My Brother's Best Friend 

Chapter 31: Arrested

-Mallie's POV-

Every Sunday in New York at the local Hospital there's a Read for the Children activity where anyone who'd like to read to sick or disabled children can come and read. Anna got me doing it a while back and I've been doing it ever since. I met a little girl there who was diagnosed with leukemia and she's been fighting so hard for her life. She has an amazing story and I've even spent time with her on numerous occasions. I come to visit her at least three times a week including every Sunday and I can honestly say that she's almost like the little sister I never had.
Despite everything she's ever been through she's the happiest little girl I've ever met. And she's always been good at spreading her happiness to others considering she's only seven years old.
I walked towards the reception desk of the hospital and smiled at Beth.

"Hey Beth," I smiled.
She returned my smile with her own. "Hi, Mallie, how are you doing?"
"Good," I replied, "how is she?"
Her smile slowly flickered away and I knew I was about to hear bad news. She shook her head. "She's not responding to the treatments we've been giving her, but she's hanging in there."
"Oh," I whispered, "well I'm going to go ahead and go in there." I said.

She nodded and I began my way towards Morgan's room. When I walked to her door I took a quick peek through the window and her older brother Cole was in there.
Cole was in my grade at the same school. We had a couple classes together and spoke quite a bit. He's a sweet guy and I admire how strong he is despite what's happening to Morgan.
I opened the door and Morgan's face spread into the cutest little smile I've ever seen and of course that made me smile too.
Cole stood up and we hugged each other.

I laughed. "Hey Cole,"
"Hey, how've you been, I heard about your accident?" he asked pulling away.
I sighed. "It's kind of complicated my life a bit because I can't remember the last five months of my life before the accident, but I'm hanging in there." I smiled then turned towards Morgan.

I pulled up a chair next to her bed and smiled. "How's my favorite person in the world been?"
She laughed and threw her arms around my neck. "I missed you," she said, "Cole did too." she whispered. "I think he likes you."
I laughed and she pulled away. "Do you want me to read to you today?" I asked.
She scrunched up her face and shook her head. "No, it's ok, I've really been wanting to show you some of the drawings I've been doing."
"Ok," I smiled.

She took her drawing book out from behind her pillow and flipped it open handing it to me. There was a drawing of a dog and it was detailed to look exactly like a chihuahua.

I smiled. "Did you draw this to look exactly like Cole?" I asked raising my eyebrows and she began to laugh hysterically.
I showed Cole the drawing and he started to laugh too. "I think I'm a little more good looking than that," he said shrugging his shoulders as we all started to laugh.

My phone started ringing and I pulled it out, looking at the contact.

Jared.

"I'll be right back ok," I smiled at her as I got up and went to stand outside the door.

I clicked 'send'. "Hey-!" I began, but he abruptly cut me off.
"Listen to me Mallie I need your help right now," he said breathlessly.
My expression became worried. "Are you ok?" I asked with worry in my voice.
"You have to believe me Mallie," he pleaded and there was fear evident in his voice.
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What's going on Jared?" I asked shaking my head.
I could hear him take a deep breath from the other end of the line. "I got arrested,"
"For what?!" I cried.
"I don't know!" he said. "They said someone called in anonymously saying they saw me robbing a cafe but I swear Mallie I swear I didn't do whatever they're saying I did!" he pleaded. "You have to believe me!"
"Jared it's ok," I said, "I know you'd never do something like that. Hey, I'm going to come down there ok. I'll be right there."
"Ok, thank you,"