Are you okay?

19:24PM

Theo gave me no time to attempt to comfort him, standing up abruptly before he began pacing around the room, raking a hand through the dishevelled loose waves in his hair. "And I feel so selfish for saying that," he admitted, halting in his steps to look at me before continuing, "But I can't be the one to hold us together, CJ; I don't even know how..."

Rolling off him in waves, his bursting frustrations radiated across the room as he moved around, agitated while he ran his hands over his face, revealing a glimpse of his torn expression unable to be masked. He was rapidly blinking back tears, staring at the ground while he paced back and forth, and I longed to offer him words of comfort but in a situation that was unfamiliar to me I wasn't sure what I could say without inadvertently sounding insensitive.

The sound of a notification rang throughout the room and Theo reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone as he instantly became impassive while his eyes scanned across the screen. "Talk about timing..." he muttered, walking back over to me and showing me a text on his phone. "My dad has just arrived to check on Will; he'll probably be here with my mum in a few minutes."

"Why not... why not use this as an opportunity to talk to both your parents?" I asked tentatively, watching Theo's honey gaze flick down to meet mine. He seemed somewhat apprehensive, awaiting a further explanation as his gaze drifted away from mine in consideration.

"Neither of you guys have had dinner, right?" I questioned rhetorically, my mind already buzzing with a plan as I hurriedly got my words out, my lips pulling up into a small smile as I elaborated. "So how about you suggest going out for a late dinner tonight: just you, and your parents, and then you can come back to check on Will after." 

Theo remained silent for a beat, before nodding slowly. "That could work..." he murmured, mulling over my words as he reached for his phone again and began typing out a text. "I might not tell them everything I just told you now, but I could- I could at least let them know how I'm feeling."

I couldn't help but grin, glad to see Theo slowly start to relax as his eyes flicked back up to mine with swirls of gratitude in his warm brown eyes.  A new message lit up on his screen, and I sent him a knowing look as I motioned for him to respond. "Thank you CJ," he smiled softly, his gaze dropping from mine momentarily as he glanced down at the screen, before his honey brown eyes flicked back up to me.

I merely shrugged in response, the corners of my lips still pulled upwards as he moved to sit down on the bed next to me, tapping away at his screen with it angled towards me so I could read his conversation with his dad. After around a minute of communicating back and forth, his parents had agreed with the suggestion for the three of them to go out and have dinner together; his parents would stop by my room to pick up Theo, and then hopefully they would be able to resolve some of the issues that needed addressing.

"How did- how that just work out so... perfectly?" Theo wondered aloud, a disbelieving smile across his face as he turned to face me. "I'm going to get a chance to be honest with my parents, your mum might be redeeming herself... even the fact that you got placed in a room right next to Will's - it couldn't have been planned any better," he listed off, a dazed sort of look in his eyes as he glanced down. "It might actually all be okay in the end."

"It might," I agreed, feelings wisps of the hopefulness that had enveloped me earlier during the night with Romeo. My mind was flurrying with thoughts, hyperactive now that I knew that Romeo was on the opposite side of the wall from me, wondering if he was even thinking about me or if he didn't know I had been so close to him all this time either. "It really might..."

A knock on the door broke us out of our trance, and in entered my mum holding a tray of food, alongside Mr and Mrs Hart, although the latter pair remained standing in the doorway whereas my mum came right into the room. There was a moment of well-wishes directed towards me from his parents, before Theo got up and left with them after having said goodbye and assuring me he would come back to see me after.

All the while, my mum had been watching our exchange with a small smile across her face, seeing the Harts' out of the room before turning to face me with an insinuating gaze.

"Mum, he's my best friend," I clarified, rolling my eyes as she nodded exaggeratedly at me and moved the tray of food over to the table beside me: a standard hospital meal of a ham sandwich, a bowl of cut up fruit and a cup of apple juice. "Thanks for my food, by the way."

"It's no problem Cassie," she replied, although her gaze dropped from mine and she began fiddling with her fingers, a nervous tell I had picked up from her. My hands hovering over the sandwich fell back to rest in my lap, glancing at my mum with a concerned look as she couldn't hold my gaze for any longer than a few seconds before averting her eyes. "But, um... well, there's something I needed to talk to you about."

"Something?" I repeated back to her, following her movements as her hand moved up to her neck, mindlessly tracing over the faded scars that scattered across her skin.

"Well, someone," she corrected, and I felt my chest constrict at the mere implication of her words. "Your, um, your dad is here, and he'd, well, he's-"

"Are you serious, mum?" I scoffed, shaking my head as I blinked back at her. My hands were already trembling at the knowledge that He was near me, and I fought to stay in the present as my mind bombarded me with reminders of the past that flashed by too quick for me to tell if I was even imagining the thudding footsteps and echoing shouts. "Obviously I don't want to see him."

"Cassie, he's apologised," my mum retorted, as though that made everything okay. "He saw me, and- and he wants to fix things Cassie, he does. He wants to see you, and make sure you're okay-"

I cut her off with a wry laugh, tears blurring my gaze as I couldn't bear to hear her any longer, standing to my feet with an abrupt movement. "Just stop," I whispered, scanning across the room for a means of leaving before catching sight of my trainers and a folded pile of my bloodied clothes.

"But Cassie, please, just listen," she continued, not getting the hint as I walked across the room to grab my trainers and put them on, knowing that I couldn't wander around the hospital barefoot. Spotting my rucksack, I began rummaging through it in search for my journal as my mum kept talking, pleading me to pause for just a second and listen to her, but I had heard enough. "I believe him, Cassie, I do, and I think-"

"I think I was stupid to believe you meant anything you said to me before," I interrupted, crossing the room again with my journal and pen in hand which I added on the food tray. I remembered to grab my phone before picking up the tray, heading over towards the door with quick strides so I didn't have to listen to my mum's piteous entreating any longer.

I already knew where I was heading the second that the door shut behind me, welcomed by the bright hallway lights and lingering smell of disinfectant as I didn't have to search for long before seeing the door handle for the room beside mine, the one place no one would think to look for me. Balancing the tray with one hand. I knocked on the door once before pushing it open slightly, hearing my heart thudding in my chest as it slowly swung open.

Within a second I spotted him, sat on a bed with his worn copy of Romeo and Juliet in his hands and his own tray of food idly placed beside him as his onyx eyes flitted up to meet mine. A reminiscent of the night before, he was wearing the same black hoodie, except this time his hood wasn't up and there was no grey beanie underneath to conceal what he had kept hidden the whole night: he had no hair.

"Hey Romeo-" I faltered, sending him a nervous smile as my heart felt as though it might implode, "Or should I call you Will?"