Page 55 of Game Changer

He gave her a small smile. “I’m just not feeling so hot. Can I sit here for a second?”

“Do you need a doctor?” The concern was back in her voice.

“No, no. I’m already starting to feel better. Not sure what hit me, but it seems to be passing as quickly as it arrived.”

“Stay here. I’ll go grab some water and something light to eat.”

You’re going to have to tell her about your bipolar, AJ. You can’t keep that from her forever too. But she’s just recovering from you shitting on her trust. You really wanna drop another shock-bomb on her head and see if she sticks around after that one?

Once is forgivable. Twice is a pattern. She’ll leave you, for sure. You absolutely can’t tell her.

He spotted her walking towards him.

You positively do not deserve that woman.

She smiled at him.

That smile.

He smiled back as she handed him a cold bottle of water.

“You ok?”

Just tell her the truth, she’ll understand.

Yeah, you keep saying that a lot lately. She shouldn’t have to understand. You should have been upfront and honest with her from the get-go.

“AJ?” her voice shook him out of his thoughts. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I think I’m just tired. Thanks for this.” He took the proffered bottle of water.

She doesn’t look convinced.

“I think everything’s just catching up with me. All the traveling and, y’know, all the other stuff.” He looked at her eyes and hoped she saw his pain.

She sat next to him and pulled him towards her in a hug. “It’s all going to be ok, AJ. We’re going to recover from this. We just need to be honest with each other going forward, right? No more lies.”

He nodded into her shoulder. “No more lies,” he repeated.

Is neglecting to come clean about a serious mental illness a lie?

You know if being pedantic is your only way around something, you’re probably wrong, right?

His stomach lurched again and he swallowed hard, despite his mouth feeling dry.

You’re going to think back to this moment and regret not opening your damn mouth.

***

“AJ?”

Shit, she’s awake.

He was chewing on his fingernail, half-watching whatever slap-stick comedy was on the inflight entertainment and half churning over some song lyrics in the back of his mind. It had been a long time since he’d penned a song and he currently felt like the words were just out of arm’s reach.

“Yeah, babe?”

“Could you knock it off with the jumpy leg, please? It’s hard to tell whether it’s turbulence or your leg that’s got the plane shaking.”

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