Together Forever by Kate Bennie

quickly took a drink, lifting my right hand to tip the glass. When I was sure that no liquid was left, I let go of it as the person took it away. I heard it clank against something, which I’m guessing is a side table. I then took my hand and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

“Can you guys turn off the light, please?” I heard myself croak. I sounded broken. I sounded weak. I sounded like my old self before I met Ryan, I thought. I quickly erased it from my mind and concentrated on opening my eyes. I felt the red from my eyelids dim, slowly opened my eyes. “Can you slowly turn it back on?” I croaked again, as my eyes began to adjust.

Gladly, it was one of those switches that you can control the dimness.

It took about 5 minutes until I finally was adjusted to the light. I saw the guys standing near the door, next to the light switch. Josh , Scotty, Danny, Kevin, Jack and my brother. I saw Stephanie beside her. The door then opened, and a head popped inside. John ?

I quickly craned my head to see who the fuck was beside me. I then glared and pushed him off. Everyone else gasped. I glared at them and they muttered incoherent words before opening the door and walking out one by one. My brother and Stephanie looked at me in an understanding way.

“I’ll leave you two to talk,” Tristan said gruffly with a nod, and followed his girlfriend out the door, closing it behind him.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him, I was quite shocked with how powerful my voice sounded. He was now seated on a chair beside my bed.

“Am I not allowed to be here?” he glared at me.

I laughed dryly. “You decide to care now?”

“What are you doing here anyways?”

“Don’t answer my question with a question,” I snapped.

“You’re not supposed to be here. You’re supposed to be at home, safe. With no broken ribs, perfectly safe.”

“So, you’d only care if I break a rib? So, shall I break the rest of my bones, so you’d actually sit here and talk to me for more than 2 minutes?”

“I told you, your sport is more dangerous than mine. You broke a rib and have I gotten an injury? No,” he took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose.

I scoffed. “As if I know what’s going on with you nowadays.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you don’t care enough to let me know you’re going on vacation. With the team. With girls,” I glared at him.

“So, you’re my mom now?” he retorted “And I did tell you,” he said matter-of-factly.

“After I asked you about it. If I didn’t ask you, then you wouldn’t have told me,” I said. He kept quiet and looked down, taking a sudden interest at his hands. “You’re not denying it,” I said quietly. “What happened to us?” I asked him.

He looked up at me, surprised. “What are you talking about? Nothing happened.”

“Nothing?” I scoffed. “Ryan, look at us. You’re 5 feet away from me, and you’re leaning towards the door. You wanna get out of here already because you know that your friends would be looking for you soon. We speak to each other, what? Once a week? When was the last time you’ve said a word to me? When I called you that one time? When was the last time you told me you loved me? 2 months ago? Remember when you couldn’t bear to not talk to me for more than 2 hours? I miss that Ryan. The Ryan that would turn down anything to be with me,” I said on the verge of tears but nothing came out.

“You started it. You took that project and spent no time with me, so I decided to do something better,” he said.

“Ryan, that was for my family, if you didn’t realize. And also if you didn’t realize, that after that, I tried my best to spend time with you, but you were too scared that the team would find out.”

“It was your idea.”

“It was, but I didn’t mean to take it seriously,” I sighed.

“It was your fault,” he said.

That caught me off guard. “Get out,” was