My Romance Life System
Chapter 84: Why

Chapter 84: Why

He walked out of the doctor’s office.

’This is insane. This is so insane.’

He kept walking, his feet moving down the hallway automatically. The white walls, the smell of cleaner, the quiet squeak of his own shoes... it was all background noise.

’What am I supposed to do? What am I even thinking?’

The doctor’s words just replayed in his head. Release her into your care. It wasn’t a suggestion. It was a live grenade someone had just handed him.

He stopped in front of her door. Room 307.

He just stood there, staring at the number. He didn’t want to go in. He was terrified. A part of him, the old Kofi, the one who was good at being invisible, was screaming at him to just turn around. To walk out of the hospital, go home, and pretend this whole day never happened.

But he couldn’t.

The image of that house, of her on the floor... it was burned into his brain now. He couldn’t unsee it.

He took a breath. It didn’t help. His heart was beating like crazy.

’Just... ask. That’s all you have to do. Give her the choice.’

His hand felt like it weighed a thousand pounds as he raised it and knocked. It was a weak sound, a pathetic little tap on the wood.

No answer.

He knocked again, a little harder this time.

"Come in," a small voice said from inside.

He pushed the door open and stepped in.

The room was bright, the sunlight streaming in through a big window. Thea was sitting up in the bed, a tray of untouched food on the little table in front of her. She was wearing a standard-issue hospital gown that was way too big for her, making her look even smaller, even more breakable.

She looked up when he came in, and her eyes went wide for a second. Fear. Then it was gone, replaced by a guarded confusion. She didn’t look happy to see him. She just looked wary.

"Hi," she said.

"Hey."

He just stood there in the doorway, a masterclass in how to make a situation a hundred times more awkward. He had a whole speech planned on the walk over, something about being worried, something that sounded like what a normal person might say. It was all gone now.

’Just say something. Anything. You look like a weirdo.’

"I, uh... I brought you something."

He held up the plastic bag from the hospital gift shop. It contained a bottle of water and a pack of lemon-flavored hard candies. It was the most pathetic peace offering in the history of human interaction.

She just stared at the bag, then back at him. "Why?"

It was a simple question. It was also the hardest question in the world.

"I don’t know," he said, which was the honest-to-god truth. He walked over and put the bag on the little table next to her untouched food tray. "I was just... in the area."

’In the area? The hospital isn’t a coffee shop. You’re a terrible liar.’ She thought.

She watched his every move, her eyes following him with a kind of exhausted suspicion. "You were the one at school," she said. "The one who followed me."

"Yeah."

He pulled the uncomfortable-looking visitor’s chair away from the wall and sat down, because standing there felt even weirder.

"Why are you here?" she asked again, her voice a little stronger this time. "Are you one of Jessica’s friends? Did she send you to see if I was actually hurt?"

"No," Kofi said quickly, shaking his head. "No, I don’t even know her. I’m not with them."

"Then why do you keep showing up?"

The look on her face wasn’t angry. It was just... tired. A deep, profound exhaustion, like she just didn’t have the energy to deal with whatever new, weird thing this was.

’I can’t tell her. I can’t just say ’I found you unconscious in a pile of garbage’.’

He had to find another way. A way that made sense.

"I saw the videos," he said, the lie tasting like ash in his mouth. "The ones from the fight. It was messed up. And I just... I don’t know. I felt bad that no one helped."

She looked away from him, her gaze drifting toward the window. "So this is a pity visit."

"No." The word was out before he could stop it. It was too fast, too defensive.

She didn’t respond. She just kept staring out the window, her shoulders hunched. The silence in the room was loud. He could feel it pressing in on him.

He had to do it. He had to just get it over with.

"I, uh... I talked to the doctor."

That got her attention. Her head snapped back toward him, her eyes wide with a new kind of fear.

"He told me about your aunt."

She flinched.

"He said... he said she isn’t coming."

Thea didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. The look on her face said it all. She had known this was coming. It wasn’t a shock. It was just a confirmation of a reality she was already living in.

"And he said," he continued, his own voice sounding distant, like it was coming from someone else. "He said they can’t keep you here. That they’re going to have to release you. Soon."

He watched her hands twist the thin hospital blanket. She was waiting for the other shoe to drop. The part where he tells her she’s being shipped off to a youth shelter or some other circle of bureaucratic hell.

He took a breath. It felt like he was about to jump off a cliff.

"So he... he made a suggestion."

He looked her straight in the eye. He owed her that much.

"He said... he could release you into my care."

She just stared at him. Her expression didn’t change. It was completely, utterly blank. It was the face of a person who had just heard a sentence in a language they didn’t understand.

"He said it would be temporary," he continued, his words tumbling out now, desperate to fill the terrifying silence. "Just until CPS gets their act together. He said the other options are bad and that my place is stable. He could give us money for food and stuff. He also said he could write up a paper so I wouldn’t get in trouble."

He was rambling. He knew he was rambling. He sounded like a crazy person.

"He said you would have to agree to it," he finally finished. "It has to be your choice."

And then there was nothing left to say. He had laid the most insane, life-altering proposal on the table, and now he just had to sit there and wait for the world to either end or continue.

Thea just kept looking at him. The blankness in her eyes slowly, slowly receded, replaced by a dawning, horrified understanding. Her mouth opened slightly.

"You... you found me, didn’t you?"

Kofi couldn’t lie. Not about this. He just nodded.

A single tear escaped her eye and traced a path down her bruised cheek.

She didn’t wipe it away.

"Why?" she whispered, her voice breaking.

It was the same question she’d asked before, but this time it meant something completely different. It wasn’t ’why are you here?’. It was ’why would you do this?’. ’Why would you see the worst, most pathetic part of my life and not just run away?’.

"Because no one else did," he said again.

It was the only answer he had. It was the only answer that mattered.