♥Chapter 47: ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ʜᴇ ᴍᴇᴇᴛꜱ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ♥

❆Jake❆

A feeling like no other slams into me, making me jerk up, tipping back the chair, letting it fall.

There has to be a mistake.

This doctor definitely did a mistake.

Somebody fire him!

"Are you sure?" Alex's mouth is dropped open, his eyes barely blinking.

The doctor nods.

My heart hammers against my chest with all the constricting feelings enclosing around me. 

"This can't be." My voice is unsteady.

"Jake—" Toothy starts but I'm already rushing out the room, my gut clenching as if someone's grabbing my stomach and rattling it to the point where I want to hurl.

"Jake!" Toothy's voice calls out after me, her footsteps following after.

I pass Corey who's just waking up from his sleep, "Wha—"

Nothing seems clear in front of me with thoughts attacking me from all over.

My feet stumble yet I refuse to stop until I'm running out of the horrid place where I can't breathe anymore.

Even after rushing into the open evening sky, my body finds it hard to breathe. I'm heaving but it's silent.

My hands run through my hair. My feet won't stop moving. My body won't stop trembling. My heart won't stop hammering. The ground's spinning all around.

What's happening to me?

My feet stumble and I'm falling to my knees, gasping as if I'm plunging into dark waters.

With a painful realization, I realize the feelings drowning me; terror and agony.

Kennedy is going to die.

She can't die.

She can't.

But she is.

A noise comes out of my throat. A whimper of pain.

My heart is squeezing into a tight ball, clenching until there's a sickening pain.

Why does everything hurt?

Everything was going perfectly. Everything. Kennedy was-she was going to...

A cry almost comes out of my mouth.

Instead, I slam my fist repeatedly onto the ground covered with grass.

When that doesn't help, I get up and slam my fists onto a tree trunk.

My knuckles throb but it doesn't cover what my chest's feeling. There's darkness clouding my vision.

"Jake!"

"Jake!"

"Jake!"

It takes me moments to realize two pairs of arms are trying to jerk me away from the tree.

Corey's mouth is near my ear, shouting at me, "Jake! Jake, man, there are children here and right now they're scared out of their wits. Stop!"

My eyes dart around at that moment, realizing for the first time where the fuck I am.

People around are looking in my direction with Corey's arms wrapped tightly around my waist, holding me back. We're right outside the hospital.

"Let's go inside," Corey speaks into my ear.

I jerk off his arms, a glare coming onto my face.

Corey gazes at me before turning around and walking back into the hospital. I follow silently.

Each step back into the hospital sends a wave of dread into me. My feet falter and stumble every step into the dreaded place. At any moment, they would turn around and run away.

This place is cursed.

Hospitals are always meant to give you bad news. To break your heart. To shatter you completely.

We walk until Corey steps into an empty room, and I step after him.

My body can't keep up anymore and I'm collapsing to my knees. A pain, so intense, twists into my chest, wrenching out my heart, shattering it into pieces.

"Jake!" Corey's on my side, the door shut, his hand gripping my shoulder. "Keep it together man. Come on."

"She's going to die." My voice is a choked whisper.

"Jake, dude, please." Corey's slightly slapping my cheek as if trying to bring me back to reality. "I know it's hard. But come on, you gotta keep it together."

My hand grips his wrists, a whirl of thoughts and emotions spinning my head, "She's going to die."

Another pain shoots into my heart and I'm giving out a faint cry, "She's going to die, Corey!" I slam my hands on the floor.

"I know, I know." Corey's voice gets low.

"She's going to die." The disbelief is so strong, my mouth couldn't stop repeating the words for my heart to accept it.

"Man, snap out of it, please." Corey shifts until he's kneeling in front of me, hands on my shoulders. "Listen to me." He grabs my jaw.

"She's going to die." My voice sounds hollow.

"Jake, listen to me." Corey's patting my cheek.

My eyes finally meet his troubled ones. There's a heavy lump in my throat, strain behind my eyelids, a wobble in my voice when I speak, "She's going to die, Corey." My voice cracks.

There's pain in Corey's eyes. His face looks weary and stressed. "Yes, I know. I know, man, I do. I know it's hard but dude, please you gotta keep it together."

"How?" There's despair in my voice. My eyelids feel heavy.

"Think about Kennedy, man. Think about how we gotta be there for her when she gets to know. We gotta be strong. You gotta be strong."

Strong.

Strength was something I always thought I had. It was something I never questioned and never thought about. But now when it came to this, I don't think I'll even be able to face Kennedy, or even look at her in the eye.

"You're the one who can tell Kennedy, Jake. She'll want it to be you who tells her." Corey says.

"I don't think I can."

"You gotta be strong. For her. Think about her, Jake."

I am.

That's why with every second I'm losing my strength.

How am I supposed to look her in the eye and tell her that she's doing to die? How am I supposed to hold myself together when the light in her eyes switches off the moment the words come out of my mouth?

I can't.

I can't do this.

I won't be able to bear it.

I shake my head, "I can't do it, Corey. I won't be able to look at her. This - all this - Fuck, Corey. I'm never good at this shit."

"Everyone knows that. But Kennedy would still take it easy if your the one who tells her. She won't care how inexperienced or bad you are at this thing. She'll just want you by her side."

"I can't face her. I can't tell her." I shake my head.

"You can. Listen to me, it's either you or it's that sluggish sloth doctor. And trust me, even if I was having a heart attack, I would let the school nurse heal me with ice rather than him."

"Corey," My voice is a protest, but he tightens his hold on my shoulder.

"Jake, come on."

My fists tighten on my lap, my nerves losing with every thought of facing Kennedy.

How am I going to tell her? Knowing Kennedy, the light will first turn off from her eyes, her face will drop. There'll be disbelief in her voice. And the slow moment until she comes to terms with it...the time in which she'll be taking in the horrible news...

How will I be able to keep myself composed?

She won't cry. And that hurts more.

She won't cry because of me.

She'll keep it in because that's Kennedy and she'll care about how I feel before taking care of her own emotions.

I can't watch her be selfless in this situation.

"Kennedy will need support from all of us, Jake." Corey says, "She's going to keep it in, you know that. And it's gonna break her from inside. We gotta show her that we're strong and that she can open up to us."

A steady breath tries to come out my mouth.

He's right.

Kennedy will keep it in.

And if I'm not there, ready for her to lean on, then she's gonna break by keeping all the emotions inside.

I have to be there for her.

She needs me.

"She needs me." I voice out.

"Yes." Corey says.

"I need to be there for her."

"Exactly. Get your wits together, man. You gotta be composed when you see her."

My head moves into a nod while I try swallowing the lump in my throat.

Kennedy needs me.

I'm going to be there for her.

Slowly, I raise my head, meeting Corey's deep blue ones near me. One of his hands still holds my jaw, while the other grips my shoulder. He's looking at my face, gauging my expressions

"You're gay, you know that right?" I ask.

His face cracks into a small grin, "Only for you, wifey."

The door to the room slams open and Corey and I jerk away from each other.

Toothy stands at the door, her chest heaving as if she ran miles in a minute, "There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you two!"

"What happened?" I rise from the ground along with Corey.

She pushes back the strands of hair that falls on her face, looking exhausted, "Someone's here to meet you."

✯✯✯

Corey and I walk out the room as Toothy walks ahead of us, guiding the way to wherever we were going.

Who the hell wants to meet me right now?

There's a small weight on my chest with worry that this person has something to do with Kennedy.

A small jolt of pain goes through my chest at the same thought crossing my head about how she's going to die. I resist the urge to curl my fists and instead continuing trudging behind Toothy.

I swear if there's any more bad news about Kennedy-

Toothy stops and opens the door.

We step into an office with white walls and black shelves. Toothy steps aside and lets me walk in first. My eyes immediately land on a guy seated on a small leather couch in the corner of the office.

He stands as I step into the room, his brown eyes addressing me.

One of my eyebrows raise and I look back at Corey and Toothy, silently asking them if I'm supposed to know who he is.

They give me a blank look.

I look back at the man with black greying hair. He has a 'smart and intelligent' guy sort of look. He wears a formal attire, shirt and slacks, and looks almost thirty-five.

"You must be Jake." He speaks then looks at Toothy, his eyebrows scrunching, "Toothy?" His eyes move to Corey, "You're definitely Corey. Kennedy talks a great deal about you three."

"And you are...?" Corey raises an eyebrow.

"Gabriel." He puts his hands in the pockets of his slacks, "Dr. Gabriel."

Corey scrunches his eyebrows in confusion while my eyes widen with realization.

"Unless you're that cheap bra seller Gabriel down the fifth street avenue, I don't have a single clue about who you are." Corey shrugs.

Toothy face palms.

"That's Kennedy's doctor, you dipshit!" I snap.

Corey's mouth forms an 'o' while Dr. Gabriel has a small frown between his eyebrows.

"Oh so you're Gary." Corey says.

A look of half irritation, half amusement crosses Gabriel's face. "That might be it." He mutters.

"Oh wait—you're the guy who's rule book I burned in Jake's backyard." Corey laughs.

"My what?" Gabriel looks confused.

"That dumb rule book you gave Kennedy," Corey says, "I read the first rule and almost dozed off. Honestly, you should have come to me. I got more fun rules that people don't snore to."

I shoot Toothy a look and she nods as she got the message.

She brings back her leg and swings her booted foot at Corey's shin, making him yelp and yell out curses.

"Toothy!" Corey clutches his shin, hoping around. "Thank god we're right in the hospital. Oh wait. Yo Gary Bary, you're a doctor right? Check if my shin's broken or not."

Corey curses. "Goddamn woman's shoes. They're always murderous weapons in disguise."

"Can you shut the hell up?" Toothy yells.

"You broke my fucking shin!" Corey snaps. "I used to play football! Now I gotta kiss my ball and career goodbye."

"Definitely Corey." Gabriel mutters under his breath, seeming as if he's about to roll his eyes.

"Ignore him," Toothy does the eye roll for Gabriel, "Here's Jake and now I'll leave you two alone."

She says and attempts to pull Corey out the room.

"But Gary still has to check my shin—" and the door slams shut after them.

✄ ✄ ✄ ✄

I'm gonna try updating EVERY second I get and finish this book before the month ends!

I promise you people there's a lot of humor and jokes ahead and Kennedy's still crazy and hilarious as ever!

Also did you people notice the change in the chapter titles???

Words: 2,050

Date of publishing: 13th June 2022