"How was your visit with Liz?" I asked. Alex shook her head and bit her lip. "Is she okay?"
"She's...struggling," Alex said as she sat down. "I didn't know things had gotten so bad. How could I not have known?"
"Addicts are good at hiding things," I said, reaching out and taking her hand. "You can't blame yourself."
"I do though," she said, looking down at the floor. "She can't go back to school after the cheating charges were found to be true. I feel guilty."
"Guilty that you weren't cheating?" I asked. "Liz made her own bed, now she's got to lie in it."
"Wow, harsh, Connor," she said with a look of surprise. "I'd have thought you'd be a little more forgiving after what's happened."
"Why should I be more forgiving? I'm the one who almost died!" I said, wincing as I felt the pull of stitches in my side. "And that asshole almost killed you, too. Don't forget."
"Like I would ever forget," she said, standing up and walking to the end of the bed. "Cam, he said that you'd treated him badly and humiliated him. That's why he wanted revenge."
"I didn't treat that asshole badly, he was a fuck-up who couldn't fit in!" I shouted.
"And you're such a choir boy, aren't you?" she said, shaking her head. "You're a bossy, know-it-all who thinks that he can simply buy his way out of problems and make people like him."
"What are you talking about?" I said, confused by the sudden shift in her attitude.
"You paid my rent and my tuition and you didn't even ask me if I wanted you to!" she shouted. "You had every opportunity to tell me what you were planning to do, and instead you hid it and just did what you wanted to without consulting me!"
"I was doing you a favor!" I shouted back. A nurse came and stuck her head in the door and asked us to keep our voices down. Sheepishly, I nodded and then looked back at Alex, who was standing at the foot of my bed with an angry look on her face.
"You treated me like I didn't matter," she said. "Like you could just buy me off and I'd be happy. Why didn't you talk to me about what you were planning to do?"
"Because you hate people with money!" I said, looking up at her helplessly. "And I was afraid that if I brought it up, you would dump me!"
"But you thought that paying my bills in secret was a good way to avoid that?" she asked incredulously.
"I didn't...I...shit..." I said, shaking my head as I looked away from her.
"You didn't what?" she demanded.
"I didn't want you to be mad at me and I didn't want you to leave," I said, looking up at her as the raw emotion spilled out. "I haven't felt what I feel with you since Quinn died, and I didn't want to lose you. I want you to stay, Alex. Please. I'm sorry."
Confusion flashed across Alex's face as she listened to me confess my feelings. I watched her as she wrestled with whatever it was she was feeling before she spoke again.
"I don't want to leave you, Cam," she said softly as she moved around the bed and rested her hand on mine. "But you can't buy me. I don't like what money does to people. I don't like the way it changes them and makes them forget what's really important, and I thought you'd forgotten. I thought you were trying to buy me."
"I was just trying to help out," I said as I took her hand. "I knew how worried you were about Liz, and I didn't want you to have to worry about getting kicked out of school or your apartment while you waited for them to find you innocent. I knew they would. Cheating isn't you, Alex."
"You should have talked to me," she said.
"I know, I promise it won't happen again," I said, squeezing her hand. "Please stay."
Alex smiled as she leaned over and kissed me, then nodded. I wanted to pull her into my arms, but the minute I stretched out to her, I felt a sharp pain in my side and winced. Alex stood up and slid onto the bed next to me so that I could wrap one arm around her without having to stretch.
"Is this better?" she asked, looking up at me with a smile.
"Indeed it is," I said as I kissed her forehead. "We'll always find a way."
Chapter Forty-Two
Alex
It was a long road to recovery for both Cam and Liz, but by the time the spring flowers were blooming and the trees were turning green, both of them were out of the hospital and on their way to being well at last. Without her scholarship, Liz had been unable to afford her apartment. Cam had offered to pay her rent, but she’d refused, so I'd had her move in with me to share my place. She went to meetings or therapy every day, and managed to maintain her sobriety after being released, but her lies had caused a deep crack in our friendship.