It All Started With An Apple

Chapter 44

"What time is it?" I demanded as I stepped off the stairs and ventured into the kitchen.  Garrett was sitting at the table, munching on some cereal and staring blankly out the window.  He didn't seem as cheerful as he usually did.  In fact, he seemed upset.  What the hell had happened to him?

"Garrett?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow.  "Hello?"

Garrett blinked and turned to me.  "Oh, Brianne, hey," he muttered, his eyes still distant.  "Glad to see you're up."

"What time is it?" I asked, plopping down beside him.  "And what day is it?"

I felt stupid asking that, but I had to.  I mean, I felt like I was missing school, so I probably was.

"It's nine-thirty," Garrett mumbled.  "And it's Monday."

He looked me up and down.  I suddenly felt self-conscious.  Why was he staring at me like that?  And why, in the back of my head, did I feel like something was incredibly wrong?  "Garrett, why are you looking at me like that?"

"You don't remember, do you?"

And just like that the memory crashed into me like a freight train.  Dannon having a seizure, Dannon flat-lining, Dannon going into a coma.  I clutched the table tightly, struggling to breathe.  "Oh my gosh," I whispered.  "I can't believe I actually forgot for a second there."

Garrett smiled sadly.  "Ignorance is bliss."

How true those words were.

My jaw jutted out as my eyes turned out the window.  I wanted to be at the hospital.  I wanted to hold Dannon's hand and wait for him to wake up no matter how unlikely it was that he would open his eyes again.  I felt sick to my stomach as I thought of what Tom must have been going through right now.  His only son was dying slowly right before his eyes.

"If you want I can bring you to the hospital," Garrett offered softly.  "We can visit for a bit."

I smiled slightly.  "Thank you, Garrett."

Garrett smiled back.  "Anything for you, my baby sister."

He was trying to lighten the mood, and in any other circumstances it would have worked.  But now I could feel the depression weighing down on me, and there was really no way to fight it.  Everything seemed to remind me of Dannon, and then those thoughts would convert into how I would never get to experience those joys again.

"You know, there's still a chance that—"

"That what, Garrett?" I snapped bluntly.  "That he could wake up?  He told me the day I found out that he was going to go into a coma and never wake up.  I've lost him forever."

Forever.  Forever was such a long time.

Already I could feel the tears burning in my eyes.  Dannon said that he imagined us moving on, living successful lives.  How that hell was I supposed to do that when the only life that I wanted was with him?

"If we keep praying for it, maybe—"

"Praying won't do a damn thing," I muttered.  "If He cared, He wouldn't have done this."

"Brianne."  Garrett grabbed my hand.  I resisted the urge to rip it from his grasp.  "You can't start thinking like that.  There is always hope."

I sniffled, my gaze locking on the tree outside the window.  I wanted to be able to hope.  I wanted to be able to reassure myself that Dannon was going to be fine.  But I couldn't.  In the pit of my stomach I knew that Dannon was gone, and I would never speak to him again.

"He never finished," I whispered, taking on a haunted tone as my eyes met Garrett's.

Garrett's eyebrows crinkled in confusion.  "What?"