The Middle

I didn’t know what to say to Ryan. I didn’t think he would get attached to Pat so quickly. I figured it would take another couple of visits.

“No buddy, I don’t think so.”

I saw his face fall and a piece of my heart broke. I sat beside him.

“Ryan, Pat’s a busy guy. It was nice of him to come yesterday, but he can’t come every day. He might pop in once in while, but I don’t want you to be sad if he doesn’t. You and I can still have fun, right?”

He gave me a small smile. I could tell he was still a bit sad. I did my best to cheer him up. I didn’t want him to waste his evening wallowing over a hockey player. Even if it was his idol.

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Later that night

Ryan and I watched the Hawks game. They won 5-2. Pat got a hat trick. Ryan was happy to see his idol have such a good game, and I was happy to see a genuine smile back on his face. He was feeling down since I told him that Pat wouldn’t be coming for a visit today.

“Hey, you want a drink? I’m getting a little thirsty.”

Ryan nodded and I got up to walk over to the mini fridge that he had put in his room not too long ago. Nat said it would be okay since I was stay there most nights. It was easier for me to just keep our drinks in the room rather than having to leave the room and disturb the other patients with the noise of the vending machine.

Just as I turned back around to walk back to Ryan with our drinks, my cell rang. I put out drinks down on top of the fridge and looked at the caller ID. Patrick why is he calling so late? I thought, but answered anyway.

“Hello.”

“Hey, it’s Pat. Is Ryan still awake?” I smiled, knowing that this phone call would put an even bigger smile on Ryan’s face.

“Yes, he is. Just one second.” I stuck my phone out to Ryan. “It’s for you.”

He looked at it confused, but took it from me, saying hello. I popped open my can of Five Alive and smiled when I saw his eyes widen when he noticed who he was talking to.

“Hey Claire, Pat’s going to come over tomorrow, okay? He says he has a surprise for me, well both of us.”

My heart sank. I sure hope it’s not something huge. Ryan might love it forever, but he still might expect him to come around more. I smiled and nodded. I took the phone back from Ryan, praying that Pat hadn’t hung up yet.

“Pat?”

“Yea? Look I’m sorry for calling so late. I just didn’t want to forget about the surprise that I planned.”

I turned to Ryan and gave him the notion that I was just going to stand outside.

“Pat, I really appreciate this, but did you not listen to a word I said to you today?”

“I listened and I get where you’re coming from. Look, all I want to do is bring him to our next home game. You’re getting a ticket too. I already called the hospital and asked if Ryan was able to leave the hospital for the day and they said it was fine. The game is Thursday. So I’m giving you three days notice.”

I sighed. “Pat, you don’t have to do this. Ryan is perfectly fine with watching the games with me inside his room. I don’t know what he’ll think after you do this for him.”

“Will you just stop worrying? All you do is worry. I get that you love your brother and want him to enjoy the time he has left. I get that too. That’s exactly why I’m bringing him to a game. I remember him telling me he had never been to the UC before, so I figured it would be nice.”

“It is nice, Pat. Thank you. I’ll see you Thursday, I guess.”

“No, you’ll see me tomorrow. You have to work at 3, Ryan told me. I’m taking you out to lunch before you go to work. You’ll be at the hospital, right?”

I had wondered just what Ryan was up to, telling Pat when I was working and where I’d be before I went in. “Yes, I’ll be at the hospital. You don’t have to take me out to lunch. I can eat with Ryan. I do it every day and I enjoy it.”

Pat chuckled. “He said that you would probably say that. Look, I’m doing this for him. He asked me to take you out. He said you need some time away from the hospital to have fun. I told him I knew of a place and he asked me to take you. So, don’t think of this of me taking you out, think of it as making your brother happy.”

I don’t know why, but my blood began to boil. “Look, I wasn’t going to say anything about it, but now I will. I would do anything to make my brother happy, but if you think you can use that to get me to go out with you, you’re sadly mistaken.”

I was going to continue, but Pat started again. “Claire, I didn’t mean it like that. You’ve gotta believe me. I’m just doing what Ryan asked me to do. He asked me to take you out. So what do you say?”

I ran my hand through my hair. “Let me think about it. I’ll text you a little bit later, okay?”

“Okay. Sorry for the confusion. I’ll talk to you later.”

I hung up the phone from Pat and walked back into Ryan’s room. Ryan was sitting on his bed and looked at me with a big smile on his face.

“So, what did you and Pat talk about?”

I could see a glimmer in his eye. Maybe Pat was telling the truth, I had to get to the bottom of this.

“You know, I’ve got a question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“Did you ask Pat to ask me out?”

Ryan gulped, showing me that he was guilty. He did it all the time when he got caught in the middle of a lie.

“Ryan, you can’t just play around with people like that.”

He threw his hands up in the air.

“Well, you have his number, you text him, he calls you. I figured you guys liked each other, so I just thought I’d give you a push in the right direction. I want you to be happy after I’m….”

“DON’T! Do not talk like that, Ryan! We’re staying positive, okay?” He nodded. “Look, Pat and I exchanged numbers because he took a liking to you. He wants to visit you when he can, but I made sure he would contact me beforehand so I could tell him if you were up for visitors or not. We call and text to talk about you, not to get to know each other, okay? There’s no romantic feelings involved.”

I could see Ryan’s face fall and I chuckled.

“Ry, come on. You didn’t think that Patrick Kane would date your dorky big sister, did you?”

He looked down at his hands. “I had hoped he would.” He whispered.

“Oh buddy. I don’t know what to tell you. I like Patrick, but I don’t know him very well. He likes you, so that’s a plus for me. But I don’t know if we’ll ever date.”

“What about tomorrow? Will you go, for me? If you don’t like him you can run back here and I’ll hate him forever.”

I chuckled. “okay, I’ll go tomorrow. But I’m not going to let you hate him forever. Besides, I know what your surprise is, and believe me, you wouldn’t hate him after that.” I smiled.

Ryan smiled and I tucked him into bed.

“’Night, buddy.” I kissed his cheek and walked over to “my bed.”

I reached under the bed, grabbed my pajamas and walked to the bathroom. After changing, I crawled into bed. Noticing my cell phone at the foot of my bed, I grabbed it.

Text to: Patrick – Hey, I’m good with lunch tomorrow. What time?”

I felt my phone vibrate not even three seconds after the text was sent.

Hey, I’ll be at Ryan’s room around 11, is that okay?

That works for me. See you then.

Great. Good night Claire.

Good night Patrick

Hopefully this makes Ryan happy, because I still wasn’t sure how I felt about it.