Chapter 11
“He’s going to be fine,” he said reassuringly to both of us. “He did suffer a broken back, but luckily, it wasn’t that serious. He’s going to recover in no time,” he replied.
“Can we see him now?”
“Yes, he’s resting but you can see him,” the doctor replied. Matt rushed to Jeff’s room, with me tailing slowly behind him. We stepped in the room, and there was Jeff, lying almost still with his eyes closed. His upper body had been wrapped with white gauze cloth bandage. There was a bruise near the right side of his mouth and he looked like he was in pain as he winced ever so slightly under my observant eye. I wanted to run and hug him as tight as I could and tell him that I was sorry for everything I’ve said to hurt him. But I knew I couldn’t, so I hung back while Matt spent some time alone with his brother. A few minutes later, Matt came out and said that Jeff wanted to talk to me.
“He knows I’m here?” I whispered.
“I told him,” he replied, then went downstairs to get some coffee. I was alone, and I didn’t know what to say to Jeff now that he was gonna be all right. I walked in anyway.
“Hi,” I said timidly as I pulled up a chair next to his bed and sat down. He opened his eyes slowly and craned his head to my direction. He didn’t say anything, so I went ahead. “You probably expected me to be the last person you’d see here,” I said ruefully. He managed a small smile. I knew that this was the time to sort out our mess once and for all.
I took his hand in mine and held it lightly. I couldn’t look at him as I said the words. “Jeff, I just wanna say I’m sorry for what I’ve said to hurt you. I—I didn’t mean for it to come out that way. But I had no choice—I became confused of where our relationship really stood when we shared that kiss at the beach. Everything happened so fast my mind couldn’t catch up.
“My heart was telling me things that my logic didn’t want to accept—and I had to sort out my feelings for a while,” I admitted. “I’m still not close to the answer I’m looking for, but, I hope this won’t affect our friendship.
“I missed talking to you,” I added, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. He slowly opened his mouth to talk.
“I missed talking to you too,” he said in a raspy voice. “You look tired, maybe you should get some rest.”
“No, I’m fine. You take care of yourself and get well,” I told him with a reassuring smile, although I felt my eyelids growing heavier and my body shutting down. He nodded and went back to rest. Before I knew it, my head lolled forward onto the side of his bed and fell into a deep and sound sleep.
Chapter 12
Chapter 10