Page 153 of Give Me Love

Please, please, let her wake up.

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He slams his fist into the wall and hangs his head against it. We’re the only ones in the waiting room, waiting for Jace to show up. I stand with my arms crossed, too scared to move, but my conscience isn’t letting me keep quiet any longer.

“Bryce, this is my fault,” I whisper.

He looks back at me, the rims of his eyes red, his blues glossy. “Why would you say that?”

I look to the floor as Jace walks in. “What’s going on?” he says.

“I’m not sure,” Bryce replies. “K was just telling me Mom’s overdose is her fault.”

Jace looks at me. “What? Harrison, that’s ridiculous.”

I shake my head as tears fall. “No, it’s true. I… I caught her,” I stutter and then look to the floor as though she’s there. She looked so ashamed. She assured me it was that one time. She hadn’t even put the needle in yet. “She was about to use a few weeks ago.” My heart pounds, and my hands shake. “She…”

“You caught her, and you didn’t say anything to me?” Bryce turns his full attention toward me, and I shrink back at his squared shoulders and straight spine. The way he looks at me as though I’m a stranger burns.

“Bryce, chill out, man. She didn’t…”

“Fuck you,” Bryce says to Jace in such a callous, intimidating way it causes the hair on my neck to stand up. The room fills with tense energy. Jace narrows his eyes.

“You’re mad at the wrong people here, brother.” His voice is unnerving as he speaks to Bryce in his own warning tone.

“I’m mad at the wrong people?” Bryce laughs coldly. “You wanted this to happen. You were counting on it,” he says bitterly. “As far as you were concerned, she was already dead.” He walks closer to Jace. “The woman who brought you into this fucking world deserved more respect than what you gave, you piece of shit.”

Jace stands up taller. “Careful, brother. You’re saying things out of anger that you can’t take back.”

Bryce sneers. “I’m telling the truth.”

“So you think I’m a piece of shit then?” Jace asks.

“Don’t make this about you and me,” Bryce says, shaking his head and stepping away from him. “Don’t turn this into whatever fucking grudge you hold against me.”

I stand like a statue, my feet cemented to the floor.

Jace laughs bitterly. “Guilty conscience?” he questions.

Bryce’s head snaps back to his brother. “You think I should feel guilty?”

Jace shrugs. “Shouldn’t you?”

The room is full of hot energy as they glower at one another, neither saying another word.

I feel like an intruder.

The cause of all of this.

Bryce turns to me, and I swallow. “You should go,” he says coldly.

“Bryce, I’m—”

“Just leave,” he interrupts me. He walks over to the chair in the room and sits down, placing his head into his hands as he rests his elbows on his knees. “Both of you. Get the fuck out of here.” I look over at Jace who doesn’t move. Like scissors chopping at floating paper, his coldness toward me slices my heart into shreds.

What a sad thing, considering he’s the one that finally glued my heart back together. I give him one last look before turning toward the door.

It clicks shut behind me. I lean against the wall and squeeze my eyes, letting sadness river down my face. I push from the wall and exit the hospital with pieces of my heart lining the pit of my stomach and the sound of the door clicking shut ringing in my ears.

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