Page 26 of After All This Time

It’s a nightmare that I can’t escape.

I wish I could go back in time and be the only one in the car. Dad would be alive. Lizzie wouldn’t be lying in a hospital bed. I would be. Or better yet, I wish I was in Dad’s place. Sounds morbid, but I do.

Dad had so many more years to live.

It’s not fair some asshole decided to cut his life short.

Maybe Grayson brought up the whole “love” thing with Dani to get my mind off everything that’s happened in the past twenty-four hours.

But the reality is my dad passed away.

He’s gone and he’s never coming back.

Get your shit together, man. You need to be strong for Mom and Lizzie.

“What exactly happened yesterday?” Grayson asks, pulling me back to reality while loosely combing his fingers through his dark brown locks.

“It’s a long story,” I reply.

“We’ve got time,” he responds.

“Yeah, we do,” Xander echoes.

I sit on one of the chairs against the wall in front of Lizzie’s room while Grayson and Xander are sitting across from me.

I tell them how Dad and Liz ended up here at the hospital, the car accident, Dad passing away, and how my sister’s recovery is going to be a long one.

They listen intently, allowing me to pour out my feelings which is something I don’t do often.

Xander opens his mouth and says, “I’m sorry the last twenty-four hours have been so shitty for you, man.”

“We’re just happy that you weren’t alone through all of this. If you were, we would’ve run a marathon to get here.” Grayson adds. “Next time something bad happens in our lives, we need to tell each other.”

I nod. “Agreed.”

Xander gives us a thumbs up. “You got it, dude.”

Grayson has this look on his face I can’t describe, but I have a feeling that I know what’s coming. “Can we acknowledge the elephant that left the room? The pretty elephant, might I add.” He tilts his head, raising his eyebrows over and over again

She’s a lion, always ready to go in for the kill.

“Dude, she’s not an elephant. And I told you to stop talking to me about this.” I stand my ground.

“Sorry, bad analogy.” Grayson blinks his eyes. “Noah, I’ve known you since we were kids. I’ve known Dani since we were kids. I’ve never seen you two in a room together without looking like you were going to murder each other. The energy felt different when Xander and I got here. Care to enlighten us, bro?”

He’s so adamant about this it’s getting on my damn nerves. I know what’s going to happen if I don’t talk about it though. He's going to bother the shit out of me about it until I do, so I cave.

“Fine, dumbass. I’ll enlighten you. I thought Dani being here would be annoying as hell, but it turns out it isn’t. So. Far.”

Xander grins while Grayson has this smug look on his face I want to slap off. I don’t know why they’re both looking at me like that. “What?”

“Nothing,” Grayson says. “Nothing at all.”

Xander clears his throat so loud that the nurses at the front desk stare at us for a solid minute.

“Just say it.” My sarcasm is present because I want this interrogation to be over already.

Grayson turns towards Xander. “Do you want to take this or should I?”

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