48. Jace
forty-eight
Jace
I hate hospitals.
They reek of sick people, bleach, and death.
“Can we just go? I don’t see why I need to be here! It’s just sick dying people everywhere! I’m fine ,” I huff, wincing as my wrist makes contact with my other hand.
“You’re not fucking fine, and your girlfriend isn’t answering the goddamn phone. So help me God, if she’s somehow found a way to end up in the ER too, you two will send me to an early grave!” Georgia laments, her eyes wild as she paces the room.
“One can wish…” I mumble, biting back my laugh when she stops in her tracks, eyeing me.
Georgia points at me, her eyes slicing me in half. “Don’t make me break the other one.”
Sighing, I lean back in the hospital bed and frown.
We’ve been waiting in the ER for over ten minutes, and still haven’t been helped.
Our stall is open to all of the other patients in the emergency room, allowing everyone to see what’s happening in my stall and for me to see what’s going on out there.
“I can’t believe they’re taking so long…Literally everyone just ran out of here like there was an emergency or something.” Georgia frowns, plopping down next to me on the stiff hospital bed.
“Wow! It’s almost like we’re in an emergency room, George.” My dumbfounded voice must annoy her because instead of responding, she rolls her eyes and pulls out her phone .
“I need someone to get eyes on her STAT! Someone check her heart rate, she’s dropping too fucking fast for her to be this young!” a doctor yells, barking orders at a few others as paramedics and other hospital staff roll in a gurney.
My eyes dart to Georgia then back to the moving transporter before they snag on something.
Lavender nails.
I don’t know why this makes my heart drop, or why I’m on my feet in an instant, but I am. The world seems to stop as I stand, clutching my red and blue wrist as my eyes land on the person laying prone in the gurney.
Dark midnight colored hair, skin that used to be a deep brown color now ashened and marred with rashes, and lips that remind me of home, pass by me.
My heart stops.
No, actually…my heart is laying right in front of me, on a stretcher.
Georgia’s cry is guttural and heart aching, but I can care less about consoling her because right now the only person who has ever been worth more than a miniscule of my time, is being rolled into the emergency room like a corpse.
My feet have a mind of their own, traveling quick and after her. I need to see her, be with her. What happened? She was just okay, not even eight hours ago.
I was just with her, and now this?
Had she come to my game and ditched practice, would she be here right now? Would the butterfly effect be so kind as to grant me her? Or would this still happen?
The Fates are never in agreement with one another after all, could this just be fate dealing us an awful hand?
Rage billows in my chest at the very thought of this being the last time I see her.
The last time I do anything that involves her.
I’ve waited over a decade for her, and I’ll be damned if fate only gives us five months to get it right.
To let me love her the way I’ve always dreamt. To hold her how she deserves at night.
I’ll be damned and a dead man fucking walking before I let Sienna Jones leave me like this.
The muscles in my body work before I can stop them, dragging me to her as the string that connected our souls tugs me towards her .
I’m late…I’m too late. She’s dying and I’m late.
I don’t realize that I’m yelling, or hear myself scream for her. Everything around me moves around her, revolving around her.
I revolve around her.
I’d never compare Sienna to something as mediocre as the sun or the moon. No, she’s so much bigger than that, so much fuller and beautiful. If you look too deeply at the sun you’d get blinded, if you focus on the moon, you’d see it’s overrated.
Sienna is like Saturn for me. She’s this big person in my life, unique and charming with her own traumas and baggage that build her up to be this exquisite person. To know Sienna Jones is to see her, and I do.
I see every single part of her.
My muscles are tight and fraught as someone holds me back, and it’s then that I realize that I’m thrashing around like a wild animal with Georgia crying and screaming beside me.
“Let him go! That’s his soulmate right there!” she shouts, her voice vengeful as she gestures wildly at the woman on the bed.
Soulmate.
Sienna’s more than a soulmate to me. She’s my entire existence, my soul. We don’t share pieces of ourselves with one another, we own each other. She has my soul, and I hers.
“Sienna…” I call out, my voice scratchy as I twist from the guard’s grip.
There’s so many people around her, so many machines and sounds buzzing about.
“Sienna!” I say again, my voice louder as I full on thrash out of the man's grip.
“Hold him back!” someone shouts, but fuck that.
“Sienna, wake up!” I scream, my voice breaking, my soul aching as it feels the impact of her loss.
The room goes silent, or so that’s how I think it is. No one talks, no one moves. We just stare at the unmoving woman on the bed. I choke on a sob, my body breaking down, heart shattering at the sight of her .
There’s bruises on her body from where they’d stuck her, her skin…it’s marred with red and purple welts. Tiny rashes decorate her arms and collar.
“Oh, baby…” I gasp, sucking in a deep breath as realization dawns on me.
“Strawberries—she’s fucking allergic to them. Who gave her strawberries?!” I shout, my vision blurry as water falls from somewhere.
Rushing to her side, I look up at the sky and pray that God would show mercy on her. She has so much life to live, so much hope.
We hadn’t even finished the list yet.
The list would never get finished, and she won’t be able to graduate. It’s all she’s wanted.
“W…Wake up. Please, angel, just wake up. I need you. I need you so, so bad. Angel, don’t do this to me, don’t leave like this. I’d rather you run than this. Run away from me, but don’t ever leave me,” I sob, crying as I slide into the bed next to her, careful of my arm.
We had forever to go…It’d only been five months, but we still had forever to go. A lifetime with Sienna Jones is too short, I need eternity. I need forever. This moment with her cannot be our last.
My breath catches as my thoughts spiral, a life without her is a life I’ve never lived before.
“W…Why are you wet? Wh…Where are–” a scratchy voice, almost unrecognizable mumbles.
My heart starts to beat again as confused, golden eyes peer up at me.
“Sienna,” I breathe her name, my prayers answered.
“Where am I? Why do I feel like—Jace? What happened? Why are we here? Are you okay?” Her voice rises as panic seizes her. I cup her face with my uninjured hand and press my forehead to hers.
“You do not ever get to do that to me again.”
“Do what—” she tries, eyes searching mine for answers, but I don’t give her any. Instead, I turn to the group of doctors in the room and Georgia.
“I want her moved to Johns Hopkins VIP suite. Airlift her—do whatever the fuck you need to do, but she needs to be there within the next thirty minutes. Georgia, call my mom and tell her what happened to Sienna. Call Coach, too, he’d want to know, and for the love of all things purple, someone get me a fucking cast.”