The Journey

Chapter 26

Elisha

I dropped the newspaper onto the table and sighed sadly, standing up to stretch my cramped muscles. It was frustrating looking for a second job to help pay the hospital bills. Nothing seemed to fit what I needed. The hours were wrong, or the location was too far, or the pay too small...it was hopeless. But I had to keep looking. The one month extension was almost up, yet there was no improvement on father's condition.

Marcie arrived just then, looking as haggard as I felt, "how is he?"

I shrugged, "same old. Any luck in getting the loan?"

She shook her head and collapsed onto the couch, her purse beside her, "they wouldn't give me anything, not after we went through our savings this year like a druggie."

I ran a hand through my hair in frustration, "no luck for me in the classifieds too."

"Now that's good news for me," she retorted, then added harshly when I protested, "you've been working full time hours the past three weeks and you don't take enough breaks. Honestly, Eli, you're behaving like a machine. If you don't stop to rest for awhile, you're bound to get burned out. Try to relax for a moment when you're not in the office."

I walked over to daddy's side to touch his hair, "I can't relax, Mars. Not while he's like this." I didn't add that the real reason I was working and pushing myself so hard was to numb myself from all the pain and hurt I kept bottled up inside me since Nick went back to London. This was far worse than being betrayed and finding out about it.

I still remembered every touch, every kiss, every look from Nick. I hadn't heard from him since we said goodbye. Correction, since I pushed him out of my life. The next day, I heard through the office gossip that he had already left in the earliest possible time to fly out. The thought that he had gone without seeing me one last time proved that he really didn't care as much as I'd thought. That put me in my place and I had to swallow against the lump in my throat and push on with my life as if nothing had happened, but inside I was dying.

I had come to realize that this was no rebound thing at all. This was the real deal, maybe even more real than what I had with Newton before. I was irrevocably, hopelessly, and unfailingly in love with Nicholas McAllister. Nothing had prepared me for this dull ache that continued to persist throughout the days of his absence. Not even the thought of Newton's upcoming wedding to Meredith made me this depressed. Even after Meredith had tentatively asked if it was okay for me to be her maid of honor, since I was her only best friend technically, and I imagined the ruckus of how it would all look like to everyone when this wedding panned out. It was only one week away, and all the final preparations were underway, thanks to Mrs. McAllister's careful orchestration of the whole thing.

And it didn't help that I knew Nick would be the best man, which meant that he would be coming back to attend the wedding. It was after all his brother getting married. I was dreading the moment when we would come face to face once more. I had to mentally prepare myself against the onslaught of longing that would fill me at the mere sight of him and to stop making a fool of myself by showing how much I loved him. It would do me no good to act on my impulses and kiss him senseless, like I wanted to do countless times.

Stroking my father's hair absently, I kept thinking of all these and imagined his eyelids twitching slightly. Suddenly, Marcie gasped aloud. I drew my arm back and watched with disbelief as our daddy's eyes fluttered open once, then closed again. I was not imagining it at all!

"Did you see that?" Marcie asked breathlessly.

I was too scared to answer. Hoping against hope, I leaned down and talked to daddy softly, "hey, dad. If you can hear us, please please please open your eyes once more and look at us. Please?"