Chapter 41.
*****
"Where did you get that?" I asked surprised.
"Matthew." Ezra didn't bother taking the treat out of his mouth as he spoke, it made his words somewhat muffled before he used his sleeve to wipe some drool from the corner of his mouth.
"Your doctor?" My brows rose.
"Yeah. I have more. Want one?" Ezra tried to reach under his pillow but groaned.
"Wait, I've got it." Oliver reached under the pillow and pulled out a string of lollypops. "Sugar free... No thank you."
We chuckled as Oliver handed it to me. I pulled one off and held it out to Jordan, but he had yet to speak since we walked in after he greeted Ezra and whispered a string of apologies. Ezra didn't seem to care, he was just really happy about the sweets and the fact that his parents were spoiling him.
"Take one." Ezra said.
"O-okay." Jordan grabbed the sweets from my hand quickly and took one before he tossed it back to Oliver who ended up taking one before he pushed the rest back under Ezra's pillow.
"Wanna draw?" Ezra grinned looking at his cast which had a spider drawn on by me and a stick figure with a cape from Oliver (we didn't possess Jordan's artistic talents) before he looked back at Jordan.
The doctor said three bullets hit Ezra, one collapsed his lung, one got lodged in his shoulder and the other went straight through his lower arm. He couldn't move his left arm yet because of his shoulder. Jordan's eyes flickered to me, he seemed distressed. I smiled back trying to tell him Ezra didn't blame him before I grabbed the paint Amy had bought for Ezra and handed it to Jordan.
He moved over to Ezra's left side and climbed onto the bed.
"I'm thinking a cat, cool?" Jordan had swiped some black paint on Ezra's nose before he could object and we laughed as Ezra giggled.
"No, Iron Man!" Ezra said wiping the paint off his nose with the hospital bed sheet.
"Okay," Jordan chuckled as he began painting Ezra's face.
It took a bit of convincing but we had gotten Jordan's parents to leave so they could get cleaned up and maybe have some coffee or something. Greg had taken the week off work and Amy... I guess she just took leaf for a while because there was no way she was leaving Ezra in the hospital alone, even though he seemed quite alright... well, for the most part. Apparently he had been having some nightmares. He had befriended the kid that he shared a room with and the doctor and nurses seemed to love him. The other kid was currently having lunch with his mother, he had broken his leg.
Oliver and I began getting busy looking at everything the doctors or nurses had left around and opening the cabinets. We ended up with a couple of tongue depressors and a stethoscope which we proceeded to use on Jordan while he tried to paint Ezra's cast and tried to get us away from him.
I pulled my phone from my pocket when it buzzed and began ringing and smiled seeing Sergio's name light the screen up. Jordan let out a very loud sigh and I frowned at him. He faked a wide grin as he waved me off, "Have fun!"
I answered it as I walked out.
"Hey. Couldn't wait a couple more hours? What have I done to you?" I joked.
"I don't know yet, but I knew you were a wizard the second I met you." We chuckled, "Uh... I'm actually calling about that. I won't be able to make it later." he said.
I frowned. "Work?" I asked.
"Yeah, I have a... meeting." He said.
I leaned back against the wall and waved at Ezra's doctor who had greeted me and chuckled seeing the lollypop in my hand. He was stopped by a nurse just as he was about to enter the office.
"You're not going to become completely immersed in this like you did after that factory burnt down, are you?" I asked with a frown as I took my eyes off the doctor and nurse.
"Oh course not, I needed to be busy then, there was a lot going on. Today just wasn't planned out well. I'll come by tomorrow morning."
"Great, use the front door this time, okay?" I smiled hearing him laugh.
"I love you." I sucked in my breath feeling my heart skip irregularly. That had to stop sometime, right? I could not be at risk of a heart attack every time I spoke to him.
"I love you too." I hung up before he could reply because I felt like he was going to say something stupid.
I walked back into Ezra's room and frowned as my stomach rumbled.
"Is anyone else hungry?" I asked. Oliver nodded rapidly in response.
"Can I have chocolate?" Ezra grinned.
"No." A voice came from outside. I would have said yes...
"No." I repeated as we laughed and Ezra's doctor stuck his head into the room when he was done speaking to a nurse in the hall.
"I can have chocolate." Jordan grinned.
"But you won't." I said, "Oli, come with me, we'll get something downstairs."
"Hospital cafeteria food, gross." Oliver grimaced, the doctor raised his brows, "You're used to it, Doc. Still, you can't deny..."
"True." We laughed as he agreed. "There's a little fast food place just down the road, it's not too unhealthy either. You guys can check it out while I take a look at Iron Man." he patted Ezra's head.
"You're one of the best doctor's I've ever met." Jordan said as we walked out and the doctor chuckled. "Be right back." Jordan disappeared into the bathroom as soon as we reached the end of the hall, Oliver followed him.
I studied the dots on the wall before I turned to lean back against the wall but I stopped as my eyes fell on someone. I groaned letting out an annoyed sigh.
"What? You've decided to become a med student? You intern here now?"
"Damn it, you messed up my excuse before I could even use it." James said grinning but I just frowned back at him. He chuckled leaning against the wall beside me, "No, I went by your house, found Jordan's father there. He told me what happened so I came over here to see you."
"How do you know where I live?" I asked narrowing my eyes at him.
"I got Sebastian to tell me." He shrugged. Sebastian.
"How?" I glared at him.
"I told him you told me to meet you at your house so I could give you something I found at my grandmother's house." There was no other way Sebastian would have told him where I was. My father's old butler knew what happened between us.
"Alright," I pushed myself from the wall so I was standing straight, "I tried to say this politely, but you don't seem to get it. I want nothing to do with you, James. I'm over it and you, okay? I don't care what you did, what we had, it's over. The next time I 'accidentally' bump into you –"
"You'll have your boyfriend shoot me?" he asked, he must have thought that comment would make me feel bad about Sergio. "Is that what happened to Ezra?"
"Don't fucking talk about Ezra." I glared at him, "As for Sergio, I wouldn't need him to; I would just do it myself."
He laughed. "You couldn't even if someone held a gun to your head, Alex." he said.
"Ha." I tried to hide how uncomfortable that statement made me. He knew nothing. "Leave." I told him.
He let out an aggravated sigh as he dropped his head back in frustration before he looked back at me.
"Don't you get it, Alexander? I can't leave you alone. Not while I still feel like shit for what I did to you, you won't even have a normal conversation with me."
"That's your fault. I really don't care what you feel like. None of that is my problem." I said.
"I know, but I made a mistake. You really want me to feel like crap because of it for the rest of my life? I hurt you, I know I did, but I also know you've done some things you regret too, just give me a chance to set it right... You know you need it too." His face matched the pleading in his voice and I held my breath as I looked away from him.
He looked like he really wanted to make it right, genuinely apologise this time and maybe I needed to get over what he had done to me just as much as he did.
Maybe...
Don't you dare, Alexander.
Right. This was James. He was never really sorry about anything.
"Sorry, James. You'll just have to deal with it." I shrugged as I looked at him again. "Now get away from me." I added.
He seemed shocked before his eyes narrowed. He shook his head staring at me before he walked by me.
I let out a sigh of relief and cracked a smile quite proud of myself for not giving in to his face. I looked at the bathroom doors as Oliver walked out with Jordan following him.
"What are you smiling about?" They narrowed their eyes at me as Oliver spoke.
I shrugged chuckling before I led the way to the stairs.
*****