Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
It was one thing to suffer through the humiliation of being fired without knowing the reason why. It was quite another to have to do the walk of shame down the long stretch of hallway as former co-workers whispered behind their hands. Some of the patients I had come to care for looked on with confusion etched heavily into their faces. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole. I felt like screaming that I’d done nothing wrong, but it would do no good. It was hard enough as it was just holding back the tears.
Thomas, the security guard who had been friendly toward me since I’d worked here, now stared at me with cold distant eyes as I gathered my belongings from my locker, and he escorted me off the premises.
“Take care,” I spoke just barely above a whisper as he walked away.
His only response was a grunt that could have meant whatever or go fuck yourself. I couldn’t tell which one. Not that it mattered. My mind was already wondering what I was going to do without a job. I really needed it because God knows my savings wasn’t going to sustain me for much longer.
I stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up some groceries and a pint of my strawberry cheesecake ice cream. I may not have a job, but I still had ice cream at least. It never let me down.
All I wanted to do when I got home was slide under the covers, eat junk food while watching sappy romcoms on Netflix for my pity party of one. In the morning, I’d call the board to find out if the allegations Mr. Morris made were true because I hadn’t been notified by certified letter or at the very least contacted by phone, which would normally be the case if there was some kind of complaint filed against me.
But of course with the way my day was going that wasn’t meant to be because sitting on my front porch was definitely a face I wasn’t expecting to see. The first emotion immediately rushing through me was relief, so much so that the tears that I’d somehow managed to hold back until this point ran heedlessly down my face.
I dropped my bag of groceries and ran into the arms that were now outstretched to me. “Adam!” I practically tackled my little brother who towered over me by nearly a foot even though I was nowhere near short. I held him tight burying my head against his chest, inhaling that familiar scent that smelled like home and holding him tight because he was here. He was alive, and the knowledge removed some of the worries that weighed heavily on me.
As the relief subsided, red-hot anger set in. I pushed him away with enough force that nearly sent him toppling to the ground. He managed to right himself before actually falling, however.
“Hey, what gives?” He gave me that easy smile of his that usually got him out of trouble all of his life. Not this time. No, this time I wanted answers. I deserved them after what he’d done.
I close the distance between us and poke his chest with my index finger. “You asshole! I could strangle you right now!” I’m pretty sure my voice is loud enough that any of the neighbors could probably hear, but I didn’t care. “You’ve done some pretty horrible things and hurt a lot of people, but I never thought I’d be one of them. All I wanted to do was help, but then you steal from me and disappear from my life. I thought you were dead. I put in a missing person’s report for you. I cried every night for weeks, worried sick that I would get a visit from the police in the middle of the night.”
“And you know what? I received a call, asking me to come down to the morgue to identify a body they believed was yours. You have no idea how I felt when I drove to downtown, blinded by tears and nearly getting into an accident. And the relief I felt when it wasn’t you. The fucked up thing about it was that I was also disappointed that it wasn’t you because then at least I would have had some kind of closure. But no, I went right back to square one, agonizing if you were okay, if you were eating properly…if you were alive. So, you don’t get to ask me what gives when you basically screwed me over.” I shove him with more force than before, releasing my pent-up frustration from not only earlier but from what he had put me through.
Once again tears cascade down my face, angry ones. I wanted to keep yelling at him and even a part of me wished I could tell him to go to hell, but I couldn’t. I loved him. I loved who he used to and who I know he had the potential to be again. He doesn’t deserve my unwavering loyalty after what he did to me, but I won’t give up on him. I can’t.