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“You really should stay until they say,” Mom added, sitting in the chair Sydney vacated.
“It’s two days. I’ll be fine,” I grumbled. With my hands beside my hips, I pushed myself up to sit back further in the bed, hiding the grimace of pain at the tightening and stretch of my abdominal muscles.
“Good. I have to get back to work,” Sean said, leaning against the wall across from my bed.
“Why is it he,” I nodded toward Smith, “can stick around, but you have to head back to work? You’re both teachers.” I looked to Smith. “See, Sean is levelheaded. Go. Home.”
“First, I’d love to hang out with your cheery ass—”
“Sean!” Mom interrupted, but he continued, paying her no mind, “but my sub’s having problems with some of my students.”
“That, and I promised Syd I’d watch the kids while she and Cael had trips this week,” Smith added.
I squeezed the bridge of my nose. “At least you won’t be hounding me at home, then.”
“You really shouldn’t take a plane home, Soy,” Mom worried.
“I will be fine.” God, why wouldn’t anyone get that? “Guys, I love that you’re here—”
Sean snickered and I glared at him.
“—but really. I will be fine. Go home. I’ll be home tomorrow.”
After more discussion from my family members that I really thought were unnecessary, they eventually all moved out of the room, leaving with goodbyes. I reached for the hospital-supplied laptop, ignoring the tightness in my stomach as I did so, and placed it on the bedside table, rolling it toward me. Before I had it situated though, Sydney walked back in.
“You really just kicked everyone out?” she asked incredulously.
“I didn’t kick anyone out,” I huffed. “I just told them they didn’t need to be here. I’m fine. Sydney, I. Am. Fine. Go home to your husband and kids.” I pushed open the top of the laptop, powering it on.
This beast was easily ten years old and bulky as all get out, but it served its purpose.
Instead of leaving, Sydney sat in what I had deemed her chair, leaning forward and studying me.
“So. How long have you and Grace been more than just friends?”
I groaned, falling back into my flat, plastic pillows. “Sydney…”
“Well?”
“We’ve been friends since before your wedding.”
“Well I know that, dumbass,” she told me, surprising me with her choice of nickname. “She told me she loved you. She did not break down in the waiting room because she loved someone who was just a friend. Someone she had just slept with the one time. Which is what I’m assuming happened before the whole…debacle.”
My chest got all warm and tight at the same time as hearing that Grace loved me. That meant I had a chance. Slim, I was sure, but the chance was still there.
“Syd…” I shook my head, closing my eyes and letting my head rest on the pillow behind me. “That’s really none of your business.”
“Sawyer!”
I groaned and lifted my head, eyeing my little sister. “Look. We were friends, we had a moment of more, decided friends was best for our situation. That’s the end of it.”
“And then you got jealous about Jeremy, who was jealous of you, and bam. Shot in the tummy,” she filled in.
“I don’t have a tummy.”
“If that’s all you’re taking from that comment…”
I sighed again. “Sydney, just... Look. I care about her. I have for a very long time. I need to figure some things out and then I’m fixing whatever it is that’s keeping her away.”
