'I'm beginning to think I imagined you all along'

XIV

"I just don't know what to do, you didn't see him Woody, he was so distraught. One minute he was in tears and squeezing my hand and the next minute he couldn't even look at me. I don't know how I'm suppose to help him if he won't even let me in" Suha let out a long sigh before taking a sip of the fourth cup of tea that Marco had made for her, she puts the cup back onto the coffee table and let's herself fall into the sofa, leans her head back and rests it upon the cushions and stares towards the ceiling. Marco reaches over and takes one of her hands into his and softly says "look, there is a long way to go. With the amount of injuries that we pick up of course he is going to be thinking the worst right now" Suha pulls her head forward and looks at Marco "it was the doctors, the doctors told him that his leg is shattered. He's never going to get over this, not if he can't play again. It will ruin him" as the words fall out of Suha's mouth she can feel her eyes welling up with tears "I can't help him Woody, there's nothing I can do, nothing" she says. Tears start escaping and she quickly brushes them away with the back of her hand "and anyway, he doesn't want my helps so what's the point" she huffs, pulling her hand from Marco's grip and grabbing the cup from the table she takes another gulp of tea and tries to calm herself, fighting the tears and winning. Marco stands up and holds out his hands in Suha's direction, she looks up at him puzzled "come on" he says, with a half smile and a glint in his eye. He signals with his hands for her to come towards him but Suha shakes her head "come onnnn" he repeats, before leaning down and wiping away the smear of mascara that's rolling down her face "I won't let you do this Suha, I won't let you beat yourself up so come, ONNN" he reaches down and grabs her hands before pulling her to her feet, she shakes her head once more but this time she is smiling, for the first time all day. "What are we doing?" She says, still very confused "you will see, now go and sort your mess of a face out, nobody wants to see you like that" he says, with a cheeky smile "and go and get a shower while you're at it, I think half of London can smell you, go on" he jokes, pushing her out of the room "okay okaayy, I'm going!" She says, before plodding out of the room and towards the bathroom.

Suha had just finished showering and getting dressed and started to head into the living room when she heard an unfamiliar voice coming from behind the door, Marco definitely didn't mention anything about inviting anybody else round. She opens the door and makes her way to the living room to find Marco talking with some guy that had his back to her "Ahhh here she is!' Marco blurts out and the other guy turns his head around before standing up and offering his hand "hi! You must be Suha, I'm Luke" Suha instantly recognised him, his wispy blonde hair and startlingly bright blue eyes were hard to ignore, he was beaming his grin in her direction and for a moment she froze, before leaning over and awkwardly shaking his hand "heyyy, I know you!" She says, smiling herself "you play for Manchester United" Luke smiles a wide close lipped smile and nods his head "yeah, yeah I do. Well, not much this season as you probably already know" he lifts his leg and points to it "I feel like bloody Iron Man or something now, pins and poles and all kinds of weird things but it feels good to be training again" he says, before lowering his leg and sitting back down on the sofa. Suha makes her way over to where they're both sat and stands in front of them "yeah I can't imagine it was easy, but it's such good news that you're on your way back" she replies "well that's kind of why I wanted you to get ready" Marco says "I thought that you could speak to Luke, you know with Aaron's injury, it's really similar and I thought he might be able to give you some advice, so I've asked him to come out to dinner with us" Suha's face dropped "oh right," she says, her stomach churning. Aaron's injury. For the best part of 2 hours she managed to put it out of her mind, but there it was staring her right in the face. Her boyfriend was laying in a hospital bed with a shattered leg and probably a broken heart to match and she was about to go out for a nice meal with one of her closest friends, enjoying herself. Feeling guilty she changes her mind "actually, you know what, I think I'm gonna call it a night. I'm so tired and I've been so busy today, seeing Aaron and making trips here there and everywhere. It's best that I go home. But thank you for the offer anyway and it was nice to meet you Luke" she picks up her bag and coat from the chair in the living room before spinning on her heels to face them both "oh and thanks for today Woody, it means a lot. Thanks for being there. I'll see you soon okay?" she says, before turning around and making her way to the front door. Before she can reach it she feels a hand grasp the top of her arm, she whips her head around to see Marco "what?" She says bluntly "what is going on here Suha?" He says before loosening his grip and furrowing his brow "why are you leaving? I did this for you" he lets go of her arm and runs his hands through his hair "I didn't ask you to? You just went ahead and did it without even asking what I wanted. Do I really want to sit and talk to some guy about how he broke his leg and how great his recovery is? No. I want to be at home, my home, OUR home, with Aaron. Watching our favourite tv shows, laughing about how he's gotta see Olivier in the morning and listen to him moan about some woman he slept with at the weekend, cook him his favourite meals, listen to our favourite songs, plan our future together. But now I can't do any of that can I? Because he is bed ridden and on his own while I am here with you and your pal getting ready for night on the town" Suha turns her head and lunges for the door and in one swift movement the door is open and she is gone.

Pacing down the hallway towards the elevator Suha can feel the pain from her heart rising higher into her chest, a lump forming in her throat. "Don't do this, not now, I need to get home" she whispers under her breath. She arrives at the elevator, frantically taps the button to call it and tightly shuts her eyes, she takes deep breaths but can feel her lips trembling, her hands shaking, her throat closing and her chest feels like it's on fire but she tells herself she can't cry, not here not now. "It's okay you know, to be sad, to cry, to worry until you're nearly having a full blown panic attack outside an elevator while some random guy is talking to you" Suha immediately opens her eyes and spins around "well technically you do know me, we met about 5 minutes ago before you rushed out and gave some pretty lame excuse about being too tired" He gives a shy smile and tilts his head to the side "you don't have to do this on your own" he says gently "Woody just wanted to help you, I know it's scary but I promise it's gonna be okay" The elevator arrives with a loud ding and startles Suha, still breathing quite erratically but able to swallow once more she nods and speaks softly "Thank you, Luke, It's been a long day and emotions definitely got the better of me. I really do need to go anyway but really, thank you" they both smile at each other before Suha steps into the elevator and patiently waits to be taken down to the ground floor. She rummages around in her bag to find her phone, she pulls it out and see's a whole list of notifications but at the top sits 7 missed calls from an unknown number, Suha swipes them away to reveal a voicemail has been left. She calls the voicemail line to see who it's from and she follows the instructions. Suha's body froze to the spot, she could feel her stomach turning and her head started to feel heavy. She replays the message and pulls her hand up to her head clenching her fist before resting it on her temple "no no no, not again, not, again, I can't do this again, I can't" she mutters. Shaking her head and stumbling out of the elevator she replays the message again "Suha! Suha.. Suha look hey it's Olivier, I just.. well I was just visiting Aaron and I swear I only left him for 5 minutes and when I came back to his room he had gone. I asked the nurse on duty if she had seen him and she told me he had been rushed up to theatre. You need to get here, quickly"