Beautiful Tragedy (A Standalone Romance Novel) (18 page)

“Hey Molly,” I said. “Can I ask you a personal
question?”

She propped herself up on her elbow and looked at my
face. Smiling she said, “Since I’m naked in your bed, I certainly hope so.”

“Have your doctors ever thought about putting you on
the transplant list?”

Her face changed…just slightly, and I was afraid I had
upset her. Then she said, “They haven’t talked about it yet. As long as one
kidney is functioning, I’m not really eligible anyways.”

“Is the other one okay?” I asked her.

“So far,” she said. She looked away from my eyes and
down at the pillow on the bed when she said it. I suspected there was more to
it, but she didn’t seem to want to talk about it. Then she said, “Actually, the
one I have left is acting up a little, but we’re taking care of it.” I hugged
her tight and said, “Good. I’d like you to be around for a while…a long while.”
She smiled then and said, “What about yours? Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah, not bad,” I told her. “It goes away and comes
back. Right now, it seems to be shrinking some, so not bad.”

“Good,” she said, making my stomach flutter with her
next words. “I’d like for you to be around for a long while too.”

I hugged her again, God she felt good. “Do you have
class today?” I asked her.

“Yeah,” she said, “But not until noon. I have Physics
lab this afternoon. That’s the only class I have, but
it’s
three hours long, ugh!”

I smiled. “You can go to my Music History class and
I’ll go to Physics lab for you,” I told her.

“Really?” she said.

“Yeah,” I told her. “I think I really would. It would
do you absolutely no good though. I blew up every beaker I touched in high
school. My science teacher was not amused.”

Molly laughed, “I was the nerd that everyone wanted to
partner up with. Then they’d sit back and let me do all of the projects.”

“That’s terrible,” I told her.

“That I was a nerd?” she asked.

“No, that you didn’t go to my high school so I had
someone to do my projects for me.”

She laughed and said, “So what was Jake like in high
school?”

“Exactly like he is now,” I told her. “Jake is good at
every sport he ever tried out for, just naturally, and for whatever reason the
girls all loved him too. He does nothing for me. Anyways, somehow he never let
any of that go to his head though. He was just always Jake, and he was the only
one who never treated me different after I got sick.”

“Megan was like that for me. She would come to the
hospital every day and tell me what was going on at school and who was dating
who and who hated who and who was wearing what. She made me laugh and forget
about everything that I was going through for a little while. She loved me, but
she didn’t feel sorry for me. She just always stayed close until I was better,
and then once I was we went on with life as we had always known it.”

I laughed softly.

“What?” she said.

“I was just thinking how weird it was that it seemed
like we were living parallel lives all of those years before we even knew each
other.” She thought about that for a minute and said, “Maybe it was all leading
us to here.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE

MOLLY

While Brock and I lay talking in bed, I could hear
Jake moving around in the apartment.

“Does he have class today?”

Brock looked at the clock, it was seven forty-five.
“He must,” he said, “or he would never be up this early.”

“Can I stay in here until he leaves?”

I knew he would know, because since I didn’t go home
last night, Megan will know. What Megan knows, Jake knows…for the most part.

Brock kissed me. I hated thinking about all of the
kisses I’ve missed by holding out for so long. I loved his lips, and the rest
of the body they were attached to. He was so kind and gentle, but at the same
time he was all man. I shuddered, just thinking about last night.

“You can stay forever,” he said. Then he quickly
changed the subject, like he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “I’ll go make
breakfast and see if I can hurry him up. I’ll let you know when it’s all
clear.”

I kissed him back. I really liked this whole kissing
thing and I hoped I wasn’t developing a dependency on it. What if I suddenly
became like Megan and I couldn’t go five minutes without one?

“Thank you,” I told him, truly grateful that he was
such a sweet guy.

Brock slipped on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt
and then he took a long-sleeved shirt out of his closet and said, “If you don’t
want to get all dressed up in your pretty skirt and blouse for breakfast, you
can wear this.”

“Thanks,” I said. After he had gone, I rolled on my
back and stretched. I couldn’t stop smiling. I rolled over onto his pillow and
breathed in his scent. I suddenly wanted to kiss him again.

I finally forced myself to get up a little bit later.
I put on the shirt he left for me. It was long, stopping just below my knees
and definitely more comfortable than putting my skirt and blouse back on would
have been. I heard Jake call out, “See you later,” and then Brock said, a
little too loudly, “Okay, Buddy! Have a good day.” That’s okay though, Jake
probably wouldn’t get it anyways. I poked my head out the door and said, “Is
the coast clear?”

“All clear,” he said. He was standing at the island in
the kitchen slicing something or other. I came out of the bedroom and went into
the bathroom. I had to at least finger-brush my teeth. I wanted to be prepared
in case the opportunity arose again for a kiss.

Once I was looking vaguely human, I went out to the
kitchen. Brock was still chopping and he looked up at me as I came down the
hall and grinned.

“Mm, that shirt sure does look a lot better on you
than it does on me,” he said. I felt my face flush and mumbled some kind of
thank you. It was silly, I told myself. A girl who just woke up naked next to
this guy shouldn’t be acting shy about wearing his shirt.

“It smells good in here,” I said, deftly changing the
subject. “What are you cooking?”

“I made egg-white omelets with mushrooms and bell
peppers and fat-free cheese,” he said.

“Wow, maybe you should be a chef instead of a
musician,” I said, taking a seat at the counter.

“Quick, which would you rather, me sing to you or cook
for you?”

“Sing,” I answered without hesitation.

He grinned, “I was hoping that would be the answer. I
like to cook, but I live to sing.” To prove it, he started singing. I don’t
even know the name of the song, or who the artist was, but it was once again,
beautiful. As he sang he worked and when he went to the refrigerator to get
something out he grabbed a bottle of water and handed it to me.

I smiled. “Thank you. You don’t have to take care of
me, you know.”

“Oh, I know. I’ve seen you do a mighty fine job on
your own. Sometimes it’s nice to have a little help though, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” I told him as I opened the water and took a
healthy drink of it. I think I needed it. I had barely been able to pee this
morning. Dr. Harris was not going to be happy with my output unless it got
better than this.

Brock put our omelets on a plate and added a side of
toast. He sat one plate in front of me, and the other in front of the other
barstool. “You want some juice?” he asked me.

“Is it green?” I asked. I wasn’t heartily against
green juice, but I wasn’t what you could call a fan of it either.

“No,
it’s
peach mango,” he
said with a grin.

“Then yes please,” I told him.

He sat down and when he did, he just reached out and
lightly touched my hair. It was barely even a touch, more like a breeze from
the motion of his hand, but it gave me goosebumps nonetheless. It was the
intimacy of it. The fact that we had made love last night had forged an already
forming bond even deeper. I liked it. While we ate, I asked him about his
family.

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” I asked him.

“I have a half-brother,” he said. “He’s a great kid,
but I don’t get to see him that often. He lives in London with our mother.”

“How old is he?” I asked him.

He’s ten. He plays rugby already, and from what I’ve
seen in the videos my mom sends me, he’s pretty good.” I could see by the way
Brock’s eyes lit up that he was proud of his little brother.

“What about you? No siblings to torment you?” he
asked.

“None that I know of,” I said. “With my mother
unfortunately, who knows? She may have five more out there somewhere that
someone else is raising. I don’t know who my father is, so he could have a
hundred that I’ll probably never meet.”

I hoped after I said it, that I didn’t sound too
bitter. I really wasn’t…most of the time. My mother had left me in a better
place than she had ever lived in as an adult, so for that I suppose, I am
grateful.

We talked for another half hour or so and then I
helped him clean the kitchen. It was after nine now, and his first class was at
ten. I went to put my skirt back on, thinking I would just throw my coat on
over and walk home. When I came back out, Brock said, “It’s freezing out there.
You’re not walking.”

“No offense to Suzie, but don’t you find it colder on
her?”

He laughed. “I’m sure she would take none,” he said.
“She likes you, and that can’t be said of most women. But I do see your point.
I have to go that way anyways, for class. Will you at least wait and walk with
me?”

“That sounds good,” I told him, honestly.

While he was gone getting dressed, I picked up one of
his bottles of medications. I didn’t mean to snoop, I was just curious if it
was one they had tried on me. Brock said it was to shrink the tumor. I wondered
if it had to be only tumors in your brain, or perhaps it could work for a kidney
or two. I put the bottle back before he came back out.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO

BROCK

When I got home from school that day I was still
smiling. My class had been boring, but I had smiled straight through it. As I
was walking back to the apartment, I got a text from Jake telling me that he
and Megan were driving out to see his parents for the day and night. I smiled
even broader, hoping that meant Molly and I could spend some more time together
tonight.

I stopped at the sandwich shop before I got home and
got myself a sandwich for lunch. As I turned to leave with it, I literally
bumped into Tammy.

“Well hello there,” she said. “Long time no see.”

Yes, stalking someone else? “Yeah, I’ve been busy. How
are you, Tammy?”

“I’m just peachy,” she said. “I’m getting ready to go
home for winter break. I was thinking about one last big hurrah before I do.
Are you busy this weekend?”

Busy staying as far away from you as I can get.
“Actually, yes,” I said. “My girlfriend and I already made plans.”

She raised a freshly waxed eyebrow as she said, “Your
girlfriend? The little brunette I’ve seen you with?”

I really hope that Molly won’t mind. I actually really
hoped she would never meet Tammy, just for her own sake. “Yep, that’s the one.”

“I thought you said she was just a friend.” Jeez this
woman should be a cop. She’s practiced at the art of interrogation.

“It turned into more,” I told her. “Take care Tammy,
okay? I have to run.” She stood looking after me as I went out the door. I was
still smiling.

When I got to the apartment it was only one o’clock.
Molly was still in class so I didn’t want to call or text and bother her, but I
couldn’t stop thinking about her. I decided I could kill two birds with one
stone and got out my guitar. As I worked on writing some new songs to add to my
portfolio I thought back to the first day I met Molly. I hadn’t let myself
admit it right away, but I think as they said on
Jerry Maguire
, she had me at hello.

It’s not often that you meet someone who makes you
happy by just thinking about them. I get a warm feeling throughout my body when
I just picture her smiling face. It’s not a sexual thing, although I couldn’t
wait to do that again, it was more spiritual I guess. I felt like we were
connected somehow, even before I really knew her.

The night at the haunted train ride was when I knew
that I was probably going to fall in love with her. I didn’t say it out loud,
not even to myself but in my heart I knew. Dancing in the rain with her was the
most romantic thing I had ever done with a girl. It’s going to be a memory that
I have and treasure for the rest of my life.

I loved talking to her. I felt like I could tell her
anything. I never told any of the other girls that I dated about Paul, my
little brother. I was super proud of what a great kid he turned out to be, and
I liked talking about him, but not to just anybody. I watched the animation in
Molly’s face this morning when I was telling her about him. She genuinely cared
what I was saying about him, and before we left the apartment she actually
asked to see a picture of him. I had one in my wallet that I showed her and she
smiled and said, “Lucky guy, he looks just like you.” That had made me feel
good because Molly was saying that I looked good, and because I liked the idea
of my little brother looking like me. I said something about maybe Molly going
out with me the next summer to visit him. She had actually seemed enthusiastic
about that. If she was just faking it for my benefit, then she was pretty darn
good.