“What the fuck did you do that for?” Will yells, his hands waving in the air in frustration. “You ruined my date. Why the hell would you do that? What did you get out of it? Nothing!”
“I think you’re the one that wrecked it. I just made it a little more interesting.” I shrug, not seeing anything that I’ve done wrong. “I made you all be a bit more honest with one another, that’s all.”
Will shakes his head and storms off too, but I can tell he isn’t going after his date, there wouldn’t be any point. She’s never going anywhere near him ever again. I doubt I’ll ever see her again either, which is a shame, but if I ever do by some coincidence, I will make sure that she ends up in my bed.
Chapter Three
Lexi
My tee shirt hangs down to my belly button, grazing my piercing there, and my skinny jeans cling tightly to my waist as I walk. I couldn’t wear one of my signature dresses today, not with the mood I’m in. Last night was a freaking disaster. Every time I think about it, I want to scream. As dates go, it has to be one of the worst in history. It just went from bad to worse, without me even doing anything. What the hell?
But now, as I stand outside the hospital building, knowing what I’m about to face inside, all of that pales into insignificance. How can any of that stuff matter to me when I’m back here? I should be used to it by now, I have been visiting the hospital a lot since I was eighteen years old. But it doesn’t get any easier.
I take in a deep breath and force myself to step inside. There’s a tremor racing through my body as I go, but I keep those legs moving. I have to. I don’t stop at the reception desk, I don’t need to. I know exactly where I’m going. I could get to this room with my eyes closed.
“Jane?” I lean in, checking inside the room before I step inside. I quickly find her, lying on the bed, looking pale and sick. I gulp back, trying to swallow down the thick ball of emotion that lies there, but it remains. Seeing my beautiful, confident sister withering away to the same damn disease that killed our mother, only a few years later, destroys me. I hate seeing her this way, it isn’t her, it’s horrible.
It’s always been
me and her, especially since mom died, we haven’t ever had our father around, so I can’t stand the idea of losing her as well. I know what it did to my mom, what this is likely to do to Jane as well, but I need to remain strong. She absolutely needs me to give her the strength.
“Hey there, Lexi.” She pushes herself into a sitting position, wincing through the pain. But she pushes it down, she doesn’t moan, she never does. I’m sure that Jane does that just for me. “How’s it going?”
She shouldn’t be asking me that, it should be the other way around. But I know Jane, she doesn’t want to talk about being sick. She lives it every minute of every single day, so she wants to hear about me. To live vicariously through me. That’s why I went on the damn date, because normally I’m pretty boring.
“Yeah, it’s good.” I flop on to the chair beside her and smile. “Aside from my nightmare night.”
“Ooh, I have been so excited for you to come here and tell me all about it. It sounds like it was a drama there.”
I can’t help but smile. “Drama doesn’t even cover it. It was unlike anything else. Will was… well, I don’t know what I saw in him in high school. He’s a complete and utter idiot.”
“He was just the cool boy back then, the sexy jock. He didn’t need a personality and unfortunately, he’s carried that attitude with him through his entire life afterwards. He’ll never be anything but dull.”
“Yeah, that’s true.” I shiver. “I’m just glad that I never have to see him again.”
“How did you leave it? Was it super awkward at the end?”
I roll my eyes. “You have no idea. So, when I was on the phone with you, it turns out that some guy was listening in, which was super creepy. Then he started calling me out on what I said on the phone.”
“He did?” Jane looks far too excited about this idea. “What did he say? That’s so weird.”
“He said that I was rude, and that my date probably didn’t like me much either.”
“Wow… what a douche bag. That’s pretty hilarious though, isn’t it?”
“It wasn’t.” I shake my head hard. “Because then he came over to the table and told Will that he was boring me, and basically asked me to leave with him… like I would ever do that.”
But Jane doesn’t look as outraged as I expect her to. She’s actually smiling. “That’s so exciting. Kinda sexy, don’t you think? He was handsome, I bet.” I half shrug, like his looks have anything to do with it. “You should have gone home with him. That would have been so much fun.”
“Are you kidding me? Not a chance. Maybe he was handsome in a suit type way…”
“Ooh, I love a suit guy. Especially one with that cockiness. He sounds like a good time.”
“No. Not a chance. Not for me. I was already on a terrible date with a guy in a suit anyway. I didn’t need to make it worse by going home with some other guy in a suit.”
“But you ended up getting no action last night,” Jane groans as if in agony. “I was waiting for all kinds of sexy stories. I wanted to imagine it for myself because it’s been such a long time.”
Guilt crushes me, like it always does. I want to be the one who inherited this illness, not Jane. It isn’t fair. She’s the clever beautiful one who has it all going for her. I’m the one who’s stuck in a bit of a rut, doesn’t really have any direction, career or otherwise. She was supposed to be a lawyer, someone sharp, fiery and fun. She isn’t supposed to be lying in a bed with tubes hanging out of her. It isn’t right.