24. Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Four
Juliet
B y the time the next morning arrives, Piper’s fever has already started going down.
She’s on the mend, but I’m still keeping her here for observation until her lungs sound better. I don’t want to jump the gun and bring her home, only for her to get worse.
“Want me to braid your hair?” I ask Piper as I sit on the edge of her bed, my fingers brushing through her hair.
Piper nods and sits up a little before coughing into her arm. She frowns and sinks back into the pillows. “My chest still feels funny.”
“I know, baby. It’ll go away soon,” I assure her before scooting closer. “Lay there. I’ll just do a side braid. ”
Piper stays still, letting me twist the long strands of her hair between my fingers until it’s a braid hanging over her shoulder.
I finish it off with a black hair tie and adjust some of the twists before smiling. “There. Beautiful.”
Piper smiles back, but her eyes then shift to look past me. Her whole face brightens. “Leo!”
I turn my head as Leo walks into the room with a pink jellyfish plush tucked under one arm, the strings of multiple shiny Get Well Soon balloons in one hand, and a bouquet of Colorado Blue Columbines in the other hand.
“How are you feeling?” he asks her as he walks over to us.
“Better,” she quips, sitting up more as she gazes up at her gifts in awe.
“Frank says get better soon,” Leo says as he places the weights of the balloons on a nearby table so that she can admire them from her bed. He hands the large jellyfish plush over to her, grinning as she squeezes it in a crushing hug. “And these are for you.”
My eyes widen as he hands the bouquet of flowers to me. “From Frank? ”
“Actually, those are from me,” he tells me.
If my heart wasn’t already racing, it certainly is now.
He got me flowers. Beautiful flowers that are thoughtful and not generic or cliché. We used to love picking these flowers out in the forest.
“Thank you,” I say, unable to tear my eyes away from him.
A warm expression graces his face. “You already know my reply.”
I don’t have to thank him for anything, but I still want to.
“How are we doing today?”
Leo and I both turn toward the door as Lily strides in. She spots the flowers in my hands and raises an eyebrow in intrigue.
“We didn’t properly meet yesterday because of all the craziness. I’m Lily,” she introduces herself to Leo, sticking her hand out.
Leo shakes it. “Juliet said you guys used to work together here.”
Lily nods. “Then, she decided to work for your father. I’m sorry by the way. ”
I can see the tension on Leo’s face when she brings Frank up.
“Thank you. She takes very good care of him,” Leo replies. “We’re both grateful to have her helping him.”
I give Leo a little smile.
“She’s awesome,” Lily says, giving my arm a squeeze. “Anyone would be lucky to have her.”
Can she be more obvious?
“Do the flowers smell good?” Piper asks.
“Let’s see,” Leo replies as he plucks a flower from the bouquet to bring it over to her.
When he has his back turned to us, Lily wiggles her eyebrows at me.
My face burns as I swat at her arm. “Don’t.”
Lily laughs to herself before walking closer to Piper’s bedside. “Does it smell good?”
“Yes!” Piper says, finally starting to sound more like herself .
Lily grabs Piper’s chart. “Okay, Wednesday the 15th. I’m going to get you out of here as soon as I can, Piper.”
My heart lurches. It’s already the 15th of this month? How does it always sneak up on me like this?
Leo steps over to me, leaning close so that I can hear his whisper. “You okay?”
I breathe in, but my lungs don’t feel satisfied with the amount of oxygen I pull into them. “Um…I…”
Lily glances over at us, seeing us close together. She smiles. “I think Piper needs some more rest. Why don’t you go home and get changed, Juliet? Or do whatever you need to do.”
She’s just trying to get me alone with Leo. She probably thinks that we’re working things out.
She has no idea what’s running through my mind right now. Or how much my heart is hurting.
“Okay,” I say, needing some air. “I’ll be back, baby, okay?”
Piper nods and strokes the petals of the flower that Leo gave her .
Leo follows me out of the room, not letting me get too far ahead of him as I head down the hallway. “Juju, wait.”
“I have to go,” I tell him, my voice threatening to shake.
Even after all these years, it still feels like I’m on the verge of dying. Like my heart can’t take it.
Leo grabs my hand and pulls me to a stop. “What’s wrong? Are you worried about Piper?”
I swallow hard and shake my head. “It’s…It’s Mom’s birthday today.”
He perks up. “Really? Are you going to go see her? Can I come? I’ve been meaning to ask how she’s doing.”
He doesn’t know.
I part my lips to tell him, but I can’t say the words. It’s still so hard to talk about.
Maybe I should just show him.
“You can come with me,” I say, my voice coming out stiff.
Before he can ask again if something is wrong, I turn on my heel and walk out of the hospital, making my way toward his car. “I’ll tell you where to go. ”
“She’s not living in your childhood home anymore?” Leo asks as he opens the passenger’s side door for me.
I quietly shake my head and get inside, clutching the bouquet to my chest. The delicate petals brush against my skin, but I can’t appreciate them as much as I want to right now.
My mind is around ten miles away.
Once Leo gets in the driver’s seat and starts the engine, I tell him which streets to turn down, not looking at his face because I don’t want to see the confusion turn into realization.
Especially as we approach the open gates of the Evergreen Heights Cemetery.
Silently, Leo parks in the small parking lot and shuts off the engine.
“Juliet…I’m so sorry.”
I sniffle, tears already trying to pool in my eyes. “I wanted to tell you earlier, but it’s so painful to talk about. It feels like my throat is caving in on itself. It’s hard to breathe.”
I finally look at him, seeing the pain written all over his face. He shouldn’t have had to find out like this, but this was the best that I could do .
“When?” he asks.
“Three years after you left.”
Leo closes his eyes for a few moments, shaking his head. “No one told me. No one said anything.”
“I’m sorry. I thought about trying to reach out, but I just couldn’t take seeing you again on top of the grief that I felt.”
He sighs and nods in understanding. “I want to see her.”
I lead him to her grave, following the same path through the headstones that I always take. When we reach it, I lower myself to sit down in front of her rounded headstone, my eyes falling onto her name and the dates of her birth and death.
She was only in her fifties. Far too young to die.
My eyes trail even lower where a recently placed bouquet of white roses lie.
Leo gets down on his knees and rests his hand on the top of Mom’s headstone. “I saw her on the way out of the house when I left. She looked so sad. Part of me wondered if she was sad for you too. ”
“After you left, I told her the truth. I told her that I loved you,” I admit, watching him gaze at the headstone like he used to look at her when she was telling him a funny story or encouraging him when he had a test coming up.
“Was she happy or upset?”
“It was bittersweet,” I say. “She just wanted us to be happy, but she knew that wasn’t possible since you left.”
Leo sits back on his legs and takes another flower out of my bouquet to place it in front of the grave. “Did you visit recently?”
I shake my head. “There are always flowers already here whenever I visit. I think it’s just some nice stranger who puts flowers on random people’s graves.”
That’s kind of them. So many people here are no longer visited by anyone. No friends. No family.
They’re here all alone.
“How did she pass?” Leo asks.
“Breast cancer,” I tell him. “She put up a tough fight, but they caught it too late. She couldn’t fight for too long. ”
Leo sighs, long and heavy. He takes my hand, our fingers twining together. “I’m sorry. I wish I didn’t leave how I did.”
“She never held it against you. She could tell you needed to leave,” I reply. She was the most understanding person in my life. I should’ve just told her the truth from the start.
“I could’ve gone about it better,” Leo tells me, shaking his head at himself. “I shouldn’t have hurt you like I did. She should’ve hit me upside the head with the broom.”
Laughter escapes me at the thought of that image. “She never would’ve hurt you. She loved you too much.”
His eyes brighten in a bittersweet way. “She always treated me like a son, but she really felt like a mom to me after mine passed away. I was so grateful for her.”
I tighten my grip on his hand, hearing the sadness in his voice. Now, we’ve both lost our moms, and he’s going to lose his father soon too. Mine was never around to begin with, so I’m already all alone.
That’ll be him too.
If he was staying, we would at least have each other and Piper, but I don’t see that being the case .
“I miss her every single day,” I admit. “She was so good to me. I feel like I took a lot for granted.”
“That’s just what kids do,” Leo assures me. “She knew you loved her. I hope she knew that I loved her too.”
“She did,” I promise him.
Even when we were at home, she talked about Leo and how smart and kind he was. He was like a son to her.
“I’m sorry I told you this way,” I tell him, looking down at our joined hands.
“Don’t be sorry,” he says. “You told me how you could.”
He gets it. He understands grief and pain and all the strange things it makes people do. It makes us unlike ourselves at times.
“I’m glad she got to spend a little time with Piper before she passed. I’m glad your dad has gotten close to her too. She deserves as big of a loving family as possible,” I sigh, wishing my dad didn’t bail so early on in my life and wishing Leo’s mom was still around.
She’d love Piper too .
“I know I’m just the ex-boyfriend and the son of the old man she likes, but I’m here too,” Leo tells me. “I care about her.”
My chest aches hard, and I wish I could muster more than a smile, but it’s all that I can give him right now. I feel too raw and emotional to tell him the truth right now. I’ll just say the wrong thing and freak him out or upset him.
“I’m glad that she likes you. I just don’t want her to get too attached because you’re going to leave eventually,” I explain, figuring I can at least be honest about this. He should keep it in mind too, especially if he’s going to make promises to her.
Leo’s face falls a little, but he nods. “I’m still going to treasure every moment I get to spend with her. She’s the coolest kid that I’ve ever met.”
“Because she is the coolest kid ever . And Mom would agree a hundred percent,” I say, cracking a smile that he reflects.
“She was our biggest cheerleader. Whether we had a test coming up or a presentation to do, she always supported us. She went through flashcards for us. Listened to our speeches. Attended every awards show. ”
She was always like that for me, but when Leo’s mom passed away, she made sure to show up for Leo too. His dad barely did.
“I miss her so much,” I tell him, my voice cracking as my grief weighs down on me.
Leo shifts closer to me, keeping our hands joined. He kisses the top of mine. “Me too.”
I share a bittersweet look with him before turning back to Mom’s grave, wishing so badly that she was here. She’d give me good advice on what to do and wipe away my tears when I got overwhelmed.
A daughter truly always needs her mother.
It’ll be the same for Piper. I just hope I never mess up enough to push her away from me like Frank did to Leo.
But maybe things are starting to heal between them.
Maybe they have a chance at reconnecting again, but they both have to put in the work. They both have to push aside their pride and egos.
And that’s like asking water not to be wet.