Venelope burst out of Jay's hospital room like a cannonball, heart pounding, mind racing.
Outside, Jay's parents stood waiting.
"There you are!" her mother cried, grabbing Venelope by the collar. "What did you do to my daughter?!"
Jay's father tried to pull his wife back. "Stop it! Let her go..."
Venelope wrestled herself free, shoving lightly with just enough force to slip past. "Auntie, I know you're upset, and right now I don't have the energy for this drama. Please! Later!"
Jay's mother was left fuming in the hallway, half-twisting in frustration as her husband tried to soothe her. "Let her go, for God's sake, woman...this isn't the time!"
Venelope bolted down the corridor, her breath shallow and quick. Just then, a male nurse stepped in front of her, nearly causing a collision.
"Ma'am!" he cried, holding out his hands like a traffic cop. "You can't just run through a hospital like it's a runway!"
"I don't have time!" she shot back. "Have you seen a guy...mid-twenties, angry, handsome?"
The nurse raised a playful brow. "Ma'am… that's literally me," he said, making a tick-tock gesture toward his own face.
Venelope groaned. "Not you! This guy...baggy shirt, disheveled hair, tight pants that somehow still look custom-fitted… Ugh, just one glance and you know he's serious vibe material."
"Oho… boyfriend, huh?" the nurse teased, cocking his head. "Caught him cheating, huh?"
Venelope slapped his arm lightly. "Excuse me! You're nosy! He's my brother!"
The nurse squinted at her, then shamelessly eyed her outfit.
"HEY!" she snapped, stepping back. "What exactly are you looking at?!"
"I swear! Just admiring your dress style, like your brother's," he said, hand to chest. "My deepest apologies. Anyway, your vibe material took the elevator to the top floor."
"What??" she yelped and took off again.
"HEY!" the nurse cried after her. "Don't run! You'll get me fired!"
He was still shaking his head when Venelope came skidding back toward him, nearly colliding with his nose.
"AAAH...I SAID NOTHING!" he screamed, arms flailing up.
"I'm not here to punch you, drama king! Just...where's the lift again?!"
He pointed silently.
She was off like a bullet again, and he sighed, both hands on his hips. "Godspeed, drama girl…"
...…..
By the time Venelope reached the top floor, her chest was heaving. The hallway was deserted, clinical silence filling the air. She pushed through the rooftop door, squinting at the blinding sunlight.
Then she saw him...stooped over the rooftop railing, his figure slumped like all the weight in the world was pressing into his spine.
"HEYYYYY! OYE!!!!" she screamed, running. "Don't jump!!! BE A MAN!"
She slammed into him and shoved him backward off the railing with a theatrical grunt.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" he shouted, stumbling to the ground. "I'm not an idiot! Why would I jump?!"
"Then what were you doing, bending over the railing like some tortured soul?!"
"I was just looking down!" he barked.
"Then why are you crying?!"
"I'M NOT!"
"You are!"
"Am not!"
"Your eyeballs are literally swimming in sadness!"
He wiped his eyes furiously, sniffling as if it might convince her otherwise. "It's the wind. Dust. Allergies."
"Jay wants to talk to you," she said suddenly, cutting through his delusion.
He froze. "…She what?"
"She wants to see you. She wants to talk. With you." Venelope emphasized each word like a sentence being carved in stone.
He stared at her, dumbfounded. Then he let out a long exhale and dropped flat on his back with a dramatic thud. His arm flopped over his eyes.
Venelope leaned over him, squinting. "Hey. Are you crying again?"
"…No," came the muffled reply.
"You sure?"
"Mmhmm."
"Then get up. Let's go."
"No."
"What do you mean no?!" she barked.
"I can't see her right now!" he cried, still hiding.
Venelope threw up her hands. "Why?! What's wrong with you?! This is what you wanted!"
"I don't know what to say!" he blurted. "She hates me, Venelope. She looks at me like I'm something she can't unsee. I messed everything up."
"Well, congratulations," she snapped. "At least you feel something now. Because you sure acted like a statue before."
He was silent again.
Venelope sighed and sat down next to him, shoulder to shoulder, both staring at the sky like confused constellations.
"She's overwhelmed," Venelope said gently. "She's angry, confused, betrayed… But she still wants to hear your side. Doesn't that count for something?"
"…Yeah," he muttered.
"You messed up. No denying that. But hiding here on a rooftop won't make it better."
"What if she doesn't forgive me?"
Venelope smiled. "Then you earn it. You don't ask for it. You prove it. Day after day."
Venelope squatted beside him, arms resting on her knees, chest still heaving from the sprint. She looked down at him...at the man who had made Jay cry, fear, hope… and now ask to see him.
"You're really not gonna get up?" she asked after a pause, her tone lighter than the air around them.
"No," he said again, this time his voice barely a whisper.
"Why not?"
He didn't respond.
"Look, I ran through the entire hospital like a maniac for you," she huffed. "I broke every rule. I elbowed a nurse. Your girlfriend's mom tried to claw my neck. The security cameras probably have footage of me breaking the sound barrier."
Still silence. His hand was still over his eyes, his breath long and slow like he was trying to stay invisible.
"She wants to meet you," Venelope repeated, gentler now. "She wants to talk, okay? That's a big deal. You should go."
"I don't want her to see me like this," he finally said.
Venelope blinked. "Like what?"
"Like a mess. Like a… coward." His voice cracked. "I didn't plan for any of this to go this way. I just… I tried to help. And then I made everything worse. And now she hates me."
"She doesn't hate you."
He scoffed. "She called me a stalker. Told me I disgusted her. Threatened to call the police. That was just an hours ago."
"And yet," Venelope said softly, "she still wants to see you."
That made him pause.
Venelope leaned back, arms stretched behind her for support, staring up at the sky. "You know, she was scared. And confused. And when Jay's scared, she goes into fight mode. She doesn't know how to talk. She just throws punches with words. But deep down, she's not cruel. She's just... tired of being handled."
He listened.
"She doesn't know how to process you," Venelope continued. "You were the danger. Then the savior. Then the stranger she was supposed to marry. That's a lot for one person to carry. She was angry. But she was also crushed."
He finally sat up. His eyes were glassy again. "I never wanted to hurt her."
"I believe you," Venelope said. "Now go tell her that."
"I'm scared," he admitted quietly.
Venelope turned to him, not surprised this time. "Of what?"
He looked down at his hands. "That she'll say it's too late. That I've already become everything she never wanted. That even if she forgives me, she'll never trust me."
"She won't trust you... not today," Venelope said, brutally honest. "But if you don't go down there and speak your truth, she never will."
His throat moved in a hard swallow.
"And let's be real," she added, bumping his arm with her shoulder. "You've already hit rock bottom, Romeo. You're lying on a rooftop with a tear-stained face and your pants are wrinkled."
That made him snort. "They're not wrinkled."
"They're emotionally wrinkled," she said.
He chuckled...soft, reluctant, but real.
She stood and extended her hand.
"Let's go," she said.
He hesitated, then took it.
As they stepped into the elevator, silence settled between them again. But this time, it wasn't avoidance...it was anticipation.
A few floors down, the weight of the meeting loomed like a cliff edge.
As the elevator dinged open, he stood frozen for a second.
Venelope glanced at him. "Don't faint now."
"I'm not..."
"Breathe."
He inhaled, shaky but deep.
And then, step by step, they moved through the hallway. And as they neared Jay's room, he paused again...just outside the door.
"Go on," Venelope said quietly. "She's waiting."
And with one final breath, he pushed open the door. Venelope immediately stopped her parents who ever coming over to stop him and of course her.
Jay was sitting up now, the window light framing her like a painting...frail, yet sharp-eyed, like a storm just barely contained.
Their eyes met.
Time stopped.
And for a second, nothing existed except this, the person they thought they knew, standing right there, painfully real, impossibly complicated.
"Hi," he said, voice trembling.
Jay didn't smile.
But she didn't look away either. "you were crying?" she said with a guilty expression.
Fuel my caffeine addiction, feed my cat, and join the awesomeness! Support me on Patreon accuscripter for exclusive, behind-the-scenes shenanigans, and irreversible creativity 😉 😉 😉 .