𝐶𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒

Chapter 9 ~ Love

Cole

I'm in the hospital right now because one of our teammates, Mike, got hurt badly during the game. We know it was an accident and we got an apology from the person who did it and the coach. Mike was obviously forgiving because he didn't want there to be any beef.

Me and Elias are the only ones here since, yep you guessed it we are the single ones out. The rest of our team has their own families to be with. While me and Elias, well, we are living.

I was sitting in the waiting room waiting for Mike to be done with his check up with Elias. It's pretty busy tonight. The nurses have been rushing quite a bit. I even saw freaking Dylan here, he was searching for something.

He then went up to the reception and the woman told him something along the lines of 'no' he stormed out.

Me and Elias shrugged at each other and went back to doing our own things. Not worrying about what other things could be happening at the hospital.

"Nurse Callie!" The receptionist called really loudly, it scared me. That put me in a bad mood. I hate when people yell like that.

A nurse then comes running down the hall and to the receptionist. I watch this because I'm bored and have nothing else to do. Elias is playing games on his phone.

"Patient 208, Abby Nelson, the gel is ready. The doctor wants to keep her here overnight or longer." I perk up at the name and so does Elias. We look at each other and continue to listen to their conversation.

Yeah, yeah, I know it's bad to eavesdrop.

"Overnight? She's going to be here for a while with her condition, I'm surprised that we didn't have to amputate her hand." My eyes bulge at this. They were going to cut off her hand!?

"Yeah I don't know, but you need to get back to her. Poor thing came in and she had tears streaming down her face." I cringe at this. What could possibly be wrong with Abby. I have to go see her.

The nurse nods and leaves with the gel. I get up slowly to follow her and Elias gives me a nod, knowing where I'm trying to go. I walk behind her pretty far away and then she reaches a room that reads '208'.

She walks in and I stay back, leaning against a wall to not look suspicious. I see Abby is in there, she has her eyes closed as she is getting gel out on her. I take a look at her hand but can't see it since the nurse is working on it.

The nurse is in there for a while and then walks out and closes the door. She walks past me and smiles, I smile back as she walks away. I will stay here for a while and watch Abby.

I can see tears in her eyes as she cries. My heart breaks for her. I want to go in there but it seems like she is thinking. She mutters a little bit and I decide to get closer to her room. I'm now leaning on the door frame.

I let her notice me by not saying anything. When she sees me, her eyes stick to me and they don't leave as more tears fill her eyes.

I get into the room and close the door. Without saying anything, I grab a chair and plop down in it next to her bed. Her mouth is wide open and her eyes are red.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" She asks to wipe away any sort of evidence of her crying. She can't hide it from me though.

"Well, Mike got hurt tonight. Me and Elias are here with him. I heard nurses talking about you and followed one here." I mutter very quietly but still loud enough to where she can hear.

She chuckles and her head falls back to the pillows. She sits there for a while while I stare at her gorgeous face. Even with tear steaks and snot coming out of her nose. I snort at this.

She lifts her head up to look at me. I then decide to look at the bowl her hand is placed in. I give her a 'can i look' look and she nods while biting her lip. I gently lift up her hand from the bowl and try to be careful with it.

I examine it and see its full off blisters and red bumps, gosh it looks awful. I softly run over the bumps with my finger which makes her wince a bit. I then bring her hand to my lips and give it a soft kiss.

She doesn't whimper at this so I keep my lips on her hand. I look up to her without taking my lips off and see she is resting back, looking down at me with admiration. I smile into the kiss and then release her hands, I put it back in the water slowly.

I then scoot closer and put my hand on her shin. "You don't have to tell me what happened, but just know you can." I say and she nods. I take her injured hand and kiss that one as well.

"Cole?" I lift my head up and look at her. I nod knowing that she can continue with what she has to say.

She sighs and lets out a shaky breath. "I uh- just wanted to say thank you for being here. Always being here I mean. You could have left me a while ago, but you didn't, so thanks." She avoids eye contact with me which makes me smile.

I kiss her hand again and rub against it with my chin. We sit here for a bit in silence. I let her touch my cheek but I can feel myself drifting off.

As much as I want to stay with her, in fact I would in a heartbeat. I have to get going. But I made a promise to myself that I would visit her tomorrow.

I give her a smile and stand up. I then take off the hoodie I'm wearing which has my last name and hockey number on it. I fold it nicely and play it on her lap.

I kiss her forehead and say goodnight to her.

It was so hard to walk out of that room. But like I always do, I make a promise to myself.

"Make her happy, never give up on her, get her out of her toxic relationship."

And most importantly, show her that she is loved by me. I love her. I'm determined to show her how we are so close to love.