Oh Boy! (BL)

21 - Of Friends And Family (3/3)

"Of course I wiped the floor with him," I chuckled quietly against the cover of mom's blanket the next afternoon after work. "When you wake up, I'll ask all of my friends over. We'll make a big party and you..." I cleared my throat. "You'll see that I'm not alone anymore."

I knew she'd love to meet them all.

Right now, Cooper was waiting for me at the lobby flipping through magazines to kill some time. Yesterday, GoldenBoy92 had once again proven to be a man of honor. The moment our time limit ended he already lifted his phone and asked the only question that mattered: "Pizza or Chinese?"

"I ate your favorite," I chuckled.

But my chuckle got caught in my throat when quiet sobs erupted from the other side of the curtain that separated the two beds. The whole time, Clara had been so quiet that I had just assumed that she was asleep. Seemed I had been wrong.

"Clara?" I got up from my chair and hurried to her bed.

She wasn't sleeping. Far from it. Clara was crouching on her bed, arms wrapped around the veil of red hair that covered her bent knees, and her body was trembling from her heartbreaking sobs.

"Hey," I put my hand on her back. "Clara, what's wrong?"

"BB..." She croaked.

I frowned. "What's with him?" Did he get into another fight with the nurses?

He did not.

"He ran away!" She yelled into my face.

My hand on her slim back halted when I looked at her red face that was covered in her tears. "He..."

With one hand, she wiped away the tears. "Marc...called me...he though BB might be with me."

"Um...who's Marc?"

"Ben's dad...my..." Her voice broke and I didn't understand a single thing anymore.

While looking at Clara's desperate expression, I hesitated momentarily. It wasn't my stye to dig into matters that were none of my business...but this was about more than just hurt feelings. This was about Clover's safety. "Clara, who is Ben to you?"

For a moment, I thought she'd refuse to answer my question, given the way her eyes turned guarded. "Okay," she whispered eventually.

And then she told me everything.

Clara met Ben for the first time in elementary school. "It was the first day in my new job and I was terribly nervous. But then this shy little sunshine burst through the door. Ben was such a cute little boy."

Elementary... My mind did acrobatics when Clara stopped talking after few words, but I didn't get it. "You must be one hell of a teacher if your students visit you in hospital after all these years."

She started trembling.

"Clara!"

"He's more than just my student," she whispered.

I gulped. "Um...you don't imply...that...you and him..."

"No!" She made a disgusted face. "Gosh, Ken! What do you even think of me! Gross!"

I winced. "Sorry, but I still don't get it."

Clara mumbled something into her hand that half covered her mouth.

"What?"

"I've been a teacher for so many years now, Ken, and by now I enjoy waking up every day. I'm excited to see my class, hell, I even like grading papers. But when I first started, I was a mess. I've always loved working with children, but what really got to me were their parents." Clara snorted. "But, hey, it's part of the job, I thought. I was halfway through my first parent teacher talk and had just finished listening to a mother's complaint that her son was gifted with intelligence when the most handsome man of all came rushing through the door." Her cheeks blushed. "He looked at me, closed the door and asked me if I was okay. I was so tired that I just shook my head."

I smiled. There was so much affection in her voice.

She sighed. "We didn't even talk much that evening, really, we just sat there for like fifteen minutes. We'd never seen each other before, but somehow, he just knew I needed some time to breathe and when he got up and said goodbye to me, I knew I was in trouble. Relationships between teachers and students are strictly prohibited."

"But you became a couple anyway?"

She shook her head. "For four years, the only thing we shared were secret glances and nothing more. Until the day Ben graduated to Middle School." Her eyes were fixed on nothing and everything. An invisible spot over my shoulder only she could see. "Marc was waiting in front of the building, a bouquet of flowers in his hands. I must've looked like a total goof when he approached me and asked me out in front of all my colleagues and the kids." She chuckled. "Ben rushed over to us and screamed Yes before I could even react."

I smiled.

"We were so happy, Ken. A real family. And I love Ben as if he were my own son."

"What happened?" I asked quietly. Stories like these always ended in a heartbreak.

Clara looked down and I saw that there was her little clover talisman on her blanket. "Ben's mom's parents...Sarah's parents began eyeing me with suspicion when I got a job offer in San Francisco."

"Why that?"

"Sarah died right after giving birth to Ben but her parents have always been by Ben and Marc's side. Maybe they thought I'd leave them behind and go to San Francisco. It would've broken Ben's heart." She regarded me with sad eyes. "I never wanted to leave them, Ken. I declined the offer on the day I received it. I would've never left my family." She lowered her gaze. "But they...they kept on saying that it would break Ben's fragile heart if he had to lose another mother. So, it was better to break it off now before he gets too attached."

"And Marc listened to them?"

Clara just smiled.

And I didn't push any further. I could imagine that there had been a fight. And tears. And two...three hearts were broken that day without making any sound.

"I haven't heard of them in a year." She pressed her eyes together. "But - stupid me – I forgot to change my emergency contacts. When I got here, the nurses called Marc's home number and Ben answered the phone...and, well, you know the rest."

Yeah, I knew. Ben had rushed to the side of the woman he seemed to still love like a mother.

"And now...now he's disappeared!" Clara shot me a desperate look. "No one knows where he is, Ken. Why would he do something like this?!"

Because he misses you, I thought sadly, patting her back. Talking to Marc must've been hard for her.

"We'll find him."

At least I hoped we would.