Page 18 of No Broken Promises

“No,” Parker corrects me. “You came in and gave me a half-assed apology for being the same asshole that you've always been. The asshole who made me fall for him as a teenager and then walked away. There's another reason you're here, in my hospital room, and I want to know what it is.”

Since the day I met Parker, she could see straight through my soul and rip out my real feelings without even trying. To be fair, she can do it with every person in her life, not just me. But it is one more reminder of why she can be the most dangerous person in my life.

“I'm not sure.” The sigh that leaves my lips could have come from a teenage girl lamenting her first breakup. “I was driving home after shift, and I pulled into the parking lot. Some stupid need to make sure that you were okay, especially after I said it was probably your fault you fell. It was a bad joke and I shouldn’t have made it.” I flinch, rubbing an imaginary ache in my chest. “I figured you slipped and fell, Parker. I had no clue what actually happened until I took the report and saw the video. And I'm sorry I assumed you were the same clumsy girl that you've always been.” There, I said it. Finally, I have apologized for what happened, and I truly mean it. Now I can leave.

Except I don't get up, and Daisy doesn't even twitch from her spot on the floor.

Parker slips into another bout of silence and I can't bring myself to leave. Nor do I interrupt her much-needed sleep.

“I’m not sleeping.” She reads my mind. Again. “Just sore.”

“You hit your head pretty hard,” I whisper, trying to keep my voice down. “I thought you might need a friend.”

“You’re not my friend, Remy.” Her words cut through me like a knife to the gut. “You stopped being my friend the day you broke my heart and Danny took my soul. You hated me.”

“No, I didn’t. I could never hate you.”

Lie.

I did hate her, and the silence hanging between us calls me out on my blatant lie more than Parker could have if she’d said it herself.

I hated her for something that wasn’t even her fault.

I forced her into his arms that night.

But I love her more than any of that.

Her next words steal what I managed to hold on to of my sanity and crush it in her perfect little hand. “You never answered any of the letters I sent you. From boot camp, all the way up until you came home, Remy. I wrote you, Linc, and Danny. Every single week. You never sent me anything back. Friends don’t cut friends out of their lives, Remy. You’re not my friend. If you were my friend, you would have been there for me during the worst time of my life.” Parker never raises her voice as she speaks, nor does she look at me. But her words may as well have been tattooed on my fucking face, for how much they hurt.

Tell her. Tell her everything. Before it really is too late.

I open my mouth, ready to do it. Ready to give her the truth she deserved that night. Then I look down at her hand, and I see the bracelet made of string sitting there on her wrist, the one I’d given her in fifth grade as a promise to be friends forever. The one I gave her when I first knew that she would carry my heart around with her until my dying day. The same one I wear almost every day of my life.

After that, I can’t stay. But I can’t tear myself away from her.

“I fucked up. But I’ll figure it out. I’ll figure out how to fix it.”

The soft snore that escapes her lips tells me that Parker hasn’t heard a word I said.

“I’m going to be the man you deserve, Parker. I just hope you give me time to get there.”

I walk straight out of that hospital room without looking back or saying another word and swear that I will do whatever I have to, whatever I need to, in order to make sure that Parker knows exactly what her friendship means to me. What she means to me.

Daisy ignores me the entire way home, clearly upset that I took her away from the only person she actually likes. She marches right down the hall as soon as I open the front door, and there isn't a single doubt in my mind that she will have my pillow in her mouth in a matter of seconds.

The photo on my wall calls out, haunting me with its existence, just like it does every night. I lean against the wall next to it, right next to Danny.

“I'm sorry, Danny. I can't do it. She's going to destroy me without even trying. She fucking owns me. Just like she always has.”

His smile, the same one that lives in my nightmares, flashes through my mind as I tap my head against the wall over and over again.

“Good,” I imagine him saying in response. “It's about time that you were forced to face your demons.”

“I don't have any demons.”

“Yeah, right. What do you call Parker, then?”

Unable to help myself, I open my eyes and turn to see her there, smiling at my mom while she takes our photo. That was the last time I saw her smile. Seven years ago, and it feels like a lifetime.

---