“No, sorry.” I laughed. “I just, I know this sounds strange, but I can’t tell how old you are.”
Her smile brightened. “We’re as old as we feel, right?”
“Right.” And I felt hella old. Especially after that morning’s round of medications. At least I didn’t have to swallow anything anymore. Nah, they just pumped all those fun drugs directly into my veins. Lucky me.
“Weston.” Her voice was crisp. “It’s going to be okay.” She grabbed my hand and patted it.
I looked at her name tag, Angela. It fit. She seemed more angel than nurse anyway.
“Thanks, Angela.”
She looked at me in confusion.
I pointed to the name tag.
She laughed. “Brilliant college boys.”
“What can I say?” I grinned as she helped me back to my bed.
Forty-one or forty-five. I was going to stick with that. She was probably the same age as my mom would have been before her untimely death. She’d had blond hair too. It was probably why I was acting like a lunatic. I wondered if the drugs did that to me, made me more emotional than normal.
“Sleep,” Angela ordered upon returning me to my room. “And I’ll be sure to wake you when your future wife arrives.” She winked.
I couldn’t trust myself to talk. Although I appreciated the nurse’s optimism, it fell on deaf ears. I was already starting to feel the cold seep into my limbs — as if death was coming for me and there was nothing I could do but wait for its all-consuming presence.
“God…” I choked on the word. “I know we haven’t talked much in the past few years. Hell, I told you I hated you when Tye took his own life.” I cursed again and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I don’t even care about myself anymore, just promise me she’ll be okay. If I don’t make it… if you take me, just let Kiersten be okay. She can’t go down that road — I don’t care if you have to punish me, God. If she’s going to suffer, give me her pain instead. If her heart’s going to break, break mine for hers. Please, God… please.” The drugs Angela had given me started to kick in, I fell into a dreamless sleep with that prayer repeating over and over again in my head.
Chapter Forty-Two
Three months ago I wouldn’t have been strong enough to go through this. Now? Now I felt like The Hulk — I’d hold his hand through it, we’d walk through the battle together and in the end, we’d still be holding hands.
Kiersten
“Should I be worried that you haven’t said one word since we’ve gotten in the car?” Gabe asked.
I shook my head. “Nah, just thinking.”
“Right, women and thinking. That never causes any problems for the human race.”
“Hilarious.” I rolled my eyes and grabbed his hand. “Gabe?”
“Yeah.” He clenched my hand.
“Thank you.”
“Just doing my friendship duties. Think of it as a penance for my many sins.” He laughed. I could tell he was trying to make light of what he was doing. I didn’t know why it was so necessary that he constantly put himself down. But there it was.
“Above and beyond friendship.” I squeezed his hand and released it. “Though I am curious. Where are we going? I kind of want to be there when Wes wakes up.”
Gabe grinned. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head. Wes had this all planned out for you guys. Actually, the plan was for me and Lisa to come too. But it’s better this way. Wes did tell me I had to video you though.”
“Video me?” I repeated, dread and fear mixed in my voice. “Video what exactly?”
Gabe just kept grinning.
About thirty minutes later we were pulling up to an old Bridge North of Seattle.
“Time to shine!” Gabe clapped his hands and nodded his head. “This is going to be epic.”
“I have a bad feeling.”
“No punking out. You’re doing this for Wes.” Gabe pointed at me and then stalked over to the bridge where a few people were setting some sort of contraption up.