The Truth Hurts

77 │not ready for goodbye

The coffee cup trembles in between the girl's palms. Although she had spent a good ten minutes in the bathroom scrubbing vigorously to get every ounce of blood off of her hands, she can still see the faintest red outline tracing around her cuticles and underneath her fingernails. Steam rises from the small opening on the plastic lid, the cup still as full as it was when the doctor had first given it to her. Her blonde hair is pulled back into a ponytail, her bangs messy to the point to where they nearly cover her eyes. She continues to stare forward at the cup in her hands, feeling as the heat slowly fades away from its foam surface—much like the life slipping from someone's body. And all she can hear is a piercing, continual noise.

Beep... Beep... Beep...

"Ms. Chambers?"

Casey blinks, coming back from her brief daze. She looks up to see Dr. Adrian Navarro still standing there, a handsome man not much older than her. He has dark brown, medium length hair combed back behind his ears which compliments his almond eyes well. Light freckles scatter across his perfectly tanned cheeks up to the tip of the Filipino's nose. He doesn't smile, nor frown for that matter. He, too, wears the same expressionless look as her.

"Sorry." Realizing how hoarse her voice sounds, she takes a moment to clear her throat. "What did you say?"

"I was asking if you had a chance to contact anyone." He continues on with a conversation he apparently must have been having with himself earlier. "Friends, family?"

"My parents are here. Last time I saw them, or heard them really, they were in the hallway arguing about something stupid. Perfect timing, huh?" She rolls her eyes, not even intending to spend another second acknowledging how ridiculous her parents are acting. "And my sister is probably with them playing the referee."

"Sorry, I meant the family of..." He stops himself.

"Oh. He didn't talk to his parents much. His mom was a drug addict who left when he was a kid and he emancipated from his abusive ass-of-a-father the day he turned 17." She stares back down at the cup, the right corner of her lips slightly rising as her mind wanders to a happier place. "When he told me all of this, I couldn't even picture how it must have been like to have no parents—no real parents anyways—in your life. But he just smiled and reassured me that all of the struggles we face and overcome, they just make us stronger."

Casey looks up at him, feeling her eyes begin to water. "That's what made him who he really is, you know? That's what made him Riley."

"He's a strong man." Adrian nods, placing his hand on the thin metal rail lining the foot of the hospital bed. "And he's lucky to have you here by his side. He's going to need all the help he can get if he wakes up."

The two of them both turn to face the bed. Tucked tightly under the sheets, a pale Riley lies flat on his back facing up at the tiles on the ceiling. His eyes are closed, arms and legs extended stiffly, and his neck is wrapped in several layers of gauze and bandages. His mouth is slightly open, just wide enough to allow a rather thin silicone tube to fit in between his lips. A clear strip of tape holds it to his mouth, the tube leading down his throat past his vocal cords and into his windpipe. The other end connects to a ventilator set up just underneath the heart rate monitor.

"When he wakes up." She corrects him.

Adrian looks at her, but already knows that he had explained enough earlier on when they had finished up with Riley's surgery and moved him down to a room in the Intensive Care Unit.

At this point, she can feel that the coffee is hardly lukewarm through the foam cup. In no time, it will be ice cold. "How could this happen?"

"Due to all the blood loss, during the surgery he slipped into cardiac arrest—"