Savin' Us

Chapter 31- This is It

I stop by the hospital. Whether my parents want to throw me out or not, I need to see my mother.

"Sweetheart, I'll be out in a few days. They're just keeping an eye on me. I'll be fine."

I wanted to cry but the doctors- not van Hale because he seemed to be avoiding me- assured me she would be fine if she continued with the medication. They just wanted to keep her for observation and more tests.

"I know, Mom. I didn't say anything." She started reassuring me the moment I walked through the door. "I just wanted to see you."

She looks sceptical and I feel horrible. Dad sits down next to us and smiles at me.

"Look, I know I've been caught up in my own stuff for the past few months," I start. "But I have been thinking about how much I've turned my back on you both over the past year and I'm sorry. I'd never forgive myself if..."

"Oh, honey." Mom tries to hug me but she's unable to sit up. She pats my cheeks. "I'm to blame too. I've been keeping this from you for so long. Your father wanted me to tell you but I didn't want you to fuss. Lord knows he's been doing it enough."

Dad shrugs. "Sorry, my love. But I'm not sorry."

I smile. "Is there anything else I should know about? Or was this what you've been hiding and arguing about for so long?"

"No more secrets here, baby girl," Dad says.

I pull both of them in for a hug. I don't tell them about the van Hales. Mom is really close with them and I don't want her walking out of the hospital because she is upset with them. No. That I'd keep from them until she got better.

I leave the hospital and went back home.

To Marcel.

When I get there he isn't home. So I sit on the couch and I wait. It's dark outside now. His meetings were supposed to be long over.

Where are you, Marcel?

Marcel

I'm​ at the park. The one Lee's father used to take me to when I was younger. I sit in front of the small pond and stare at nothing.

It's​ dark so I can't see anything but even if I could, staring into nothingness seems like a better alternative. I don't want to think. Not about my parents. Not about her. Nothing.

But life doesn't seem to ever give me what I want.

I sigh as my best friend sits down next to me. He doesn't speak but there's so much weight in the silence that he might as well have been yelling. "What do you want, Lee?" He doesn't answer for a while and I look at him. He seems so deep in thought I don't think he heard me.

"You remember that time when I came over to your house for Thanksgiving and your Mom threw me in the kitchen? You know she's the one who taught me how to cook?" He smiles, sadly. "And your dad always said I'd need it later in life because women love men who know their way around the kitchen. He really understood how women think."

"Only man in history," I add.

He chuckles. "He was right, you know?"

"That food is the way to a woman's heart?"

"That too. But no." I look at him. "On your tenth birthday. He told you that you'd become a man he'd be proud of someday. That no matter what life threw your way you'd be able to overcome it. Granted you were ten and could care less about that inspirational crap but it stuck with me. Maybe because I knew that I'd need to remind you later."