The Heartbreaker's Home

Chapter 15

"What are you still doing here? Don't you have class?" he asked with a confused smile.

I frowned, but shook my head. "No Dad, I'm on break. I'll only start classes next week after the New Year holidays, remember?"

"Ah." he murmured, but his voice did not seem to show recognition. "What are you up to now, then?"

"I'll just pop over to Megan's. She asked me to help her with some packing before she leaves to go back to UCLA tomorrow."

"Megan?"

I frowned,a little worry sprouting in my heart. "Dad, Megan's my best friend since high school, remember?"

He paused, and then smiled. "Of course, pumpkin. Go along now." And with that, he closed his eyes again and seemed to drift off to sleep once more. I straightened up, observing the slow rise and fall of his chest as if worried it may stop at anytime.

"Karen?"

"Yes, miss?"

"Do call me if anything is amiss, alright?"

With the hospice carer's reassurance, I headed for my car to drive over to Megan's house just a few streets away from mine. 

With the ease of someone whose been there often, I grinned when her parents opened the door for me and made my own way up the stairs to where sure enough, my best friend sat right in the middle of her poster plastered room, clothes strewn everywhere with a haphazard look on her face.

"Oh Megs." I gave a long suffering wry laugh, as my best friend sheepishly grinned at me. Megan had always been a hoarder, and was a horrible person at packing. Her mother was no help, since that was exactly where Megan had gotten her genes from. "Do you have to lug your whole room to UCLA?"

"But everything is important!" she exclaimed.

I couldn't help but laugh as I crouched down next to her and began to inspect the items she had placed in her bag. Despite me being by her side however, nothing could escape Megan's sharp eyes. She hadn't been my best friend over the past 12 years for nothing after all. 

"Kelsey Lee, what happened last night?"

"What do you mean?" I asked innocently. Not turning to look at her as I spoke however, was a dead giveaway.

"Your eyes are swollen, and your cheeks are bumpy. You've been crying. Whose nose do I have to punch?"

It was one of Megan's most endearing facts, how protective she was of me. She was a fiercely independent lady who would stop at nothing to help her loved ones. She would've taken Declan's eye out the first time he broke up with me, had I not did my best to appear as if I hadn't been as rattled as I had been. If she found out this time however, I don't think she'd be as kind.

"No-nothing, Megs. I'm just... This whole thing with my Dad is stressing me out." I breathed out the half-lie. It wasn't entirely untrue. The tears last night had been a culmination of the past month of stressing over Dad's situation, and the argument with Declan just brought everything to a head.

She raised a brow, and I sighed.

"Declan got an offer. To coach a team in the city."

"And...?" she probed, knowing it went further.

"He sounds like he doesn't plan on going. I told him to."

"And you two argued over that?" she asked with a pointed tone. I cursed the fact that my best friend was incredibly smart. Taking my silence for an answer, Megan started pushing her 20 shorts into the suitcase as she spoke. "Really though, Kels, you've been cooped up in this town for as long as we've known each other. Do you really want to stay here your whole life?"

"Dad's here." I murmured, but we both knew the underlying truth that neither of us said out loud. Not for much longer.

"What did he say then?"

"He... said he was negotiating for something. And he asked me to go with him." Well, not in those words exactly, but it was close enough. I looked up and saw Megan's waiting look, and sighed again. Leaning forward, I began taking out some of her more rattier shorts as I spoke. "This past few weeks has been draining, Megan. Must we go through this?"

Megan shook her head, but dropped the subject.

It was a few hours later, before I finally returned home after having lunch with Megan and her parents, but as I drew up to my street, I felt the blood run cold in my veins. I floored my brakes and all but jumped out of my car seat, not caring how haphazardly my car was parked. The ambulance that was in my driveway held all of my attention, especially when the front door opened and Seeley stepped out.

The moment I saw the figure of my elder brother, I dashed towards him. Instead of stepping aside to let me in however, he caught me in his arms and held me to his chest, moving so we did not obstruct the doorway, and as I gazed over his shoulder, my heart constricted painfully in my chest.

My dad, the boisterous owner of Harrington House, the one and only anchor of my life ever since we lost our mother, lay motionless on a stretcher. And as I watched helplessly, the paramedics drew a white cloth over his face.

I heard a loud voice shouting, but it sounded hollow in my ears. My cheeks felt damp, yet none of that registered, as I struggled to get to him. Seeley held tight, and I could faintly hear him hushing me in what he hoped was a soothing tone, all while keeping a tight grip on me. His breathe hitched, his chest uneven, yet all of that sounded faint to my ears. Grief comes like an ocean, its tidal wave washing over me. People learn to swim in their grief.

Me? I'm drowning.