The next few weeks flew by in a flurry of activity filled with strenuous workouts, nights staying up studying my ass off and avoiding Malcolm's inquiries about when I'd be going out again on my 'death wish crusade'. I'd ignored him ever since.
The Patriots were well on their way to the Super Bowl as they won all of their games leading up to the main event and Emmett Scott was the topic of every sports news channel, even the regular news did a short snippet of coverage on him, and they didn't forget to mention his 'whirlwind romance' with Sofia Renault.
Gag me.
The campus was buzzing with the excitement and while I tired my best to block it all out, the suspense of how I spent my nights making everything flood right back to the surface.
I'd been back to the pub a few different times but each time there wasn't any action, so I graduated up to going to the Royal and I'd only spotted one guy drugging a girl's drink but I went up to her, told her what happened and made sure she got into a car with her friends before turning around to find that the culprit had skipped out, not wanting to get caught for what he'd done.
It was the week before the Super Bowl and bets were being made at every table I passed by in the club every night that I went, and since Boston was the hometown of the Patriots it was obvious who the majority of people were rooting for.
With each day, more and more articles about Emmett and his new girlfriend filled my internet news carousel and it was so overwhelming that I had to disable news about him and Sofia altogether. Breakups were hard enough without the news that my ex was already over me being shoved in my face on a daily basis.
I'd missed my doctor's appointment for my heart issues when I'd ended up having to work later on a project with Malcolm than I'd ever anticipated and he'd even weaseled his way into already meeting Amalia.
He was trying the friend route, and while I wasn't opposed to having another friend, it was hard to break down past my walls and I definitely didn't give him an inch when it came to my secrets in the past.
He took my coldness in stride and just assumed it was part of my 'charm' even though I was pretty sure the word charming wasn't in my personal dictionary.
It wasn't until later that Friday night when in the middle of a workout on that same treadmill in the gym that I realized how stupid my forgetfulness was when it came to missing my doctor's appointment.
I had been pushing myself too hard, skipping meals and not drinking enough water but still working my body to the hardest extent possible, not to mention the stress load of trying to keep a solid GPA at law school, go out almost every night to catch assholes trying to assault women and keep a certain pro football player off my mind even when he was the only thing my mind wanted me to focus on.
My heart skipped a beat.
I felt it, like a sucker punch to my chest, knocking the air out of me.
Malcolm noticed it before I could ask for help, but by then it was too late. My foot slipped and at the speed I was going on the treadmill, a breakout sprint, my body went down tumbling and I felt my chin slam against the runway of the workout machine, no doubt causing a burn on the skin.
There was another beat where I could only wallow in the pain and then my heart began hammering in my chest, harder than it ever had before.
The blackness started creeping in around the edges of my vision, then, and the last thing I saw before finally blacking out was Malcolm's concerned face, his mouth open as if yelling for help.
Yes, I needed help, in more ways than one.
"So why did you and this Lydia girl breakup anyway?"
I ground my teeth together as I sat across from Sofia in an expensive restaurant, wondering if this setting was chosen on purpose. She knew I wouldn't cause a scene and tell her to leave it alone if we were out in public.
"She had some...emotional problems that she needed to work out on her own, and she chose something else over us."
Sofia furrowed her dark eyebrows in confusion.
"What did she choose?"
I was tempted to roll my eyes but kept that fake smile displayed on my face instead.
"That's not really my place to say. When I said she had emotional problems...I mean there was a lot of shit that happened to her in the past, people hurt her and she couldn't get over it, at least not yet. Not with me."
"So you just let her get away like that? Just like that?"
"What do you mean I let her? She needed to go this route, even if it destroyed her and everyone else in her life, and I couldn't be a part of it."
"That sounds like a cop out."
Fury danced behind my eyes but I knew she was only trying to help me see things in a different light. We'd become more like friends with benefits who pretended to date for the media sake.
"What do you mean? That path would've destroyed my career, and without my career I'm nothing."
"That's not true Emmett. You're a great friend and an amazing person and you deserve to have that love that you obviously want from her. Why are you wasting your time on something that's going nowhere?"
I was wondering where this conversation was coming from.
"Did your ex get back in touch with you? Are you wanting to end this?"
"He did, yeah, but we don't have to end this if you don't want to."
I thought it over in my head.
"I mean, yeah, but I'd like to still stay friends. It's not like I can talk about any of this shit with my teammates."
She laughed at my question and for a second I thought she was going to give me shit for wanting to stay friends.
"Yes, I definitely want to stay friends. But what are you going to do about Lydia?"
"I have no idea."
"Do you still love her? Still want to be with her? What if she said right now that she'd be willing to take you back and give up whatever it is that pushed you two apart in the first place?"
I didn't even have to think about it.
"I would take her back in a heartbeat."
My phone began buzzing in my pocket but I ignored it. It was rude to be on your phone in the middle of a 'date'.
"Then I think you have your answer. Just go to her, and plead your case. If she still can't give it up, even after all this time, then you'll know it's not going to work out and you can finally move on, for real this time."
I looked at Sofia through a different lens, then. This had started out with us using each other, but it ended up with us as friends.
"Thank you. I mean that."
My phone would not stop ringing in my pocket.
"I'm sorry, it must be important," I said as I took it out and frowned at the screen. Three missed calls from Lucas and SOS texts from him as well.
"What's wrong?"
I heard fast breathing on the other end of the line and finally Lucas' voice reached my ears.
"Amalia called me, Lydia's roommate. She said she had an accident when she was at the gym but that she was unconscious. Apparently she's been having heart problems and she's at the hospital now and won't wake up."
He didn't have to say anything more. I was going to see her, and I was never leaving her side ever again.
"I'm on my way."