From My Enemy To My Love (boyxboy) ✔

Chapter 70

My throat closed off and tears fell onto my cheeks. Students gave me strange looks as I got on the shuttle.

"Where are you?" I asked. "Home?"

"No. When I went to the house earlier, grandma was tired, confused and had a hard time breathing, but I still didn't know it was this bad." His voice was a little stronger again as he got control of his tears. "Then she collapsed and dad and mom panicked. Priscilla called the ambulance. They still didn't tell me even then. I only heard as they told the paramedics that she has terminal lung cancer and that it has spread."

"Which hospital are you at?"

He told me. It was the nicer one on the other end of town.

"I'm coming," I said. "I'll bring Chet with me."

Aiden breathed lighter. "Hurry," he said before he hung up.

I called Chet.

"Did you hear anything?" he asked.

When I heard his voice everything inside me broke because he was the one person I could be safe with. I bent over in the seat as a sob racked my being. My throat painfully closed off and I couldn't speak.

"What's wrong? Is it your grandma?"

"Yes," I croaked out.

"Is it bad?"

"Yes."

"I'm coming to get you," he said.

"No," I said and sat up. Now everyone on the shuttle was staring at me, but I didn't care. The shuttle pulled up to my stop. "I'm getting off the shuttle now," I said as I stood. The doors opened and I quickly stepped out. "Can you call Alex and ask him to give us a ride to the hospital?"

"Yes," he said. "I'll do it now."

I hung up and walked quickly to the apartment complex. When I got there, Alex and Chet were waiting for me at Alex's car.

"Which hospital?" Alex asked.

I told him as we got in the car. I sat in the back with Chet this time. I needed to be touching him. He sat in the middle seat and I put my head on his shoulder. He took my hand in his as we headed out.

We were more than halfway there before I said anything. "She has cancer. Aiden says she is dying."

Alex's eyes flashed to me in the rearview mirror before turning his attention back to the road. Chet didn't say anything, but his hand tightened around mine and his other hand came up to pat my jaw.

When we got there, Alex dropped us off at the doors. I was in such a rush that I would have wandered aimlessly in my search to find my grandma, but Chet pulled us to the desk and asked directly where we could find her. Then he led the way through the hallways until we reached the door.

I froze at the doorway. My parents sat side by side in the hospital chairs in the room. My dad was hunched over looking more ragged than I had ever seen him. His elbows were on his knees and his head was buried in his hands. My mom's hand gently rubbed his back.

Aiden sat on the other side of the room. He wasn't crying at the moment, but his eyes were bloodshot. Jasmine stood by his side. She had an arm draped over his shoulders.

Grandma was in the hospital bed. Her eyes were closed. Her skin was sickly pale. Her veins seemed to pop out from underneath her thin, sagging skin. Her wrinkles were more pronounced than I had ever seen them. It looked like she had hundreds of more wrinkles than the last time I saw her. And she had lost a lot of weight in the short timespan since I had last seen her.