"Lisa..." she said, her voice sounding so weak.
I felt so scared that I started crying, my tears flowing freely down my cheeks. My grandma also had tears in her eyes, and I knew that she probably knew that she didn’t have a lot of time left.
"Grandma...I..." I began speaking in between my sobs.
However, my grandmother just shook her head as if she didn’t want me to say anything. I bit my lower lips as I closed my eyes from the pain. More warm tears rolled down my cheeks as a result.
"Lisa...listen to me...well..." she said in a whisper so soft that I had to lean in to hear her speak.
Unfortunately, I had sense that her next words to me may be her last. I nodded my head and brought my ear closer to hear lips so that I could hear her better.
"You’ll be happy with Hayden. He’ll...take care of you...just like...when you were young..." she whispered as her breathing became more labored.
"What?" I said in confusion.
My grandmother was breathing in fast shallow breaths at this point and all I could do was hold her hand tighter in mine.
"I love you...Lisa..." she whispered.
"No...doctor...doctor!" I called for the doctor loudly as my hand reached out to press the button that had the bell symbol on it.
I pulled my knees up and hugged them as I curled into a ball before crying silently all by myself. Thankfully no one else was around to see me breakdown like this.
My entire body trembled as my own sobs wrecked my body. It became harder to breath, my chest felt tight, and my head felt like it was going to burst open. How can this be happening? She was just fine. A week ago, she just attended my exhibition.
Suddenly, the bench shifted, and I felt the presence of someone next to me on the bench. I have to dry my eyes; I didn’t want a stranger to see me like this. It was so unfortunate that someone else was here and needed to use the bench. I could understand, this was the only place anyone could sit in this corridor.
Before I could lift my face, I felt my body being pulled to the side and realized that there was an arm around my shoulders. Shocked and surprised at this sudden development, I blinked my eyes rapidly and raised my face.
"I’m here to pick you up..." the voice that I had missed and wanted to hear so much said.
"...Hayden," I whispered his name in pure disbelief.
My eyes widened in shock. In my grief, I must have conjured him up like a mirage in a dream. Hayden is here sitting next to me with his arm draped around my shoulder. How can this be?
It doesn’t matter if he’s really here or not, I thought as I threw my arms around him and buried my face into his hard chest. He’s so warm and he smells so familiar. I miss him so much. Unable to stop myself, I continued crying as he held me in his arms. I held onto him so tightly like I was hanging on to dear life.
The steady sound of his heart beating close to my ear helped to calm me down somewhat and so did the warmth radiating from his body.
Hayden stroked my hair softly and I knew that he was trying his best to comfort me. Although I knew that nothing could bring my grandmother back, being in his arms like this did help to ease some of the pain. At least, it was a thousand-folds better than crying all alone.
After I had calmed down somewhat, my body stopped trembling in his arms. Hayden continued to stroke my hair softly as I relaxed in his embrace. I had cried so much that I ran out of energy. Suddenly, I felt very tired, and my eyes hurt a lot.
--To be continued...