Be Together for One More Night

Ireland's a long way away. There's a lot of water in between Ireland and America. Too much in fact. It was a difficult decision. On one hand, I had my dad. I hadn't seen him since we moved here four years ago. I missed him and the thought of going to live with him, away from my alcoholic mother and abusive step father, seemed like absolute heaven. On the other hand, I had Kyle. My boyfriend of over a year, even though I couldn't remember it. He'd been there, he'd stuck around, he loved me and I loved him. It didn't seem fair that I had to choose.

I was sat up in the hospital bed. A nurse had pumped a good few litres of morphine into me, making me numb and slightly drowsy, though I was aware of my surroundings and what was happening. I was just happy the physical pain was gone, for now.

The curtain in front of me opened and Caleb stepped inside, closing the curtain behind him. He looked at me and smiled weakly, walking around the bed and seating himself in the chair both Kyle and my dad had previously been sat in.

"Hey. I thought I'd come see you, since I was here. How are you feeling?" He asked.

I shrugged, my shoulders heavy, like lead. "Numb. Confused. I don't know anymore, Caleb. I really don't. How's Claudia?"

"Breathing. She'll be okay, hopefully."

I nodded, twisting the thin material of the cover in between my thumb and forefinger. I felt salty tears stinging my eyes. My life was crumbling before me and there was nothing I could do to stop it, or put anything right again.

"Isla, what is it?" Caleb asked, quietly, genuine concern smothering his words. He moved from the chair to sitting on the edge of the bed. He gently took hold of my hands, forcing me to stop nervously twisting the thin material around.

"Everything. I'm losing my life and everything and everyone in it. I wanted things to be normal again, and if they can't be normal, then I don't want my life at all," I said, soon becoming hysterical. Hot tears streaked my face and I could barely breathe for sobbing.

Caleb leaned forward and wrapped his arms around me. It comforted me, but only slightly. I was still sobbing into his chest, my face was soaked, my skin unable to absorb my tears as they were falling from my eyes quite quickly now.

"Isla, you don't mean it. You've got so much to live for, more than you realise, and what about Kyle? He loves you. Probably more than anyone else in the world does. It'd be unfair to hurt him like that."

"Since when do you care about Kyle?" I roughly pulled away from him and pathetically slapped his chest. I wanted him to hurt, so he could feel how I was feeling right now. "You don't care about anyone else but yourself."

"Wrong, Isla," he titled my chin up and kissed my lips.

In the middle of kissing Caleb, I completely missed the curtain opening then closing again, obscuring my view of Kyle's retreating back.