Font Size:  

“We’ll need to wash her stomach, attempt to remove the rest of the toxin. Please wait outside.”

The fear in Callum’s eyes broke my heart. His voice was so nervous, so unlike him. “Help her, please. Please make her ok again.”

“We’ll be doing our very best for her.”

I took his arm, pulling gently. “Come on, Callum. Let them work. She’s in the best hands.”

He hovered just long enough to put his face to hers. “You’ve gotta get better now, alright? These nice people are gonna take care of you. Love you, Case, so much.”

The savage’s eyes were wet with tears when he rose, but he didn’t linger any longer.

***

Callum collapsed in a heap in the corner once the vet was out of sight.

“I’m going to fucking kill him,” he growled. “Just as soon as she’s alright. Gonna cut his fucking heart out.”

“No,” I said. “He wants the fight. Don’t play into his hands. You’re better than that.”

“Don’t fucking feel like it.”

“Casey wouldn’t want it,” I said. “She’d want you to think about your art, about staying out of prison, about how much I need you to come home with me. She needs us, both of us. We’re her home now, Cal.” I pressed my cheek into his back, soaking his hoodie with tears. “Please don’t push me away.”

“Ain’t getting back together for Case’s sake,” he said.

My heart dropped, pain piling on top of pain.

I was numb as he reached for my hand, barely registering he was holding me until he said the words.

“I’m doing it for me.”

***

We sat there for what felt like hours. Waiting, hoping, praying. We’d flinch every time we heard footsteps, but they’d only be offering coffee. I’d think I’d have it together, only for the image of her big brown eyes to reach out and bludgeon me all over again. Callum was quiet in his grief, locked up inside himself with just the occasional outburst, but for me it bled wild.

“You should go,” he said. “You’ve got work and shit.”

“I haven’t. They suspended me.”

“Why?”

“Doesn’t matter now.”

He didn’t push it and I didn’t share.

“It’s all fucked,” he said. “All of it. Got a fucking exhibition tomorrow, all my paintings and shit. I dreamed about it when I was a little kid, and now it’s all fucked. Can’t do it now she’s like this.”

I smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile, not really. “You’re at the new Southbank complex.”

“Dunno. Yeah, maybe.”

“No maybe about it. It’s the biggest event of the year. I know, my parents built the fucking place.”

“Don’t matter now, does it? Won’t be going.”

I reached out to touch him, the slightest touch of my fingers on his knee. “Of course it matters. You have to go, it’s your big break.”

“Won’t mean anything now.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like