Bullet

Chapter 11 - Second Chance Encounters

Chapter 11
Second Chance Encounters

“What are you doing here?” Grayson asked. 

His tone was moderate, not high pitched or angry. I couldn’t read into his words and whether or not he was happy to see me here. After all, I was interrupting his recovery time. And after that phone call with whoever was on the other line, he seemed like he needed time to himself to grieve over the loss of his captain.

I bent down to pick up his now slightly damaged cell phone and palmed it as I walked closer into the room. “You know, I think it’s against hospital policy to be using cell phones around all of these machines,” I joked, gesturing towards his immense amount of machines that must have been responsible for keeping him alive. 

He blushed a bit, the rosy color pooling at the tops of his cheeks. “Yeah, I know. Maureen would kill me if she knew I was on the phone.”

I laughed lightly, handing him back his phone. He was careful not to let our fingers touch, something I felt a bit deflated about. I don’t know why I was upset about no spark being able to fire up between us, considering I barely knew the guy. I shouldn’t have been expecting this grand gesture of love and heartfelt secrets. He flipped his phone back and forth in his hands, jostling the IV that was hooked up in his left wrist. I felt wary about seeing all of these machines beeping and buzzing around us. 

“But it was pretty important,” he whispered in the eerie silence, swallowing audibly as he looked up at me. “I just…I just found out that Carter…”

I cut him off, hoping it would make it easier on him. “I overheard as I was coming in. I can’t believe it…” I shook my head. 

“That guy was like my older brother,” his voice shook slightly. “I can’t fucking believe he’s gone,” he said somewhat viciously, the venom in his voice slipping through on his curse. 

My heart dropped at his confession. I knew Carter was the leader on most of Grayson’s teams and they had practically grown up together while they played sports. They always seemed like they were together, whenever Grayson wasn’t pushing his head in his sketchbooks. A physical aching in my chest occurred as I, yet again, realized my brother was causing all of this mess. I still couldn’t wrap my brain around it. He was now a murderer. A ward of the state. He was never getting out now.

And I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

Nothing more was said between us for a quite a long time. I didn’t know where to start. What do you even say in thanks to the person who literally saved your life by helping you dodge a bullet? He could have picked anyone else to save, my money highly bet on Carter if he was there to see it all happen. Why did he choose me?

“What made you want to stop by and see me?” he urged again, looking up at me with anxious eyes. I almost felt swept up by those charcoal grey, glassy eyes.

I gulped. “Well, uh…my mom…she, um told me that you were in here and that you’d just had surgery. I wanted to…to make sure that you were doing well,” I stuttered like a mad woman, cursing myself for not being able to form one coherent sentence with him in the room. 

What had gotten over me? He was just a boy and I was just a girl who barely knew him. He barely knew me, hadn’t spoken to me once until the day that Carter forced him to hand me the threatening note. My palms were sweating with nerves and my head was spinning with different ways this conversation could possibly go. All I kept seeing on his end was the movement of his phone from hand to hand and his emotional eyes.

Looking up at me once more, he nodded slowly. “So this doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that I jumped in front of the gun for you?” he deadpanned.