The Heartbroken - S01 E109

Story 2 years ago

The Heartbroken - S01 E109

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 109

She looked at me then,

right into my eyes. I

held her gaze, letting

her know I was serious

about this. I could see

her swallow, before

looking away, and

saying, “It’s my mom.”

Something similar to

dread seized my gut. I

knew that Hail was an

illegitimate child. Her

father refused to even

acknowledge her

existence. Hail could only

depend on her mother.

When we were

younger, we even

planned to track her

father so she could

finally talk to him. It

was one of the reasons

why we felt closer to

each other. We both

didn’t have dads.

“What happened?” I

asked her.

“Kyla, she had a mild

stroke.” I could hear the

pain laced in her words.

I could feel the sadness

seeping off every

intonation. “She’s been

in the hospital for a

week now.”

“Oh, my god.” I pressed

a hand against my

forehead. “Is she okay?

Is everything all right?”

“The doctors say she’s

fine, but they still have

to monitor her and

stuff.” She sounded like

a child who tripped and

skinned her knee, but

was trying not to cry,

trying to be strong

whike thinking It’s just

a wound, just a wound.

“Kyla, I’m scared.”

I didn’t know I still had

it in me, but I felt so

guilty for not being with

Hail when she needed

me the most. Whatever

happened between us,

all of it, it didn’t matter.

None of it mattered as

I pulled her in and

hugged her, realizing

how I’d missed the way

we used to hug like

this, missed the smell

of her strawberry

shampoo.

“Kyla?” she said.

“Mm?”

“Did you just sniff me?”

I released her quickly,

pulling away, horrified.

Did I just sniff her? Oh,

my god, nobody told me

idiocy was contagious. I

couldn’t believe I sniffed

her. It took me a few

more moments of

mentally cursing Seth

for influencing me with

his sniffing habits

before I realized that

Hail started laughing

beside me.

“You—the look—your

face—sniff—”

Despite the fact that I

was red-faced and

completely

embarrassed, I couldn’t

help but feel content to

hear her laugh. It would

be so easy for us to fall

back into this, with the

two of us on this table,

back to being best

friends. I missed her. I

missed her so much.

“Can I visit your mom?”

I asked her.

Her laughter died down

as she looked at me

closely. There was a

soft expression on her

face, not quite smiling

so much as trying not

to. “You’d do that?

Really?”

I nodded.

We were both silent for

a while. I tried to absorb

everything that just

happened in the past

five minutes, letting the

weight of missing her

lift off of my shoulders,

trying to take note of

all these feelings

surging through me as

my best friend sat next

to me.

“Kyla, I’m really sorry,”

she said after a while,

sounding like she might

as well start crying

there, “for everything.”

Biting my lower lip, I

reached for the hand

tugging at the hem of

her sweatshirt. I

crossed that distance

and held her hand in

mine, feeling the tears

forming. “Me, too. I’m

sorry.”

We stayed like that for

a few moments, then I

remembered Seth and

stood up. But I wasn’t

leaving Hail. “Come sit

with us.”

She looked surprised, at

the very least. In fact,

her eyes were so wide I

could have sworn she

was terrified. She

looked over at Seth’s

table before looking

back at me. “I don’t

think… Look at me. I’m a

mess. They’re all…

sparkly. What if they

don’t want me