Cross My Heart

It was the seemingly never-ending annoying buzzing sound coming from her nightstand that awoke Grayson Jane Andrews that cold January night. With a loud groan, she lamely reached for her cell phone, not bothering to check the screen as she answered the call.

“What the hell do you want?” she answered gruffly, her voice thick with sleep.

“Grayson, ‘s time! Findleh’s comin’!” the over excited voice of her best friend yelled into her ear.

Grayson shot up, becoming instantly awake. “A – are you serious, Oli!?”

“’M dead fuckin’ serious, Gray! Yeh gotta get teh the ‘ospital!” When Grayson didn’t immediately respond, he spoke again. “Gray, yeh there?” he questioned, his voice lower than before.

“Yeah, I’m here, Oli,” she said, glancing at the digital clock beside her, its red letters telling her that it was two-fifteen in the morning. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“’Urreh!” was all he shouted before hanging up, leaving the sound of a dial tone to ring in his place.

Grayson swallowed harshly as she laid her cell phone back on the nightstand, her chest tightening. Almost numbly, she untangled herself from the sheets of her bed before standing up and walking to her closet. She threw on the first pair of jeans she saw and grabbed her black coat before walking out of her room and making her way into the kitchen. She nearly had a heart attack as she saw her older sister, Leah, sitting at the table, a cup of tea cradled in her hands.

Just as surprised, her sister’s eyebrows rose upon seeing her. “Where are you going, Gray?”

“Fiona’s gone into labor,” she stated softly, walking to the table and taking a seat, resting her head in her hands.

“Gray, you have to get your ass down to the hospital!” Leah scolded.

Grayson sighed, rubbing her eyes. “I want to – for Oli and for the baby – but I just …” her voice trailed off as she attempted to collect her thoughts.

“Are still in love with him?” the older girl finished, arching her brows.

Almost ashamedly, she nodded her head. “And with the baby coming, it just makes it all the more real, Lee.”

Leah placed a hand over Grayson’s, giving it an easy squeeze. “I know that it’s hard, Gray, but Oliver’s your best friend and his first born child is about to make her way into the world. You’ll never forgive yourself if you miss that,” she stated with confidence, and although it was hard to hear, Grayson knew it was the truth.

“Will you come with me?” she asked, widening her brown eyes.

Leah let out a quiet laugh before nodding her head and pushing herself up from the table. “Just let me grab my coat, okay?”

“Of course.”

Leah had taken it upon herself to drive as Grayson’s mind was much too preoccupied to focus on the road. She bit the nail of her right thumb as she leaned further into the passenger seat, a nauseous feeling rooting in her stomach.

“I didn’t even get flowers or balloons,” she thought out loud, sighing.

Leah laughed. “I doubt Oliver will make a big deal about that, Gray.”

“I know, but I just … I feel like I should have gotten something. Fiona’s due date wasn’t supposed to be for another week … I thought I’d still have time to get a gift.”

Her sister didn’t respond and the car fell silent. In a matter of minutes, they had parked in the lot of the hospital and anxiously, both ran into the large building. After taking a moment to read the signs that were posted, they shuffled into the elevator and pressed the button that would take them to the maternity ward.

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Oh, calm down, Grayson. It’s not like you’re having a child,” Leah said, trying to make a joke.

As the elevator doors opened, a frown fixed itself on her face. “I wish it was me, though,” she spoke softly.

Her sister sighed and grabbed her hand. “Come on.”

The waiting room wasn’t entirely filled, but there was a corner that was occupied with familiar bodies and pink balloons. Grayson managed to slap a smile on her face as she locked eyes with Oliver’s mother, Carol Sykes.

“Oh, yeh’ve made it! Oli’s been askin’ fer yeh,” the older woman stated before pulling Grayson into a hug.

“How’s he been doing?”

Carol let out a laugh as she pulled away. “’E’s nervous and excited, and almost frew up on ‘imself, but ‘e’s doin’ alrigh’. ‘ow are yeh, love?” Oliver’s mother knew very well of the more-than-friendly feelings Grayson harbored for her son.

“I’m happy for him, Mama Sykes,” Grayson breathed, and whilst it wasn’t the entire truth, it was still the truth.

After a round of hugs and a few laughs, Grayson took a seat in between her sister and Matt Nicholls, another one of Oliver’s best friends as well as the drummer of their band. As the minutes on the analog clock in the wall in front of them ticked by, Grayson’s left leg began bouncing up and down furiously; a sign that she was nervous.

“Oi, stop tha’!” Matt told her, his hand hitting her knee.

“I can’t help it,” she argued and he laughed.

"Nervous, Gray?" Acey Jensen, a rather short girl with bright red hair and brown eyes, asked, leaving over Nicholls, who happened to be her boyfriend.

She nodded her head. "I feel like I'm going to be sick."

“Yeh shoulda seen Oli, Gray, when Fi called ‘im. Almost shit 'imself,” he told her, laughing once more.

Grayson smiled. “Wouldn’t be the first time,” she joked. Another ten minutes rolled by with no word of how the delivery was going and after Matt threatened her once more for her continuously bouncing leg, she’d had enough. “I’m going to get some coffee.”

“I’ll come with you,” Leah said, rising to her feet. The two of them walked to the small table at the front of the room where a small, silver coffee machine sat. They each grabbed a paper cup. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot,” Grayson said, pouring the dark liquid into her cup. Once she was done, she stepped aside, allowing her sister to do the same.

“Have you ever told Oliver about your feelings for him?”

Her hand froze in mid-air, the bottle of sugar she was holding almost slipping from her grip. She bit down on her bottom lip, her chocolate eyes turning away from her sister’s identical ones. “Once … I told him once,” she admitted.

This seemed to startle Leah, as her eyes widened in surprise. “And what happened?”

“What do you think happened, Leah?” Grayson questioned rhetorically, her tone crisp.

“I’m going to ignore the attitude,” her sister said before stirring her cup of coffee. “You still didn’t answer my question.”

There weren’t many things that Grayson Andrews hated, but remembering that particular incident with Oliver when they were nineteen and that horrible feeling of rejection – well, that she loathed. It was something she had learned to push deep back in the depths of her mind.

“He didn’t – doesn’t - feel the same,” was all Grayson said before walking back to her seat. She crossed her right leg over her left and rubbed her forehead, feeling a migraine coming on.

“Yeh alrigh’?” Matt questioned lowly from beside her.

“I’m fine, Matt.”

He opened his mouth to say more, but Acey rested a hand on his chest, shaking her head 'no', and he shrugged his shoulders before going back to drumming his hands on his thighs. It was a familiar rhythm and as Grayson began trying to think of the name of the song, a sudden round of cheers broke her thoughts. Lifting her head, she noticed it was because Oliver had come into the room, dressed in a green hospital gown, with a white facial mask hanging loosely around his neck.

As his family and their friends began rushing him with questions, Grayson noticed the somber look in his hazel eyes and the way his face seemed paler than was normal for him. She pushed up from her chair and quickly walked to him, and before she could even get a word out, Oliver’s long arms were pulling her towards him, squeezing her in a tight hug.

“Oli, what’s wrong?” she quizzed gently, her hands rubbing circles on his back. “Is – is it Findley?” her voice shook with fear.

She felt a long breath tickle her neck before Oliver spoke. “Fiona,” he choked out, and it was then Grayson felt his tears hitting her skin. “Some – somefin’ wen’ wrong and she – she didn’ make it, Gray,” he told her, his voice filled with pain and his fingers dug into the skin of her back painfully, but she found herself not really caring.

Grayson swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. “Findley’s alright, though?” she asked and when Oliver nodded his head, she wrapped her arms tighter around his thin figure. “We’ll get through this,” she promised, trying to hold back her own tears.