13. Elijah
Chapter thirteen
Elijah
I walked back into the hallway and hugged Brie tightly. “Thank you.”
She looked up at me without letting go. “Anytime you need me, I’m there.”
She turned me around and gently nudged me into the room before closing the door.
When I walked in, my dad was asleep. I just stood there staring at the man, the man who had ruined my life. His long, gray, scraggly hair fell over the pillow. He looked like he only weighed one hundred pounds or so. I leaned against the wall and waited for him to acknowledge me.
“Eli?” He muttered. He attempted to sit up, but couldn’t. He looked toward me. “Help me up?”
I walked over and helped him sit up as much as he could. As he reached for his water, I stepped back, giving us some distance. He stared at me wordlessly for a moment, and I did the same. Then he coughed and took another sip of his water.
“So, what’s wrong with you?” I asked.
“Subtle,” my dad joked. “I am sick.”
“Clearly. How are you sick?”
He looked me dead in the eyes. “My liver is failing. I need a transplant.”
I nodded. “Sorry to hear that.”
His eyebrows went up in question. “Are you?”
I shook my head. “No, not really.”
“I appreciate the honesty.”
I leaned against the wall and crossed my ankles, then my arms. “Anytime.”
“So how are you? I’ve heard you’re some rich, hotshot now?”
“Who’d you hear that from?” I asked in an unexcited tone.
He looked like he was surprised by my question. He responded sharply, “Your mother, of course.”
I let out an incredulous laugh. “Ha. Even if you paid her to guess, she wouldn’t know what’s currently happening in my life.”
“Be nice to her, Son. She loves you.”
I stood up straight. “You clearly don’t know what you are talking about. What was the point of this? Why did you want to see me? I have things to do today.”
“Well, don’t let me keep you. I just wanted to catch up.”
I laughed. “Catch up? Catch up for what?”
He lowered his voice. “I am sick, Son.”
I gestured toward him in the hospital bed. “Yeah, I gathered.”
“I wanted to apologize to you and to everyone else I’ve ever hurt.”
I leaned back on the wall. “Okay. Is that all?”
“Elijah. I am sorry that I hurt you. I know nothing can give us back the time we lost, and I know the fucked up shit I did will never be fully forgiven. But I just needed you to know that I am so sorry, Son.”
Standing there with my arms crossed, I couldn’t help but get emotional. Hearing those words come out of his mouth was like a decade’s worth of weight being lifted off my shoulders.
I walked toward the door and opened it. “I need a second,” I choked out. I whirled right past Brielle.
“Elijah, wait.”
I waved her off. “I just need a second. I need to think.” Her footsteps faltered as I got into the elevator.
After being outside for about five minutes, Brie exited the hospital doors and spotted me right away. She sat down next to me and rested her head on my shoulder. I put out the cigarette butt on the ground and made sure to blow the smoke away from her.
The moment she leaned into me, all the tension in my body dissolved. I closed my eyes and basked in the feel of her touch. She didn’t say anything. She sat there, calm and quiet, letting me process everything.
I picked a piece of non-existent lint off my pant leg and looked around the parking lot. “His liver is failing. He needs a transplant.”
She sat up and looked up at me in question. “Did he ask you to donate yours?”
My eyes went wide. “Holy fucking shit. Is that why he really asked me to come here?” I put my elbows onto my knees and ran my fingers into my hair. “Fuck!” I yelled. I stood up angrily and headed straight back up to his room. Brielle pulled on my arm, trying to stop me.
I didn’t wait for the elevator and ran up the stairs. After getting onto the fifth floor again, Brielle yanked on my arm one last time.
“Elijah. Stop,” she said sternly.
I turned toward her, and she was panting. She rested her hands on her knees and bent forward. She held up one finger to signal she needed a moment.
“I…didn’t mean…fuck. I didn’t think I could walk that fast.” She responded with a breathless laugh.
She began to catch her breath, she stood up.
“Elijah. If he didn’t ask you, then that’s not why he asked you to come here.
Please don’t start something with him over nothing.
I didn’t mean to make you doubt whatever happened in there. ”
“Are you okay?” I asked. Her chest was still rising and falling quicker than usual.
She nodded. “I think so. I think my lungs are still in there.” She felt around her body in jest.
“Come in with me?”
She took a hold of my hand. “Whatever you need.”
As we walked back in, my dad turned to look at me. I could tell he was surprised that I had returned so quickly. He then glanced past me, looking just as surprised to see another person in the room.
Brie walked right up to him and put her hand out. “Hi. Nice to meet you, sir. My name is Brielle. I am one of your brilliant son’s friends.”
My dad looked from her to me and then back to her, completing the handshake. “Nice to meet you, Brielle. I’m Greg”
Brie’s hand trembled as she pulled away, so I stepped toward her. “You don’t have to do that.”
“He's right, Brielle. You don’t have to be nice to me. I don’t deserve anyone being nice to me right now.”
I rolled my eyes and remarked, “Ain't that the truth.”
Brielle gave me a look that told me to cut the shit, before walking around the bed and sitting in the chair that was closest to the window. “I am sorry to hear that you are sick, Elijah was telling me—”
I cut her off. “So, did you call me only because you need a transplant? ‘Cause I’m a drunk like you, so my liver is useless.”
“Elijah.” Brie’s eyes went wide.
I shrugged. “What? I want to know.”
“I get that, but Elijah, you don’t have to be a complete asshole to him while asking. You are better than that.”
I felt embarrassed for the first time…well, ever, I think. I looked back at my dad and lowered my voice a bit, “I'm sorry, but I need to know why you called me.”
“I told you, Son, I called you to apologize. I actually already have a donor that is willing.” I looked at him in surprise. “One of the conditions was that I speak to you first.”
I glanced over at Brie, and she shrugged. I looked back at him. “Who is it?”
“Your mother.”
I felt a wave of anger rush through me. “Why the fuck would she offer to help you? You beat her and then threw her away like a fucking toy.”
“Eli,” Brielle hissed.
I waved her off again. “Yeah, I know, calm down.” I immediately regretted how I spoke to her when I saw her face.
She grabbed her bag from the side of the chair and stood up. “I am going to the waiting room to sit with your mom. I will wait for you out there.” She turned toward my dad. “It was nice to meet you, sir. I hope to see you again soon.”
My dad nodded to her. Without saying another word, she glared at me one more time before walking past me and out the door. I tried to grab her hand, but she pulled it out of reach before stopping in front of me. “I’m sorry,” I said desperately.
“I know.”
Brielle
As I walked back into the waiting room, I let out all my built-up tension. Elijah’s mom sat up straighter and looked at me expectantly. “He should only be a few more minutes.”
She sat back down and put her head back onto the cushion behind her. After ten minutes of awkward silence, she grasped my hand, and I flinched. She looked at me with pleading eyes. “Thank you for making him come.”
I nodded in recognition.
“We are going to head home for the night. Please tell Elijah to call me so we can talk. I am sure he will have a lot of questions.”
“Sure. It was nice finally meeting you.”
She stood up and grabbed her husband’s hand.
“He deserves a good girl like you. I know I haven’t been around to see him grow as an adult.
But I also don’t really know anything about him, other than what I have read in the tabloids, but he deserves a nice girl like you.
I can already tell he deeply cares for you. ”
“Thank you.” I smiled. “That feels good to hear.” She had just started to walk away when I stood up.
“You should really try harder to talk to him, ya know. He is an amazing person to get to know.”
“I will try my best. I will be around as much as he will let me,” she agreed.
“Respectfully, don’t just try. Everyone deserves to know him like I do.
” I faltered for a moment. “It isn’t my place to tell you what to do, but you are the one who needs to make it happen.
You left him. He wanted nothing more than for his mother to love him, and she left and started her life over.
That changed him as a person, whether you realize it or not. ”
She smiled and nodded. “I will.”
I sat back down and tilted my head back.
“She’s right, ya know.”
I jumped at the sound of his voice. “What?” I blurted out.
He sat down next to me. “I care about you.”
I smiled and tried to change the subject quickly. “Everything go okay with your dad?”
“I guess he’s been sober for a few years.
He reconnected with my mom when he first got sick, and she and Robert have been helping him get back on his feet.
He said she’s his best friend.” Elijah laughed dumbfounded.
“Never thought I would see my parents in the same room again, let alone be best friends.”
I smiled. He seemed to be a lot calmer now. “So what now, Old Man?”
“I am letting him relax for the rest of today. Today was already a lot. I am going to call my mom and go see her tomorrow so we can talk in person. We have a lot of shit to talk about.”
“That’s great. Where to now?”
We stood and walked to the elevator. He gripped my hand. “Now I take you to go eat and apologize for how I spoke to you earlier.”
“That isn’t necessary. I know feelings were just heightened.”
He opened the driver's side door of my car to let me in. “It is necessary. I’m sorry. I never should have spoken to you like that.”
“Thank you for apologizing.”
He shut my door and made his way to the passenger side. He moved the seat all the way back and put his feet up on the dashboard. They were all bent up weird since he’s so tall. “I have a feeling I will be apologizing to you for years to come.”
“God, I hope you get it together before then.” I smiled and turned the key to start the ignition.
My time in Tennessee passed by way too quickly.
Now that I had been back home for a week, I was back to my normal routine of class and work.
My classes for the semester were easy, thank God.
I found a job working at a new gallery for a few months to prepare for the senior showing.
The owners were amazing. I didn’t know if that was divine intervention, getting moved to a new place with all new people, or if I just earned some good karma. Either way, I would take it.
I spoke with Dax the day after Amani and I returned from our trip. I told him I thought we were better off as just friends. I had no business trying to date anyone right now. There was so much happening for me, and I needed to focus on that. Plus, I had a very special wedding to help plan.
I knew Elijah wouldn’t be able to help much, given that he was on tour, plus reconnecting with his parents. Luckily, we had a mess of other people who were willing to help.
My mom, Callie, and I were throwing Aubrey and Link’s engagement party in May.
The secret no one else knew, other than Aubrey and me, was that Nick was asking Callie to marry him after the engagement party concluded.
Nick’s plan was to do it privately and quietly with just the two of them, exactly how Callie would want it.
The hope was that Callie would agree to make this a soon-to-be double wedding.
It was something Aubrey and Callie had always talked about.
I was getting so excited with each passing day, and I couldn’t freaking wait!