Alpha Hero - Hope Ford Page 0,51

need to be here. You need to go now.”

She sits back like I’ve hurt her, but I know this is what she wants. She wants away from me and no matter how much it kills me, I will always make sure she always gets what she wants.

4

Kendall

I still can’t believe I left him. It was hard, seeing him lying there in the hospital, but I would have stayed with him. I would have taken care of him. But it was obvious he didn’t want me there. Heck, he couldn’t get rid of me fast enough, it seems. I don’t know why he would want me there after the way I talked to him in his office.

I drove to my class, but after sitting there for twenty minutes, I gave up and left. I wasn’t doing anyone any good sitting there in my own little world. I go to my apartment and flop down on the couch, at a complete loss at what I should be doing now. This doesn’t feel right. I should be at the hospital.

At times like this, I always wish my dad was here. He would tell me what I should be doing. Well, he wouldn’t tell me. But he would start a conversation with me and ask just the right questions until I figured it out on my own.

I get up and grab my memory box off the bookshelf and sit cross-legged on the couch with it on my lap. As soon as I open the box, the memories hit me. There’s hundreds of pictures of my dad and me. He was a busy surgeon, but he always made time for me. He instilled in me what was important in life. He had money, but I know he would have given it all up to spend one more day with me. I keep shuffling the pictures around until I come across one of Brian and me. It was taken at my high school graduation, just one month before Dad died. Brian has his arm around me and is smiling at my dad, who’s taking the picture. I’m looking up at Brian with the biggest grin on my face. Even then, I had a crush on him. I knew it… and I’m pretty sure my dad knew it, too.

I stuff the picture back in the box and then open the letter that Dad had given his lawyer in case of his death. It was sudden when he left me, but he still had everything planned out. He knew what he wanted and wanted to make sure I knew too.

I open the old worn paper and read his words again. I’ve probably read it a thousand times and have committed it to memory by now, but it always brings me comfort.

After scanning it two more times, I know what I need to do. I never should have doubted my gut.

I’m going to take care of Brian. I have to. I can’t walk away from him. Not now. It may be hard to be around him, but it’s even harder being away from him, especially knowing that he’s hurt and in pain.

Once the decision is made, I already feel better. I call the hospital to check on him one more time and when the nurse tells me he’s grumpy as ever and already plotting his escape, I know he’s going to be okay. I lie back on the couch with the frayed letter pressed against my chest. I fall asleep feeling a little more at peace.

Brian

“Robby, I’m leaving. It’s a torn ligament, nothing serious,” I tell him for the third time.

Robby is a friend of mine here at the hospital. He works in orthopedics and he’s the one that performed my surgery. He just laughs. “You just had surgery. You know I can’t let you leave.”

Frustrated, I throw my hands up. “Fine. First thing in the morning, I’m out of here.”

He holds his hand out to me. “After my morning rounds and I get another look at you.”

Reluctantly, I reach out and put my hand in his and we shake on it.

He gives me a list of things to look out for and I barely resist the urge to remind him that I am a doctor too.

He opens the door but turns around. “Where’s Kendall? I thought for sure she would be here babying you.”

I try to keep the emotion off my face. “Yeah, she had class.”

He squints his forehead and nods, but I see the surprise in his