“Emmett.” I hear my name softly intertwined with the drops of rain hitting the metal bleachers. My tears fall harder as I realize I may hear his voice everywhere now. My mind might fucking be twisted forever.
“Emmett, you fucking asshole!” What the fuck?
I look up and see Vin standing at the bottom of the bleachers. His grown out curls on the top of his head are wet and the leather jacket he’s wearing is covered in rivulets of rain.
“Get the fuck down here!” He screams, “we need to get to the hospital!”
I run down the hospital corridor, my dress shoes slipping from how thoroughly soaked they are. Please God, Please. I can’t take another disappointment. I see Ember standing in the corridor and she turns when she hears my frantic steps.
“Hurry up!” She glowers at me, “I’m fucking knocking you out later for worrying me.” She smacks me hard on the back of the head as I run by her and skid into the hospital room.
Sharla is standing by the window with tears running down her cheeks and she’s hugging a sobbing Adri. They don’t keep my attention long as my gaze swings to the bed and the figure laying there.
“Hey stranger.” He croaks and grins at me.
I rush to his bedside and pull him up into my arms, his scent enveloping me and the warmth of his body combating the chill in mine.
“Ten days, you’ve been gone for ten days!” I sob into his neck while his hands rub my back.
“I’m so sorry,” he hiccups, “everything was dark and I couldn’t focus on the things that brought me light.”
I grab his face into my hands and look into his crystal green eyes, “I love you, Travis Greene.”
31
I woke up to Sharla’s voice telling me about the funeral they were having for Sonja today. I don’t know if Vin told her that Sonja was my mother or not but she spoke like she knew the woman was important to me. She told me how she wanted to be there but decided to come here to me instead. She wanted to speak to me and try to convince me to come back to her son who needed me terribly. I heard it all as my consciousness tunneled towards the rasp of her voice and back to the light. I was happy to hear my family decided to put my mother in our mausoleum and that they cared enough to send her off with love.
When I opened my eyes and looked into hers, she nearly fell over. I don’t remember much after that, it was a rotating circle of nurses, doctors, and vital checks. I was told I was out for ten days and they were worried that I might have never come back. But I did and I will always be thankful for Sharla and her voice.
Not too long after that, it was Ember and Adri hovering over me. Adri’s face and the love in her eyes helped soak warmth through my broken heart. A piece of the puzzle that made up my light, locked into place with her embrace. I was just waiting for one more, the hardest piece to attain and seemed to still be the most difficult.
“Travis, why?” Adri asks as tears flow down her face.
“I just lost myself in the dark.” I mutter, unable to explain it anymore than that.
“I’ve been there,” Ember reaches out to touch my face, “I’m sorry we didn’t see it.”
“I didn’t let you.” I shake my head.
Adri goes to stand with Sharla at the window and I watch as she cries, hating that I brought her to that. Ember picks up her ringing phone and barks out Vin’s name as she moves outside my hospital door.
Then I hear his footsteps, I know they’re his because he’s so deep inside me. I know everything about him, his scent, how he sounds, the energy surrounding him and the way my love coats him like a blanket. He’s so ingrained inside me that I don’t know where I end and where he begins. My heart pounds and I hear the machines I’m hooked up to start to beep frantically. I keep my eye on the door, anticipating the moment I see him.
He doesn’t disappoint as he skids into the room, he is wearing a suit-with a tie-and his hair is a mess and plastered to his head. He’s completely soaked, like he ran through the rain to get here.
“Hey stranger.” I say to him. Did he run through the rain? I open my mouth to ask him but he’s quick as he wraps me up in his arms. He’s freezing cold and the skin on his cheeks feel like ice.
“Ten days, you’ve been gone for ten days!” He cries into my neck. He’s crying.
“I’m so sorry,” I say, “everything was dark and I couldn’t focus on the things that brought me light.”
His cold hands come up and press into my cheeks, his beautiful eyes looking into mine, “I love you, Travis Greene.”
I don’t think, I just say what I’ve known for a long time, “I love you, Emmett Torres.”
We go back to hugging each other and I hear a small sniff to my left. I look and Adri is standing there watching us with a small smile on her face. It fully hits me what just happened and I’m not sure how to tell Adri. Emmett must feel the difference in my hold because he looks up and at her. Then to my shock he opens his arm out and she comes down to snuggle into us both.
“I love you guys.” She says through her tears.
“I told her,” Emmett says into my confused face, “everything.”
I look to Adri and watch as
