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“Call 9-1-1.”
41
Aaliyah
My blood pressureplummeted quickly at Marie’s home. I was rushed to the hospital and put on oxygen. Each breath felt exhausting to take. Once Dr. Erickson found out about my condition, he showed up to the hospital to check in on me. The paleness on his face showed me how dire my situation had become. Then again, I didn’t need him to tell me what I already knew, what my exhausted heart had been telling me for so long.
I was dying.
Marie tried to visit me, but I refused to grant permission to see her. I wasn’t ready to deal with her when I was trying to come to the realization that my life was ending.
I wasn’t leaving the hospital, and I knew that for a fact. Not in my condition. A full day passed as I was being monitored. The room felt so cold as doctors and nurses filtered in and out of the space. They pricked me with needles and watched my numbers, making sure I was still stable.
I felt tired all the time.
All I wanted to do was sleep.
All I wanted to do was close my eyes and make the pain go away.
To my surprise, on day two of my stay in the hospital, I had a visitor. One I’d never expected to be standing in my doorway.
“Damian. What are you doing here?” I asked as he walked into my room. He looked down and somber as he always did. “How did you know I was here?”
“I’m pretty good at finding things out. Can I come in?”
“Sure, but…I’m confused as to why you’re here.” It was no secret that Damian and I weren’t close. We’d only crossed paths a handful of times.
“I’m here on behalf of Connor,” he said flatly.
“I don’t understand.”
“He loves you. You probably don’t want him here because he hurt you. But I’m here because he loves you and he wouldn’t want you to be alone, so I’m going to sit here.”
“Thi-is is crazy,” I breathed out, fatigued. Exhausted.
“Yeah, well, I hear love can make situations a bit crazy.” He scratched at the stubble on his chin. “You need to give him another shot.”
“Damian—”
“Listen, I’m not here to stress you out or anything. Clearly, you’re going through some serious shit. But I just needed to say that. I get it. I grew up in the foster system, too. I got a lot of jaded thoughts about people and trust issues. I have abandonment issues that I can’t even began to express, but Connor isn’t the bad guy, Aaliyah. The rest of this fucked up world is.”
“I don’t know…”
“I get it. You’re hurt. Be hurt. But then, give him another chance.”
“It’s not that easy, Damian.”
“It has to be. Because this is personal to me.”
“How so?”
He clasped his hands together and leaned forward. “You saved me.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“You saved my life. Almost three years ago now, I was at my lowest point. I was thinking about ending my life. I felt lost and alone. I had nobody who gave a shit about me, and I sure as fuck didn’t give a fuck about myself, so I figured what was the point. Then out of nowhere this goofy-ass guy with bad jokes came into my life and kept hammering at me to open up to him. He wouldn’t let up, either. He kept pushing me with his sunshine and corny persona to get me to let him in. After all that work, I asked him why it was so important to him. He told me he met Little Red Riding Hood, and she changed his life for the better.
“He wanted to be able to do the same for someone else. If you never existed…if you never changed Connor’s life, he would’ve never changed mine. I wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for you, Aaliyah. You brought someone into my life who believed that my life was worth living. Someone who gave me a shot to make something of myself when the rest of the world ignored me. So, understand me when I say this is personal to me.”
