Adore

Chapter 29

We stood there making direct eye contact for what felt like years. I kept reminding myself that I had to wait for him to make the next move before I did anything. We stood there motionless, like we were frozen in time. It was left this eerie feeling in the space between us, making me feel more and more uncomfortable by the second.

A nurse walked up behind him. She could tell something had happened between us but she hesitantly spoke up. "Mr. Horan?" She said quietly.

We immediately turned our eyes to her as she spoke. "Yeah?" Niall responded.

"Your father needs you back in his room," her voice held as it did before. "He won't take the results unless you're in there with him."

"The results came back?" He said, sounding mildly surprised. "Well, are they good, bad, worse?" He began to rush.

"If you'd please just come with me," she continued on.

Niall took a look back at me and I saw his shoulders drop a bit. "I'm coming with you," I spoke, my words coming out sternly.

Before he could put up a reason for me not to, I was following the nurse with him. "You shouldn't be here, Audrey," he said through his teeth.

"Would you just drop it? For once in the four months we've known each other, I'm actually trying to be there for you and you aren't letting me," I respond harshly.

"If I wanted you around here, I would've asked you to come," he mimicked my tone.

His words stung a bit. Why wouldn't he want me to be here with him? I didn't say anything to him for the rest of the time we spent walking past rooms and in and out of elevators. Eventually, we arrived to a room with the number 908. We were guided into the room and sat down in the couch by the small window.

"Who's this?" Niall's dad said, looking up at me.

He looked older than I thought he would. He also had a pretty thick accent in his voice as well. All these tubes were hooked up to him along with many monitors. He didn't have a single hair on his head. In fact, it looked like he could've had a scar as well.  A couple of them, to be more exact, but there was a bandage on top of his head too. 

"Dad, this is Audrey Price," Niall introduced as he nervously ran his hands down his legs. "Audrey, this is my father, Bobby."

I smiled to him. "This your girlfriend I've been hearing so much about?" He smiled and shook his head a bit in a teasing manner.

"Dad," Niall ran his hands through his hair. "She's," his words began to stumble. "She's not my girlfriend."

"That's a shame,"  he said, continuing to tease him.

"Okay," the nurse walked into the room with the doctor. The looks on their faces didn't seem promising. It looked as if they had stayed up all night hoping for the best but the best they were hoping for wasn't what they were looking for. "Mr. Horan," the doctor spoke with a tinge of regret in his voice. "The results came back," he flipped open his clipboard then closed it again. "We're going to need to move you to the ICU. The tumor on your brain has begun to grow again."

At that moment, the room was painfully silent. I saw Niall's head drop out of the corner of my eye. Bobby's face seemed to lose it's optimism he held only moments ago. The two of them made eye contact for a second before Niall shifted his gaze back to the ground then picked his nervous habit back up. He ran his hand down his shin and his fingers fiddled with his show laces.

I had felt stunned as well. I didn't know Bobby this morning but you could feel the heartache in the room. I just wanted to be able to snap my fingers and make this whole thing better but I knew I couldn't. No matter what I tried to think of, I immediately shot it down. Nothing hurt worse than the feeling this room held. 

"We're going to have the rest of the nurses come in, in a few moments, to move you there," the doctor spoke again. He kept his voice gentle and delicate as he pierced his lips together and hung his head. Without another word, he walked out and the accompanying nurse followed.

The room stayed silent for a moment longer after that. Niall had a sniffle to share with us. His dad looked back over at him and saw his face was stained by tears and his eyes red. "Niall," he said very faintly, trying to keep his composure. "We knew this was a possibilty, son."

"I know," he cried. "But it doesn't mean it hurts any less. You're all I have from home, though," he paused to catch his breath. "And we came here so you could get better. We came here for your own benefit and these shit doctors aren't doing anything. We could've stayed in Ireland."

"Niall, listen to me," he tried to keep his voice strong. "There was nothing more the doctors could do for me back home--"

"They did more than what they're doing here," he raised his voice.

"We needed to come here, Niall. And I need you to be strong for me just like I'm trying to be strong for you."

Niall stayed silent and looked back at the ground. I studied his face. His eyes were squeezed shut and his lips pierced together. I wanted to comfort him, I really did, but I couldn't. I sat there silently. He was right earlier. This wasn't my place to come here. I should've respected that.

Three nurses came into the room with one of them pushing a wheel chair. The other two nurses helped Bobby out of bed and got all the equipement hooked up to him situated. They took him out of the room, leaving Niall and I on the couch.

"Well," he said, regaining composure. "Are you glad you came?" He kept his voice flat and emotionless.

"I- I'm sorry, Niall," I said quietly. "You were right."

"Damn straight," he pushed out a breath and shook his head. 

"I should just leave now," I said rising to my feet.

"Stay," Niall's head shot up before I took a step towards the door.

"You sure?"

"I think it would be a good idea for my dad to get to know you," he gave a nod. "We should probably follow them," he rose to his feet, placing his hand on my lower back.

Together we walked out the door and trailed behind the group of people transporting Bobby. Everything seemed to be moving so slowly. There was one thing I noticed. It wasn't something I hadn't noticed before but you never realize how real life was until something devestating like this happened. And it wasn't just words that went one ear and out the other. Everything that was said, every word, traveled from both ears and straight to your heart. And you felt it. You felt every word as it had it's on sting of pain or relief. Unfortunately, the relief was absent in the halls.

As we began to walk into the room, one of the nurses stopped me. "I'm sorry but this is family only," she informed me.

"I say she's allowed in here," Niall defended. "Put her on the list."

The nurse slowly turned away from us, following the other two that had already walked out. Niall and I pulled up a chair next to Bobby's new bed. His face was still sad. He was still in pain. It was still sad between all of us but you could tell, Bobby really enjoyed having Niall here with him.

"So, Audrey," Bobby cocked his head a bit in my direction. "Tell me a bit about yourself."

A smiled began to dance across his face in an attempt to change the subject. Seeing that he could pull off a smile, made me smile in return and I could see Niall share a small smile as well. I went on to tell him about my hometown and a bunch of random stories from growing up that were your average embarrassing childhood stories. 

My heart still ached though. The pain was still there in the room. We were all just trying our best to ignore it. That was all we could do.

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47k+ reads. That's so insane. You guys continue to amaze me. Honestly.
I hope this chapter wasn't too sad. The wait finally ended. What do you think?

'Til next time,
Denise Rose x