Page 23 of From You to Me

Gia slid them a nasty look while she rubbed my shoulders. It dawned on me then, that no matter what I said, they’d already decided how to end this case. This was just a mandatory part of the process for them.

It was pretty evident that they had their minds made up. What would a teenager with a broken leg and no family do, right?

“I’m sorry, honey. I swear some men have no heart,” Gia said after they left.

I sighed; I didn’t even have it in me to reply to her. I didn’t know how many more hits my body could take before it broke down, this time with no power to get back up.

“I’m so excited to have the Four Foxes here on our show,” commented the host on the TV running in the background. I sank my exhausted body onto the bed.

I had been stuck in this hospital for the past three months.

And with each passing day, the muddled weight swirling inside my body heightened.

I was so close to giving it all up.

I had nothing to look forward to when I woke up every morning, which only made me want not to wake up at all.

I sighed, turning my attention back to the TV that was somehow turned on when I came back from physio.

I was finally able to walk—just baby steps for now—but all I wanted to do was storm out of here.

My dead eyes stared at him.

Even on the TV, he followed me like a ghost.

There he was in his glory, looking completely unabashed and unbothered in black.

Did he even miss me? I had no idea. His face gave nothing away.

“So your single has been blowing off the charts. ‘Brown-eyed girl’ is now rumored to be in the prospect of getting a Grammy nomination. How exciting is that?”

“Very exciting, man. We fucking love that song,” Mikey exclaimed, sliding in one of his signature smiles.

The host nodded. “But I want to hear more from the man who wrote it. J.J., can you tell me what inspired you to write that song? We couldn’t guess the music video, which was incredible, by the way. Congratulations on that. But I want to ask the question the whole world wants to know: who is the brown-eyed girl?”

Every atom of my being froze as my heart hammered a loud beat.

I watched him cast a cool glance at the show host before he replied, “No one special.”

Everything after that was soundless to my deaf ears.

No one special.

I was no one special, wasn’t I? No one in my life considered me special.

A blanket of darkness corrupted me. I didn’t know how, but I ended up staring at the stairs leading to the rooftop.

They looked like torture devices for my broken knee, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the one radiating from my heart.

Dry air rustled my face as I stared at the LA city beneath me.

My legs were shaking, but I didn’t even care.

What was my purpose? Why was I stuck in the city that I hated? Should I just give it all up?

“You need to go a bit closer if you’re going to jump?” someone called out from behind me.

The voice startled me so badly that I jumped, losing my balance and falling on my ass.

---