ALONGSIDE YOU

35| This is for the best

Jaxton Kincaids Pov:

I can't believe it at all. Is Ugabd engaged? She can't be, the last time I saw her, she didn't mention anything about that. I remember Ben saying that in Islam, there's no concept of dating as we know it, but rather people talk and get married. I can't imagine it. It's not that I can't, but that I don't want to, because how could my Uggy even consider being with someone else or looking at someone else?

Ever since I woke up, I've been having trouble with the left side of my foot and arm. It feels so heavy to lift them. I feel heavy overall.

"Jaxton... hello?" I hear my father shout next to me, trying to snap me out of this trance.

"Yes, what is it, father?" I reply, looking at him, my heart still preoccupied with what just happened.

Where are you, Uggy?

"Okay, now that we're alone... I need to update you on something," my dad says, looking into my eyes, and I can already see the seriousness on his face.

"What is it?" I say with a slight gulp, trying to straighten myself up.

"I spoke with the doctors, Jax... they told me some extremely sad news," he says, taking a deep breath.

What did they tell him? That I'll never recover? My mind is racing with a million thoughts, but for some reason, the biggest thought in my mind is that Uggy is engaged.

I wish she was here..

Come on, Jaxton, it's not the time for that. I try to mentally slap myself out of it, but it doesn't work. The thought is still there.

"What did they say then?" I say, my voice getting a little brighter, swallowing hard.

"They said that the left side of your body is slightly weakened. You landed on the left side and hit the left side of your head, so they say you'll have chronic lasting symptoms from it," he says, looking at me in the face.

All I hear is, "You'll never get up and move again?" His words hit me completely unexpectedly, feeling like knives aimed at me. It feels like the whole world is against me, like I'm not out of the coma. Like I'm forever in that coma.

"So you're saying I'm disabled?" I say with a trembling voice.

"No, Jax, you're not... you just have a little challenge! You'll get through it," he says, trying to sound supportive.

But it doesn't help, not at all.

Deep down, I know that my father is trying to be supportive. He's desperately searching for the right words to console me, to instill hope where there is despair.

"I'll never play basketball again, right? I'm as good as done, and I'll never make it to the NBA," I say now with an even more trembling voice.

"Jaxton, we don't know that. It's not something we have in our hands," he says, taking hold of my hand.

"Logically, yes, it's going to happen, and I'll be walking with a limp, right? I'll never walk at full capacity again, something will always hold me back?" I say as I remove my hand and try to look away.

"Jax, you don't know that," he says, looking at me with a glimmer in his eyes.

"You know what, father? You just delivered one of the worst news in the world to me," I say as I lie down on my bed and turn to the other side.

As I lie in bed, facing away from my father, I feel a whirlwind of emotions tearing through me. Anger, frustration, and despair consume my thoughts.

How could Allah do this to me?