I mumbled. He laughed quietly, and another knock came from the door.

A pause. "Is this really goodbye?" I said.

He sighed. "It is."

The small lump in my throat that had started forming grew triple in size. "I just want you to know that, for what it's worth, going to parties won't be the same without you."

He laughed, a sound to me that was so beautiful and yet so heart breaking. "Of course not. I'm the life of the party."

I looked at his face one last time. He brought my hand up to his lips, kissing it once, never looking away from me.

"You're going to have a good life," he said. "Don't let me ruin it. Please. That would be the worst thing that I would have ever done. Not any illegal shit."

I nodded, not trusting myself to say anything, for the chance that I might burst into tears. I stood up and left, leaving a piece of my heart in that hospital bed.

Lauren was standing outside the room, giving me a sad smile. She didn't say anything, and I was glad that she didn't.

I walked away and back to my hospital room, the yellow envelope clutched in my hand. Once I got in my room, I finally let myself cry.

They were ugly, violent sobs that could have probably been heard all the way in China. I didn't care though, because I was losing someone who I had grown so close to.

I didn't get to cry for very long. Someone had come in and slammed the door shut, making me jump.

"I can hear you crying all the way on the other side of the hospital," Eden said. "Please tell me that you aren't crying over the fact that Mommy and Daddy didn't get you a puppy as a welcome back present."

"Not now, Eden," I said. "You'd actually be surprised that I'm crying from your brother."

Eden sighed. "I know. I'm just being a bitch. I can't help it, that's how I'm dealing with this."

"So you know that..."

"That he's going to be brain dead soon? Yeah. I know." she said coldly. "I was the first one to find out. I got to visit him since I was his sibling and stuff, but they wanted me to give him some space after about an hour. He was practically falling asleep on me," she said.