For Real? ✅

Chapter 42

GREG

I visit the hospital, and ask for Dr Scharf, just like Andy had told me to.

However, a dead weight drops in my stomach the minute I see Tess, waiting by the doctor's office. This is exactly why I didn't want to help Andy, just because Tess would be furious to see me.

"Now you come? After three days you decide to come?" She begins angrily.

"I came... ", I say, but then I see Dr Scharf. I ignore Tess and walk up to her quickly, "Dr Scharf, I need to speak with you."

She raises an eyebrow at me, "And you are?"

"I'm Greg, I'm here on behalf of Andy. His father has passed away recently, hence he can't come."

Dr Scharf glances at me, then nods, "Come inside."

Tess enters the office too, even though no one asked her to. I sit awkwardly on the chair, hoping to be done with this so that I can escape the wrath of Tess. Who, by the way, is still glaring at me.

I sigh. I did owe her an apology.

"Okay, what did Andrew want you to tell me?" Dr Scharf starts.

"He wanted to explain the fact that he found Leah on Bys Street. That Leah was extremely drunk and possibly drugged. She had wanted to poison herself, and had seemed suicidal."

"Leah told me that Andy gave her the poison that she wanted." Dr Scharf says, squaring onto the most important point.

"No, it wasn't poison. Andy actually gave her a tranquillizer which made her pass out at that instance. He then took her to her apartment and left her with Greyes." I explain.
"He was happy to find Leah, that he hadn't let her do anything drastic."

"Alright. Thank you for your help, Greg. This has helped in clarifying a few points." Dr Scharf says, leafing through her notepad.
"Thank Andy for his help too, and convey my condolences to the loss of his father."

"Of course. Glad to be of help." I get up and leave the office. I avoid Tess the whole time.

Once I'm in the hallway, I walk fast, hoping to leave.
However, Tess is quicker.
"Wait." She calls out. "Don't you want to see Leah?"

I pause in my tracks. To say the truth, I'd wanted to visit Leah the minute I heard about her. But that had meant that I would also run into Tess.

"Sure," I say, then Tess leads me to the ward. I see Leah lying on the bed, her pale face, the hollows around her eyes, her hair dishevelled. She's hooked to a heart monitor.

"Greg, be yourself. Don't let Tess's anger make you regret anything. In the end, all we want is for you to be happy." Leah had said to me, right after Tess and I had broken up.

Leah had been so good to me and she didn't deserve this, whatever it was.

Beside me, Tess speaks, "Every time she wakes up, she starts screaming. She's simply scared of everything."

"How did they get her to do the hypnosis?" I ask.

"She initially didn't remember anything that reminded her of Adam. That helped her stay calm."

I simply nod. Then I realise that I couldn't bear to see Leah like that anymore. I already felt nauseous.

"Let's go," I say, and pull Tess's hand. We walk until we reach the big glass windows of the hallway. We don't speak for a long time.

"I'm sorry, Tess." I finally let out. "Sorry for calling you a selfish-"

"It's okay. I'm sorry too, Greg. I shouldn't have yelled at you." She replies, then adds, "I'm sorry about the kiss too."

I find my face heating up. The kiss was something I thought about every single day.
Something that made me understand myself better.

"About that... You don't need to be." I tell her.

Tess looks up at me, her dark eyes round with surprise. "I don't understand." She says.

I take a deep breath. "Will kissed me, and I realized that I liked guys."

Tess's stare is unwavering.

"You kissed me, and I realized that I liked girls too," I state. "I'm Bi."

Tess's gaze is intense. I breathe a sigh of relief, now that the worst was over.

"So that means..."

"So that means that our relationship was real. I didn't fake a single thing, Tess."

Tess suddenly grabs my shoulders and violently shakes me.

"Are you drunk or something? Or are you saying this just to shut me up?" Tess demands.

I smile at her. "I'm saying this because it's the truth. Will liked me a lot, so he tried hard to convince me that I had no feelings for you...He was initially very jealous of you, Tess."

"Only when you kissed me, did I realise that I wasn't pretending. That kiss was every bit real as it was supposed to be. I'm sorry for not realising this sooner."

Tess embraces me, her tears on my shirt. "I knew it, Greg. I knew that your heart wasn't in the right place."

I stroke her hair. This is better than her yelling at me.

"So, what now?" She asks, drawing away from me.

I sigh. Things could still go wrong.

"I'm still dating Will. I love you Tess, but sometimes you're just so demanding. You have no idea how nervous I was, even if it was to just see you."

Tess looks furious for a second, then her face calms down. "You're right, Greg. I too think that you're laid back for me."

We look at each other. Things finally seemed alright with us.

"Alright, 'Best Friend', let's get some snacks," I tell her, like old times. I stick out my elbow.

Tess grins at me.

"Sure, Best Friend, let's go", she replies and locks her elbow with mine.

And together, we march proudly to the vending machine.