Broken Minds, Mended Hearts

Chapter Five

The wake up call came through at 7:30am, and Holly groaned, forgetting that she had requested it. She got dressed, brushed her teeth and headed down to breakfast on her own. She assumed Will probably went down on his own earlier in the morning, and lo and behold, she found him sitting at a table, eating alone. She brought her plate over and sat with him, both of them eating in silence, too afraid to bring up what had happened earlier that morning.

"Good eggs," he tried.

"Mm," she hummed in agreement, her mouth full of toast.

"Holls, we need to talk about last night," he said, putting his cutlery down.

She waited for an interruption, but it never came. "Okay," she agreed. "What specifically?"

"Well, first of all, the bombshell that our losses to suicide were the same person the whole time," he told her. "How long have you known?"

"I had only just connected the dots when you said his name," she informed him. "Do you have any questions about it?"

"None that I hadn't asked you before we found out," he replied. "Except, why did you throw up? Did it have anything to do with your interrupted sentence? About it getting worse. How does it get worse?"

"Yes, it was to do with that," she responded. "It gets worse because... Jesus, do I even need to say it out loud? How do I say it?" He took the recorder out of his pocket and turned it on. "Do you just always have that on you? Okay, here goes absolutely nothing. I've been... developing feelings for you. But now that I know you're Brian's brother, I can't help but wonder if I'd feel that way if you weren't. Oh, look at that, the conference is starting."

Holly got up swiftly, dumped her breakfast and left the dirty dishes in the trays they were provided. Never turning to look back at Will, she rushed out of the dining room, missing the shocked look on his face and the older lady telling him that if he didn't close his mouth, he'd catch flies. When he finally regained control of his facial muscles, he did the same rush that Holly had, racing to try catching up with her.

He spent the whole day trying to get her alone, trying to have the conversation that so desperately needed to happen, only to be interrupted by someone coming to chat with her about psychology or whisking them away to yet another panel. He recorded what he could, because his mind was way too preoccupied to focus on any of it at all. At the end of the conference, he thought he'd finally get a chance to talk to her, but she was invited to dinner with a bunch of well-known psychologists and she told him he could work out his own food.

Will went back to their room and started going back through the recordings from the conference, making notes where he knew they could be made, and he didn't stop until he reached the breakfast conversation. He'd been developing feelings for Holly, too, and her reluctance explained better the way she'd been hot and cold with him. He wished she'd give him a chance to reciprocate her feelings for him, whether she was unsure about hers or not. He was surprised by how little he cared about their shocking connection through his brother. It seemed like it would be a huge reason to not pursue her, but it was the opposite. If his brother taught them anything, it was that life was too short.

He heard her enter the room, and turned to watch her take some clothes into the bathroom to change into. When she came out, she was in her bikini with a casual dress to cover it up and holding a towel. She informed him she was going down to the pool and not to wait up. When she left, he decided he wasn't going to wait up, because he was going to go to the pool with her. Sure, it came off stalkerish, but they needed to have the conversation. He knew he wouldn't be able to record this conversation, lest he damage his voice recorder.

Holly was already in the pool when Will showed up in his boardshorts with a towel. "What are you doing?" she questioned.

"I'm forcing you to have this conversation," he informed her. "You can't dodge my questions forever. We still have three weeks left of this shadowing thing to do. Do you really want to spend that entire time ignoring your feelings instead of talking them out? We're both adults, Holls. You're not in school with Brian anymore."