Dysarthria | Dialogue Story ✔

Bonus Chapter 5: Please Forgive Me

Side characters / narrative- regular

Bonus chapter 5: 𝓟𝓵𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓮 𝓕𝓸𝓻𝓰𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓜𝓮

My Man ❤️
Incoming call
9:36am

"Hey, this is Gracie. I probably...waited until-"

-beep-

"Dammit, Gracie!" Cory slammed his phone onto the passenger seat and used one hand to run his fingers through his hair. He hadn't seen Gracie since the night before when she saw him at the club.

He spent the night tossing and turning, checking his phone for any messages from her and thinking about the worst case scenarios. Cory had been texting and calling her since he woke up from his two-hour sleep and he wasn't going to stop until he was able to explain himself.

He was hit with a pang of hope when his phone started ringing, but that hope was quickly replaced with disappointment when he saw it was Mrs. Summers. He picked up the call anyway.

"Mrs. Summers, is Gracie okay? I've been trying to reach her all-"

"She's fine." She sighed, hesitating to tell him the news. Her heart didn't hesitate to drop when she got the call herself. Having to replay what the doctor told her to the only man that ever made Gracie happy made something deep in her chest ache. "She's at the hospital. She was in a car accident last night."

Suddenly, guilt had a tight grip around his chest and the image of Gracie with bruises all over her face and a bandage around her head caused his eyes to tear up. Cory's vision of the road was increasingly blurry and it wouldn't matter if he wiped them away. More tears would make an appearance.

He pulled into the nearest parking lot and took the first empty spot he could find. Cory was still in shock; his hands were trembling on the steering wheel and he noticed in the side rear-view mirror that he lost all color in his face.

Last time he saw her, she was on the verge of having an emotional breakdown. That guilt grew tenfold. "Fuck," he cursed under his breath. "Is she gonna be okay?"

"She's gonna be fine. The doctor said that she broke her arm and she has cuts on her face from the windows, but ultimately, she'll have a full recovery soon enough."

Cory wasted no time in asking what hospital they were at. He needed to see her, to hear the heart monitor beeping in the room as a reminder that she was okay.

-

Cory rushed through the entrance and to the front desk where the lady was typing something into the computer. His heart was pounding so fast from the run to his car to the door and his breaths were coming short and quick. "My girlfriend, Grace Summers, was admitted last night. Where is she?"

"I'm sorry, sir. That information is for family and family only."

Cory was getting desperate. He couldn't wait any longer. He needed to see her. Despite the lack of information he received, he ignored the front desk lady and marched through the halls, screaming Gracie's name.

Cory's eyes were watering up and a painful lump sat in his throat. He couldn't stand being in the hospital. Every time a family member was checked in and he had to keep praying for them to heal and recover, the hospital became his worst enemy.

Now, his girlfriend was in because of him. The fact that it was his fault almost made him vomit. He heard the receptionist yell for security, but their hurried footsteps and demands to stop quickly became background noise. He was approaching the end of the hall when he saw Mrs. Summers outside the room.