Chapter Forty-Five – Heart 'Breaks'

The others came in at about four in the morning and by that time we’d been at the hospital for about three hours. It all felt like a terrible episode of the Good Doctor or the Resident. I hated it.

Boateng brought me my favorite drink and this was not lost on Sly. Kwame wasn’t with them.

“Where’s Kwame?” I asked. By this time my patience was wearing thin.

We sat in the waiting room and I dozed off to sleep on Sly’s lap. At about eight, the others decided to go get us food. I didn’t want to leave Lara and Sly didn’t want to leave either. As soon as they stood to leave, the door opened and Kwame walked in.

“Hi guys” he said, “how’s Lara.”

“You, bloody bastard” I said, leaping at him before Sly caught me. I had no idea what came over me. I was definitely not a violent person by any stretch of the imagination but I guess seeing my friend in that condition sent me over the edge. Where was he? He’d promised to be there. Where was he?

I screamed and kicked at him but Sly held me back. I was so angry the tears were flowing freely. Kwame made no attempt to protect himself, instead he looked down in shame. The others just stood watching in confusion.

A nurse had come to check in on the situation, forcing me to calm down. The last thing I wanted was for us to be kicked out. Once I was calm, Sly set me down.

“Where were you?” I asked in tears. “You promised her you would be here, where were you?” I demanded. I realized I was shouting again, so I took a step back.

“We need a moment” Sly told the group, and then grabbed my hand and escorted me out.

Once we were out under the sun and away from prying eyes, I let out a loud scream and sobbed. Sly stood there for a moment trying to think of what to do. Finally, he just held me and let me cry.

“I’m sorry” he muttered over and over.

Once I was calm, we just stood outside so I could breathe for a few seconds. Boateng came to join us because he got something for me to eat. Boy, this guy was just showing up at the wrong time.

“Are you okay?” he asked. He gave me a long hug before nodding to Sly and leaving. It took everything in Sly not to say what was on his mind. He pursed his lips and turned away so I wouldn’t see how upset he was.

Lara was far too exhausted to ask Kwame why he didn’t show up. She knew the question would bring up some kind of argument and she was far too exhausted for that. Besides, she had bigger things to think about like the state of her health.

*

Lara spent a day in the hospital and was discharged. She was weak but mostly embarrassed. We told the rest of the group that she had food poisoning so they wouldn’t know about the abortion. As for my outburst, I explained it away by saying I was very angry because when Lara called Kwame he hadn’t answered. Technically that wasn’t a lie.

It still didn’t make too much sense why I would be that upset with him but everyone figured I was tired and emotional.

Lara was resting on the bed and I was trying to catch up on some studies when Kwame knocked on the door. I opened it to find him standing at the door with a bowl in his hand.

“Can I help you?” I asked as rudely as I possibly could.

“I’m looking for Lara” he said.

“She’s not here” I lied.

Kwame sighed and adjusted the bowl on his hip. “I know she’s here because I texted her earlier. Please can I see her?”

“No” I said.

We stood there staring each other down for a few minutes.

“Do you want to know something interesting? I have never liked you. You are a very terrible person and you may try to explain it away and say that you’re a good person that has made mistakes but it’s simply not true. You hurt all the people you claim to love. If you really care about Lara, you’ll leave her alone.”

I could see that my words stung but I didn’t care. I wanted my words to wound and cut.

“I know you don’t like me. You’ve made that abundantly clear multiple times. I came to bring my girlfriend soup. Lara is old enough to make her own decisions and so until she asks me to leave, I’m staying.”

I didn’t want to argue anymore and Lara seemed to wake up so I just opened the door and let him in. I couldn’t be around when the two of them were there so I left.

*

A couple of days passed and Lara was much better health wise. Group studies were becoming increasingly difficult for all of us. I mean Laura was quieter than usual, Kwame was ashamed and the whole group by now knew what had actually happened but were too embarrassed to admit that they knew what had actually happened. No one could dare acknowledge the elephant in the room, so we studied with it and tried to chat casually like it wasn’t there.

Right after group studies, Boateng and I went hunting for a gift for Sly. I wanted to get him something memorable and Boateng being a guy, was the best person to help me pick out the perfect gift. We spent almost the whole night but we did get the perfect gift.

Kwame and Lara walked back to her room while Kwame tried to make some small talk. Neither of them had really talked about what happened. They had both just agreed that it was better that they didn’t tell anyone what happened and then move on.

They stopped in front of the door as Lara rumbled through her bag in search of her keys. “So, I was thinking that maybe this weekend, you and me could go and see this new movie that just came out. You know I’m a sucker for a good action movie…”

As he spoke, Lara got increasingly agitated. She had found the key and just before it slipped into the lock, she dropped her hands and had a resigned expression on her face. Kwame stopped talking immediately, looking at her?

“Lara, is everything okay?”

There was silence for a while and he was gearing to ask the question again.

“No. Everything is not okay, and I’m tired of pretending that it is. Kwame, we killed a child – our child and not just that, you weren’t there. You promised you’d be there and you weren’t there. I wanted to move past this. I did. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t do this anymore.”

“Lara, are you breaking up with me?”

“Yes. I…I need a break. A long break from you and from all of this. I can’t look at you and not remember that you left me. You weren’t answering my calls. You didn’t keep your word. There’s no coming back from that.”