A Unique Kind of Love (PUBLISHED)

15. Crestfallen

“Don’t let me go, ‘cause I’m tired of feeling alone.” Harry Styles 

Lena Rose Winter

I walked towards his house, my hands already freezing from the snow falling. There was a possibility of him kicking me out, or not even answering the door. I was mortified of coming to talk to him, but I had to tell him.

Last night was a night where I’d stayed awake until dawn, finishing my application for NYU. He’d promised for us to go get coffee together once we submitted them.

I was aware, of course, that we were far from friends. But it seemed unthinkable for me to forget about that. I couldn’t bare the thought of losing everything.

Best Case Scenario: He smiles at me, he admits that he sent his application too and was just about to come see me. We go out for coffee and doughnuts or we can stay at his house and I can spend time with his more than lovely grandmother; Darla Black.

Worst Case Scenario: He doesn’t open the door and hides for me.

My hopes deflated a little, but I forced myself to expect the worst yet hope for the best.

I knocked at the door three times, stomping my feet on the floor to get snow off my boots.

No answer.

I knocked again, and decided to leave if the door didn’t open in ten seconds. They seemed to pass by too fast, and I could feel disappointment rushing in my head.

Suddenly, I heard a voice behind me. “Who you lookin’ for?” I turned to the voice and saw a woman in her thirties, leaning on the window with a scarf over her head.

“Liam Black and his grandma. Do you know where they might be?” I replied. She chuckled as if I were an ignorant child.

“They’re at the hospital! Darla’s sick.”

I froze. “S-sick?”

The woman grimaced. “Yeah. It’s bad, though. Last time I saw her, she was as pale as the snow you’re stepping on right now.” She stopped for a second, as if thinking. “Her little boy hasn’t left her side in forever.”

“Is it grave?” I asked.

The woman sighed. “Yeah. She has a few days, maybe two weeks left.”

“Do you know which hospital?”

She nodded. “Sainte-Catherine’s.”

“Thank you,” I said, before calling my mom. I gave her a quick resume of what I’d just found out. She came to pick me up in minutes and started driving me to the hospital.

It was a silent, yet long car ride. Sainte-Catherine’s was about half an hour far from my house, and forty-five from Liam’s.

Mom broke the comfortable silence. “Do you think she’ll be okay?”

Darla Black was one of the kindest women I knew. When I went to study at Liam’s house, she always made us hot chocolate and cookies and she made those horrible jokes that make you want to bang your head against a wall yet laugh at the same time.

Liam looked at her as if she were his home. She was the only family he had left, except for two estranged cousins who lived in Australia. She represented the only shelter he had from everything in the world. She was his grandmother, his mother, sister, and most importantly, friend.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.

If the loss of that amazing old woman would affect me in any way, that feeling would be amplified a million times for Liam.