Just Kidding | ✔️

Chapter 61: To Build A Home

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KYLA:
When my eyes open, I'm absolutely taken aback by the body I know all too well as he heads for the door to exit this eerie hospital room. "Cooper?" I call out to him and immediately he pauses mid step to turn around. His body, as if filled with life, jerks into action.

In less than a second Cooper is lunging across the room and collapsing into me. The embrace he wraps me in is enough to warm the chills that have developed overtime in this cold atmosphere. Seriously, do they not have a heater?

"Kyla, princes. You're okay." Peppering kiss after kiss upon my face, cradling my cheeks in his hands he stares into my eyes. "You're okay."

Surprisingly. I would never tell anyone, especially not Cooper but I could've sworn between the agonizing pain and the ultimate blackness, that a light had found me. It was beckoning me to follow it through the dark, and as compelled as I was to the light. . .something was holding me back.

Someone.

Suddenly the door opens and in comes Lora. "Cooper, it's time-" immediately the woman's face falls, then altogether it brightens and her tears of joy replace the old ones. "Kyla!" Turning back into the hall, Lora beckons someone inside and in enters James and Blake.

"You're awake!" James nearly collapses against the wall meanwhile his wife pulls me into her arms, I'll admit my joints are sore and my head is pounding but I can't deny the comfort, it may be the last time I'm in her arms and as of now I need to savor it. All of it.

"You have no idea how happy I am that you're awake right now." Blake kisses my forehead. He more than anyone, I hold onto the longest. However long I've been out for, all I could think was how empty my arms had been without Blake or Cooper in them. It's a feeling that I must learn to cope without.

"Where's Chloe and Riley?" I pull away from Blake and as if on cue the door bursts open, almost knocking James over. With wide eyes, brown coffee cups in hands, they scream. "Kyla!"

They're in my arms before I know it, the scent of cherry lollipops and vanilla overwhelm me. It's better than the whiff of cough syrup or latex gloves.

Looking around, I'm genuinely bewildered as to how so many people fit in one small hospital room. "I'm gonna go get the doctor." Lora pats my shoulder before exiting the room and simultaneously my brother speaks.

"I thought you were gone Kyla." His voice is a murmur against the other beeping sounds. "At least give me more time to adjust before dying. I know you've got more fight in you." He playfully punches my shoulder. I can tell, behind Blake's brown waves that fall over his forehead that he's crying.

"I'll try my best." I snicker.

"You know we would have found out one day right?" Cooper takes the chair at my left and pulls it across the tile floor to plop it down next to me. The others nod as if it's obvious.

I lean further back against the headboard and shrug, feeling weak in my bones. I know I don't have much time left.

"Probably, or maybe I would've made up some elaborate story. Written a letter saying how I was exploring the world and what it had to offer." Chuckling, I watch the pairs of eyes light up in amusement. "I would've said not to look for me but just know that I'm thinking of you all."

"I guess I would have liked to think you were adventuring the world rather than this." Cooper gestures to me, leaning forward to grab my hand. He rubs his thumb over my knuckles and slowly I can feel the fear deep down, begin to settle.

I can't imagine leaving him and all of our plans behind. Leaving my brother by himself and my friends or even Lora and James.

"Maybe we should give Cooper and Kyla a minute, until Lora returns with the nurse." James gestures to the hallway door that he now opens. Light pours in from the hall.

Momentarily I am blinded, reminding me of my near death experience. Or at least that's the only way I can describe it, I felt so detached and cold, I certainly wasn't being reborn. More like pulled from life itself.

"Cooper?" I turn to him once the door is shut and we're surrounded in our warmth and the beams of light peeking through the blinds. I wonder what time it is.

"God, Kyla. You have no idea how much I'm going to miss you." Cooper kisses the back of my hand.

"Please don't tell me you're about to give me some cheesy and romantic goodbye speech. I think I've done my fair share of crying for one day." I beg, trying not to cry but just looking into the blue sea that is Cooper's eyes, has me wishing I could stay with him forever. I know now that that wish is impossible.

"I am, and you're going to love it because you love my cheesy remarks."

"Okay," I chuckle. "I'll bite. Go for it."

"It goes something like this," Cooper clears his throat, taking both of my hands and staring deep into my eyes, he says:

"You, Kyla Daniels have been the highlight of my morbid existence. You put a smile on my face and a heart in my chest, and for that I will never be able to thank you enough. Not one single day will pass by that I will ever forget you were here, my love."

I'm already sobbing and it's been all of ten seconds. How do I leave him? Fuck. I don't want to leave him.

"Kyla, you have built something beautiful inside of me. You've built a home and this home will never be complete. It will never be tended to or kept warm without you."

"Cooper-" I plead but he shakes his head, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear he continues anyways.

"No other girl can possibly take your place by my side, because I cannot be with anyone else. Not after I've had the privilege of loving, than losing the most precious and valuable part of me. . .You."