𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐄 𝐀 𝐏𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄 // 𝘫𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘣

𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚢

Now, he must learn.

"I promise, Affinity," he assured, trying to keep a brave face.

Affinity reached out and grabbed his hand. "I'll be there."

John B leaned over and pressed a hard kiss to her lips. Affinity pushed herself closer to him to savor every moment of that kiss before they would again be separated. Her eyes locked with his honey brown eyes. It was incredible how quickly she could get lost in them. Affinity could feel her heart screaming at her to not let go of him, but the world was telling them otherwise.

"Be safe," she whispered.

John B kissed her forehead. "Always."

With that, they pushed each other's boards away to go their separate ways. Affinity continued to paddle despite her arms begging her to stop, glancing over her shoulder every once in a while to check on John B. But after about 20 minutes, he was no longer in her line of sight. Her exhaustion soon got the best of her, forcing her to decide to get out of the water at the nearest dock.

While trying to maintain her balance, she proper her knees underneath herself to drag her limp body onto the dock. The solidity of the creaky wooden boards beneath her was everything her body needed at that point. But no matter how much she craved a moment of relaxation, the day was far from over.

Her shaking arms gradually pushed herself upright, but even such a small movement made her short of breath. She stumbled around a few times before she was able to get her sea legs underneath enough to stand up straight. Once she gained her balance, she began to walk back to her house, which was only about a mile from where she was.

Luckily, her legs were able to make it. Affinity jogged up to the house and hurried inside to throw on a change of clothes and grabbed the car keys before she left the house. As she drove to the hospital, all she could think about was the disappointment she saw in John B's eyes when she told him that their next moment together would be goodbye. It was easy to see how it internally shattered the boy, but she refused to leave her father.

It was the right thing to do.

Right?

That was the question that bombarded her head. She just couldn't be left alone. But what she didn't understand was why after she was finally able to come to a decision, her heart wouldn't let the guilt lift off her shoulders, leaving her to suffer with emotional discontentment. Aside from it all, she knew that being with her father was the right thing.

As soon as she parked the car in the lot outside of the hospital, she made her way inside and towards her father's room. Nothing had changed since the last time she was there. Her dad hadn't moved an inch, lying completely still other than the very faint rise and fall of his chest. Affinity pulled up her chair next to the side of the bed and let out a fatigued sigh as she plopped down into the stiff seat.

She propped her elbows on the bed, folding her hands together to rest her head atop them. Her eyes flickered across his face, studying every detail in his face as she sat in silence. His stubble was now growing to become a thin beard and his tan skin had lost its radiant glow. She missed him...dearly and in a time like this, she needed him the most. All she wanted was for her gentle blue eyes to open again.

"What do I do?" She asked in a whisper as if her father were listening to her. "I can't lose him...but I can't leave you."

She sat there longingly, hoping that by some miraculous reason, she would suddenly receive an answer.

"Dad, I'm...I'm terrified." She let out a shuddered breath. "I can feel myself falling apart without you and now the only person I have left, that might be able to keep me whole, is leaving." She reached to grab his hand as her thumbs rubbed circles on the top of his hand. "Why do the people I love most have to leave me?" She looked to him one more time for an answer but, of course, she received no such thing. "Dad, I can't believe I'm saying this but...I feel wrong for leaving him to do this on his own."