Bleeding Color

20. Present

My grip on Logan slips the moment she tells me she's still in love with Emily. I let Logan drift away from me, and don't attempt to pull her back. I chose Logan, but clearly she chose someone else so it's time to take Christina's advice and move on. Logan and I don't speak for nearly a week, and each day has its ups and downs due to Logan's absence. Some moments I completely forget about Logan, but others all I want to do is run to her.

Christina suggests putting my energy into something more productive than pining over someone who doesn't want me, although her words aren't nearly as blunt. I take her advice and make an attempt at starting to write again. I used to write stories all the time when I was younger, but have pushed writing aside for the majority of the last three years. Planning out a novel is an effective distraction from heartbreak, and I wish I had thought to do so months ago.

Christina sits on the couch beside me, allowing me to rest my legs across her lap as she catches up on several comics that she was forced to neglect during the last couple months of school. Christina and I spend half of our day exactly where we are and neither one of us minds how our summer is starting out. Planning a novel, although therapeutic, has its momentary lapses of frustration when ideas clog my mind to a point that zero cohesive ideas are able to force their way out and onto the document in front of me.

Chloe visits later in the day in order to spend time with my sister and I, and we manage to do a lot of the same with the addition of Chloe browsing social media on the loveseat adjacent to Christina and me. Chloe's phone begins to ring a couple hours after she arrives and she immediately sits up with a look of confusion and worry. Chloe leaps to her feet seconds after answering her phone. By the time she hangs up, Christina and I are on the edge of the couch, waiting for some sort of explanation.

"That was Laurel," Chloe states, her eyes connecting with mine. Chloe seems as shocked as I am that Logan's older sister would be calling her. "Logan is in the hospital. She's going to be okay, but needs immediate surgery."

"How is she okay if she needs immediate surgery?" Christina's voice cracks as she speaks.

Chloe wrinkles her eyes at me, "Logan didn't tell you, did she?"

"Obviously not." Christina answers for me as I shake my head.

"Cammie, grab your coat. I'll explain on the way." Chloe makes a beeline to my front door. I question her statement about my coat considering the warm weather, but Chloe only shrugs explaining her statement is only a side effect of her flare for the dramatic. Christina, although initially opposed to the idea, agrees to stay home instead of accompanying Chloe and me to the hospital.

Chloe debunks every presumption I've had about Logan over the course of the last month our short car ride to the hospital. Logan never went to stay with Emily, she went to stay with her mother for several weeks due to health complications she was having. Her doctor had requested she not be left alone for an extended period of time. Logan never told me, but she had a surgery scheduled for the end of June. However, due to the complications Logan was having, she was rushed to the hospital.

Chloe knows exactly where to go once we speed walk through the front doors of the hospital, and the thought washes over me that in order for Chloe to be familiar with the building means that she has to be a fairly frequent visitor. I recognize Laurel once I step into the waiting room, but I don't recognize the woman sitting beside her. Both Laurel and the stranger stand to hug Chloe. Laurel turns to me after hugging Chloe to ask, "Oh so you're still around?"

"Laurel!" The stranger scolds Laurel for her abrasive question.

Laurel shrugs and rubs the side of her neck, retracting her inappropriate question. "Sorry, force of habit. Cammie, this is my mom."