Love me or hate me it's still an obsession

Chapter 25

"What's happening to him?" Alistair asked the paramedic who had been blue lighted to visit the Wesley offices after a panicked call from Ace about their father's wellbeing. He had collapsed as he was running through some ideas with them out the blue and the scabs on his body had got drastically worse as the days wore on.

The two paramedics had Steve Wesley sat upright on his chaise long in the corner of his office and were taking his blood pressure and shining torches in his eyes, looking at the weird colour they had turned. "What's wrong with him?" Ace asked more coolly, hoping for a better response.

The 1st paramedic turned around and stood up, shaking her head, "I am not really sure to be honest. We will have to take him to the hospital and they can run some further tests."

Ace nodded, scanning the room of all the family photographs his dad had lying around. "Can one of us go with him?" Alistair asked sensitively, looking at his father worriedly.

The 2nd paramedic stood up sternly and looked at the two brothers, "yes, but only one of you."

Ace looked at Alistair who appeared to be devastated, not in a fit state to stay at work, "Al, you go. I'll be alright here. I will come up to the hospital once I am finished for the day."

Alistair looked at his brother shocked; he hadn't called him 'Al' since they were children. "Thank you", he murmured as he walked out with the paramedics, safely in his dad's eyeline the whole time.

Effie looked up from her desk and watched Alistair follow Steve into the lift; as the lift doors shut she turned to see Ace standing in his dad's office doorway. She wanted to say a million things to him but stopped herself, knowing she wouldn't get the response back that she wanted from hm. It would cause more harm than good. Sasha took the opportunity however to make herself known to Ace and shuffled over to him. Effie saw her talking quietly then wiping some fake tears from her eyes before hugging him tightly. Effie felt her whole-body squeeze together, like someone was pushing and pulling her in all sorts of directions, jealousy swarming her body.

"It's weird isn't it..."

Effie turned around and saw Suzie standing behind her, folding her arms against her chest as she leant on the side of the wall next to Effie's desk. She was looking in the direction of Sasha and Ace with disgust. "What is?" Effie asked curiously. Suzie had been overly nice to her for the last couple of weeks since Rita had died and Effie felt like she was constantly walking on eggshells around her, expecting Suzie to snap back to how she used to be with her at any moment.

"The whole love thing... Like you fall in love, but really fall. As in, you crash to the ground, breaking every bone in your body but you don't notice because you have this beautifully handsome man in front of you, telling you how perfect you are for each other, kissing your neck, touching you in places you didn't even know existed... and then, he leaves you. That is when you feel it. You cry to yourself, alone, every night, you try to distract yourself, trying to find places you haven't been with him just so the air doesn't taste like him. You try and hold all the shattered pieces of your body together but even his jumper that you still have, that still smells of his aftershave, can't hold your bones together like a cast, they don't bond the cracks in your ribs where your heart is shattered. Nothing can stop that dull ache you feel in the depths of your chest..." She suddenly turned her gaze to Effie, "so tell me, how are you really doing?"

Effie gulped, every word that had come out of Suzie's mouth was true. She had felt it. She felt like she had seen too many unrealistic movies and too many fictional stories where the girl always ends up with the guy. She never expected to fall, to break every single part of her, feel her body rip apart, to be crying on the bathroom floor... alone. Effie looked down at her keyboard, her mouth slightly open as she thought of the right thing to say. "Some days I can't stop thinking about him..." She looked over at Ace then up at Suzie, her teary eyes saying a thousand words, "... and other days, I wonder why I have wasted my time."