Arise | Jordan Poole

98 | after the storm

Sorry in advance for the emotions.

"It's important to discuss how you're feeling. These are your last sessions before you must make your decision about the course of your life. Jordan, are you ready to talk about that moment?"

Flashback: Thanksgiving Night

There were no words to be shared as the family sat in the waiting room. The last few months were already hard but this didn't make it any better. This was the worst thing to happen.

Jordan was beyond done. He honestly couldn't take it anymore. He needed a break, and a long one. The beeping of the oxygen monitor being the soundtrack to the pain he was going through.

"This is fucked up." Jaiden sighed. She was stressed that her sister was in the hospital and that nothing normal has been happening in their family. She considered Amaria family and if it wasn't one thing, it was the other.

There's a saying that mentions death comes in threes but so does shots in basketball and bad luck. This could be their third round of bad luck. The first was Karena, the second was Jordan possibly being traded, Alex and her attempt would be the third.

"This is so fucked up!" No one was surprised by her outburst. It should've woken the dead but everyone continued to sit in their own thoughts.

Jordan wanted to be alone. He witnessed, for the second time in his life someone he loved wanting to leave this earth. He was taking it the hardest because he could not see the signs, he had no idea what they were.

It wasn't his fault, or anyone else's. They couldn't have known. Alex wore her tough exterior until this very moment.

"This is too much." Monet tried to wrap her mind around it. Talking aimlessly to no one at all. They heard her, they weren't sure what to say.

Was it too much?

Was it unrealistic for a season of life to have all the best and all the worst at once?

As a stone wall in the prehistoric days, Amaria hadn't moved and barely exhaled since getting to the hospital. Of all people, she knew that feeling all too well. She didn't blame Alexandra for what was happening, you can't blame the person in pain for a decision they wanted to make based on their turmoil.

As if gnats were eating at her skin to speak, all of the emotions from the night she attempted to bury were rising to the surface and bubbling over like lava. It reminded her that she has not been back to that hotel since then. Almost as if that period in her life never existed.

Her brain went back in forth from her own vices to what could be Alex's. What was happening in her life that they didn't know? What was the instance that broke her spirit so deeply that they all were in the waiting room with no answers?

Eventually her doctor allowed a visitor at a time to come in. Jordan's heartaches but he knew he needed to see his sister. Holding her hand seemed like he was holding on for dear life.

"Alex, what happened man? You know you could always talk to me? What happened?" Right now, his older sister wasn't able to respond. when his parents worked to the bone, Alex was his babysitter. When he was bullied in school for his weight, she protected him.

When Jordan hit his growth spurt, he was now able to protect himself and her, when Jaiden came along, the world knew not to mess with the Poole siblings.

It seemed so long ago that those times were their reality. Now they were in the emergency room on Thanksgiving, confused, scared and ultimately helpless.