He takes several steps back and watches me get inside the cab. I stare at him from the window and I smile. Callahan Gentry and his son are going to be okay.
Saying good-bye to him was almost as hard as this moment. Standing in front of her apartment door, preparing to say hello to her.
I lift my hand and knock on her door.
Footsteps.
I inhale a calming breath and wait for the door to open. It feels like these last two minutes have taken two whole lifetimes. I wipe my palms down my jeans. When the door finally opens, my eyes fall to the person standing in front of me.
He's the last person I expected to see here. Seeing him in the doorway to Auburn's apartment, smiling up at me, is definitely a moment I'm going to paint someday.
I don't know how you did it, Auburn.
"Hey!" AJ says, grinning widely. "I remember you."
I smile back at him. "Hey, AJ," I reply. "Is your mom home?"
AJ glances over his shoulder and opens the door wider. Before he invites me in, he crooks his finger and asks me to bend down. When I do, he grins and whispers, "My muscles are really big now. I didn't tell anybody about our tent." He cups his hands around his mouth. "And it's still here."
I laugh, just as he spins around at the sound of her footsteps approaching.
"Sweetie, don't ever open the front door without me," I hear her say to him. He pushes the door open wider, and her eyes lock with mine.
Her footsteps come to an immediate halt.
I didn't think seeing her would hurt this much. Every part of me hurts. My arms ache to hold her. My mouth aches to touch hers. My heart aches to love hers.
"AJ, go to the bedroom and feed your new fish."
Her voice is firm and unwavering. She still hasn't smiled.
"I already fed him," AJ says to her.
Her eyes leave mine and she looks down at him. "You can feed him two more pellets as a snack, okay?" She points in the direction of her bedroom. He must know that look, because he immediately retreats toward the bedroom.
As soon as AJ disappears, I take a quick step back because she's running at me. She jumps into my arms so hard and fast, I'm forced to take several more steps back and hit the wall behind me so that we don't fall. Her arms are locked around my neck and she's kissing, kissing, kissing me like I've never been kissed before. I can taste her tears and laughter, and it's an incredible combination.
I'm not sure how long we stand in the hallway kissing, because seconds aren't long enough when they're spent with her.
Her feet eventually meet the floor and her arms lock around my waist and her face presses against my chest. I wrap my hand around the back of her head and hold her like I plan on holding her every day after today.
She's crying, not because she's sad, but because she doesn't know how to express what she's feeling. She knows there aren't words good enough for this moment.
So neither of us speaks, because there aren't any words good enough for me, either. I press my cheek to the top of her head and stare inside her apartment. I look up at the painting on her living room wall. I smile, remembering the first night I walked into her apartment and saw it for the first time. I knew she had to have the painting in her possession somewhere, but actually seeing it displayed in her living room was an incredible feeling. It was surreal. And I wanted to turn to her that night and tell her all about it. I wanted to tell her my connection to it. I wanted to tell her my connection to her.
But I didn't, and I never will, because this confession isn't mine to share.
This confession belonged to Adam.
FIVE YEARS EARLIER
Owen
I'm sitting on the floor of the hallway, next to my father's hospital room. I watch as she exits the room next door. "You're just throwing them away?" she asks in disbelief. Her words are directed at the woman she just trailed into the hallway. I know the woman's name is Lydia, but I still don't know the name of the girl. Not for lack of trying, though.
Lydia turns around, and I see that she's holding a box in her arms. She looks down at the contents of it and then back at the girl. "He hasn't painted in weeks. He doesn't have any use for them anymore, and they're just taking up room." Lydia turns around and sets the box down on the nurses' desk. "Can you find somewhere to discard these?" she says to the nurse on duty.
Before the nurse even agrees, Lydia walks back into the room and returns a few seconds later with several blank canvases. She sets them on the desk next to the box of what I now assume are painting supplies.
The girl stares down at the box, even after Lydia returns to the hospital room. She looks sad. Almost as if saying good-bye to his things is as difficult as saying good-bye to him.
I watch her for several minutes as her emotions begin to trickle out of her in the form of tears. She wipes them away and looks up at the nurse. "Do you have to throw them away? Can't you just . . . can you at least give them to someone?"
The nurse hears the sadness in her words. She smiles warmly and nods. The girl nods back, and then turns and slowly makes her way back into the hospital room.
I don't know her, but I would probably have the same reaction if someone were to throw something away of my father's.
I've never attempted to paint before, but I do draw occasionally. I find myself standing up, walking toward the nurses' station. I look down at the box full of various types of paints and brushes. "Can I--?"
The sentence doesn't even finish leaving my mouth when the nurse shoves the box at me. "Please," she says. "Take it. I don't know what to do with it."
I grab the supplies and walk them into my father's room. I lay them down on the only available area of counter space. The rest of his hospital room is full of flowers and plants that have been delivered over the last couple of weeks. I should probably do something with them, but I still have hope that he'll wake up soon and see them all.
After finding room for the art supplies, I walk to the chair next to my father's bed and take a seat.
I watch him.
I watch him for hours, until I get so bored that I stand up and try to find something else to stare at. Sometimes I stare at the blank canvas on the desk. I don't even know where to start, so I spend the entire next day dividing my attention between my father, the canvas, and the occasional walks I take around the hospital.
I don't know how many more days of this I can take. It's as if I can't even properly grieve until I know he's able to grieve with me. I hate that as soon as he wakes up--if he wakes up--I'll more than likely have to go over every last detail of that night with him, when all I want to do is forget it.
"Never look at your phone, Owen," he said.
"Watch the road," my brother said from the backseat.
"Use your blinker. Hands at ten and two. Keep the radio off."
I was completely new at driving, and every single direction that came out of their mouths reminded me of that. All but the one direction I wished they had given me the most. "Watch out for drunk drivers."
We were hit from the passenger side, right when the light turned green and I made it out into the intersection. The wreck wasn't my fault, but had I been more experienced, I would have known to look left and right first, even though the light gave me permission to move forward.
My brother and mother died on impact. My father remains in critical condition.
I've been broken since the moment it happened.
I spend the majority of my days and nights here, and the longer I sit, waiting for him to wake up, the lonelier it becomes. The visits from family and friends have stopped. I haven't been to school in weeks, but that's the least of my concerns. I just wait.
Wait for him to move. Wait for him to blink. Wait for him to speak.
Usually by the end of every day, I'm so exhausted from everything that's not happening, I have to take a breather. For the first week or two, the evenings were the hardest part for me. Mostly because it meant another day where he showed no signs of improvement was comin
g to an end. But lately, the evenings have grown into something I actually look forward to.
And I have her to thank for that.
It might be her laugh, but I also think it's the way she loves whomever it is she visits that makes me feel hopeful. She comes and visits him every evening from five to seven. Adam, I think is his name.
I notice that when she visits, his other family members leave the room. I assume Adam prefers it this way so he can get his alone time with her. I feel guilty sometimes, sitting out here in the hallway, propped up against the wall between his door and my father's door. But there's nowhere else I can go and feel the same way I do when I hear her voice.
His visits with her are the only time I ever hear him laugh. Or talk much, for that matter. I've heard enough conversations come from his room over the past few weeks to know what his fate is, so the fact that he's able to laugh when he's with her speaks volumes.
I think his imminent death is also what gives me a little bit of hope. I know that sounds morbid, but I assume Adam and I are around the same age, so I put myself in his shoes a lot when I start to feel sorry for myself. Would I rather be on my deathbed with a prognosis of only a few weeks to live, or would I rather be in the predicament I'm in?
Sometimes, on the really bad days, when I think about how I'll never see my brother again, I think I'd rather be in Adam's shoes.
But then there are moments when I hear how she speaks to him and the words she says to him, and I think, I'm lucky I'm not in his shoes. Because I still have a chance of being loved like that someday. And I feel bad for Adam, knowing the kind of love she has for him, and knowing that's what he's leaving behind. That has to be hard for him.
But that also means he was lucky enough to find her before his time was up. That has to make death a little more bearable, even if only by a fraction.
I return to the hallway and slide down to the floor, waiting for her laugh tonight, but it doesn't come. I scoot closer to his door and further away from my father's, wondering why tonight is different. Why tonight isn't one of the happier visits.
"But I guess I'm also referring to our parents, for not understanding this," I hear Adam say to her. "For not allowing me to have the one and only thing I want here with me."
As soon as I realize that this is their good-bye, my heart breaks for her and it breaks for Adam, even though I don't know either of them. I listen for a few more minutes until I hear him say, "Tell me something about yourself that no one else knows. Something I can keep for myself."
I feel like these confessions should stay between the two of them. I feel like if I were to ever hear one of them, Adam wouldn't be able to keep it for himself, because I would have it, too. Which is why I always stand up and walk away at these moments, even though I want to know her secrets more than I want to know anything else in the world.
I walk to the waiting area next to the elevators and take a seat. As soon as I sit down, the elevator doors open and Adam's brother walks in. I know it's his brother, and I know his name is Trey. I also know, simply based on the brief visits he makes with his brother, that I don't like him. I've seen him pass her in the hall a couple of times, and I don't like the way he turns around and watches her walk away.
He's looking down at his watch, walking in a hurry toward the room she and Adam are saying their good-byes to each other in. I don't want him to hear their confessions, and I don't want him to interrupt their good-bye, so I catch myself following after him, asking him to stop. He rounds the corner to the hallway before he realizes I'm actually speaking to him. He turns around and eyes me up and down, sizing me up.
"Give them a few more minutes," I say to him.
I can tell by the change in his eyes that I pissed him off when I said this. I didn't mean to, but it seems like he's the type of guy to get pissed off by almost anything.
"Who the hell are you?"
I immediately dislike him. I also don't like that he looks so angry, because he's obviously older than me and bigger than me and much, much meaner than me.
"Owen Gentry. I'm a friend of your brother's," I say, lying to him. "I just . . ." I point down the hallway toward the room she and Adam are in. "He needs a few more minutes with her."
Trey doesn't seem to give a shit how many minutes Adam needs with her. "Well, Owen Gentry, she's got a plane to catch," he says, agitated that I'm wasting his time. He continues down the hallway and walks into the room. I can hear her sobs now. It's the first time I've ever heard her sob, and I can't bear to hear it. I turn and walk back to the waiting area, feeling her and Adam's pain in my own chest.
The next thing I hear are her pleas for more time and her "I love you"s as Trey is pulling her down the hallway by her arm.
I've never wanted to hurt someone so badly in my entire life.
"Stop," Trey says to her, agitated that she's still trying to get back to Adam's room. He wraps his arm around her waist this time and pulls her to him so she can't get away. "I'm sorry, but we have to go."
She allows him to hold her and I know it's only because she's so broken right now. But the way his hands move down her back forces me to grip the arms of the chair I'm in so that I don't physically pry him off of her. Her back is to me, which means he's facing me now that he has his arms wrapped around her. The smallest smirk plays across his mouth when he notices the anger on my face, and then he winks at me.
The bastard just winked at me.
When the doors finally open and he releases her, she glances back toward Adam's room. I can see her hesitation as Trey waits for her to step into the elevator first. She takes a step back, wanting to return to Adam. She's scared because she knows she'll never see him again if she steps into that elevator. She looks at Trey and says, "Please. Just let me say good-bye. One last time." She's whispering, because she knows if she tries to speak louder, her voice won't work.
Trey shakes his head and says, "You already said good-bye. We have to go."
He has no heart.
He holds the doors for her to step on, and she considers it. But then in the next second, she begins to take off in a sprint in the other direction. My heart smiles for her, because I want her to be able to say good-bye to him again. I know that's what Adam would want, too. I know how much it would mean to him just to see her run back into his room one last time and give him one last kiss and allow him to say, "I'll love you forever, even when I can't," just one last time.
I can see in Trey's eyes that he has every intention of stopping her. He turns to run after her, to pull her back, but I'm suddenly in front of him, blocking him. He shoves me, and I punch him, which I know isn't the right thing to do, but I do it anyway, knowing I'm about to get hit in return. But one punch is worth it, because it'll give her enough time to get back to Adam's room and tell him good-bye again.
As soon as his huge fist meets my jaw, I meet the floor.
Goddamn it, that hurt.
He steps over me to run after her. I grab his ankle and pull, watching as he falls to the ground. A nurse hears the commotion and comes running around the corner, just as he kicks me in the shoulder and tells me to fuck off. He's on his feet again and running down the hall, and I'm standing now.
I'm almost back to my father's room when I hear her say to Adam, "I'll love you forever. Even when I shouldn't."
It makes me smile, even though my mouth hurts and is covered in blood.
I walk into my father's room and go straight to the counter where the painting supplies are stacked up. I grab an empty canvas and rummage through the box, inspecting all the other supplies.
Who would have thought that my first fight over a girl would be for a girl who isn't even mine?
I can hear her still crying as she's pulled down the hallway again for what I know really is the last time. I sit down in the chair and stare at the box full of his art supplies. I begin to pull them out one by one.
It was eight hours later and almost daylight when I finally finished the painting. I set it aside to dry a
nd fell asleep until dark. I know she won't be in his room tonight and that makes me sad for both of them, and even a little selfishly sad for myself.
I stand at his door for a little while, waiting to knock, wanting to ensure his brother isn't in the room. After several minutes of quiet, I knock softly on the door.
"Come in," he says, although his voice is so weak tonight, I have to strain to hear it. I open the door and take a few steps into the room. When he sees me and fails to recognize me, he attempts to sit up several inches. It looks hard for him.
God, he's so young.
I mean, I know he's about the same age as me, but death makes him look younger than he should. Death should only be acquainted with the old.
"Hey," I say as I slowly make my way into his room. "Sorry to bother you, but . . ." I glance back at the door and then to him again. "This is weird, so I'm just gonna say it. I . . . I made you something."
I'm holding the canvas in my hand, afraid to turn it around so that he can see it. His eyes fall to the back of it, and he inhales a breath and attempts to push himself further up on the bed. "What is it?"
I walk closer to him and point to the chair, asking for permission to sit. Adam nods his head. I don't show him the painting right away. I feel like I should explain it first or explain me or, at the very least, introduce myself.
"I'm Owen," I tell him after I take a seat in the chair. I motion to the wall behind his head. "My father has been in the room next door for a few weeks."
Adam regards me for a moment and then says, "What's wrong with him?"
"He's in a coma. Car accident."
His eyes become genuinely sympathetic, and it makes me like him almost immediately. It also lets me know that he's nothing like his brother.
"I was driving," I add.
I don't know why I clarify that to him. Maybe to show him that even though I'm not the one dying, my life isn't much to envy.
"Your mouth," he says, making a weak effort to point at the bruise that has formed since my scuffle in the hallway last night. "Were you the one who got into a fight with my brother?"
I'm taken aback for a moment, shocked that he knows about it. I nod.
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