My Romance Life System
Chapter 89: Discharged

Chapter 89: Discharged

The time came for Thea to be discharged. Nina, observing the scene, decided her presence was an unnecessary complication. The room was already saturated with enough awkwardness for three people, and adding a fourth would just make the fragile social dynamic collapse. It was a logical, pragmatic withdrawal.

She walked over to Kofi. "Hey, I think I’m going to head out. It’s probably better if it’s just you two."

Kofi looked at her and felt a sense of gratitude. "Yeah, probably. Thanks, Nina. I’ll call you when we get back."

Nina gave his arm a brief squeeze. "You better. Text if you need anything." She offered Thea a small, neutral smile, which went unreturned, and then she was gone. One less variable in the equation.

The nurse approached the bed with the clipboard. "Okay, Thea. This is the last form. It just states you’re agreeing to a temporary stay with Kofi." She held out a pen. "Just sign at the bottom."

Thea looked at the document. A signature. As if a scribble of ink on a piece of paper could somehow legitimize this absurd situation. Her hand trembled as she reached for the pen.

Kofi saw the hesitation and felt obligated to perform the ritual of reassurance. "Hey, it’s okay. You don’t have to if you don’t want to." It was a hollow statement; they both knew the alternatives were worse.

Thea’s choice was between a known hell and an unknown, potentially less terrible one. She took the pen and signed her name.

The nurse, her role in the bureaucratic theater complete, took the clipboard. "Alright. The doctor arranged a taxi for you. It’s waiting downstairs." She handed Thea the plastic bag containing her old clothes.

Thea looked at the plastic bag that held her old, dirty clothes. She held it away from her body, like it might contaminate the clean hospital air. Her gaze shifted from the bag to Kofi, her eyes full of a deep, quiet uncertainty.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked, her voice small.

Kofi felt a wave of sadness for her. He knew she was scared. He gave her a small, reassuring smile. "I’m sure. I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t."

She looked down at her hands, her fingers twisting the edge of the hospital gown. "But I’m... a lot. It’s not going to be easy."

’I know, but leaving you alone would be harder.’

He stood up from the chair and moved a little closer to her bed. "It’s okay. We’ll just take it one day at a time. We don’t have to have it all figured out right now."

She looked up at him, and for a second, the fear in her eyes was replaced by a flicker of something else. It might have been hope.

Kofi held out his hand. "Are you ready?"

She looked at his outstretched hand for a long moment. It was a simple, kind gesture, and it felt more real than all the forms she’d just signed. She took a slow, shaky breath and nodded.

She placed her small, cool hand in his. He felt how she was trembling, so he squeezed her hand gently. He helped her swing her legs over the side of the bed. She was so weak that he had to support most of her weight as she stood up. She swayed for a moment, and he held her steady.

He let her lean on him as they walked slowly toward the door. They didn’t say anything else. They just took one step, and then another, together.

They walked down the long hallway, Thea leaning almost all of her weight on him.

Her steps were small, shuffling, and he matched his own pace to hers, careful not to go too fast. Her breathing was quiet now, but he could feel a slight tremor running through her arm where it was linked with his.

The hospital was busy, nurses and doctors moving with a purpose that felt like it belonged to another world. A few of them glanced at the two kids, one in a school uniform and the other in an oversized hospital gown, and then just looked away.

"Does it hurt?"

Her voice was so quiet he almost didn’t hear it.

"What?"

"Your side," she said, not looking at him. "You’re still limping."

He was surprised she had even noticed, that she had the energy to notice anything outside of just putting one foot in front of the other.

"It’s fine. Just a little sore."

"Sorry."

"Don’t be."

The elevator ride down was super awkward.

(Honestly, you could have filmed a whole season of a cringe-worthy reality show in the time it took for that box to go down three floors. The silence was so loud you could hear it.)

Kofi was just staring at the floor numbers, probably trying to remember how to breathe like a normal person. Thea was next to him, a ghost in a hospital gown, looking at her feet.

"Do you," she started, her voice so quiet it was barely a sound. "Do you have a lot of space?"

’Space? That’s what she’s worried about right now?’

"It’s a three-bedroom. It’s fine."

"Oh."

The doors finally opened and they walked out into the lobby. It was just a lobby. People were walking around. They kept going, Thea leaning on him, and they got to the main entrance. The automatic doors slid open. Outside, a taxi was waiting.

They stopped right at the curb. The whole thing suddenly felt very real.

Thea looked at the taxi, then at Kofi. She was panicking, you could see it in her eyes. "This is crazy."

"Yeah. It is."

He opened the back door of the taxi for her. She just stood there for a second, clutching that plastic bag with her old, gross clothes in it. He could see she was about to bolt.

He just looked at her.

"You don’t have to go back to that house."

And that was it. That was the line that mattered.

She got in the car, sliding all the way to the other side of the seat. He got in after her and closed the door.

Kofi gave his address to the taxi driver, a guy who looked like he had seen everything twice and wasn’t impressed either time. The car pulled away from the curb, and with it, they left the last shred of normalcy behind.

The silence in the back of that taxi was a whole new level of awkward.

Kofi was staring out his window, watching the city lights blur past.

’Think. What do people talk about? The weather? No, that’s dumb. School? She got beaten up at school, probably not a great topic. Food? She was literally starving.’

His internal monologue was a train wreck.

Thea was pressed against the opposite door, as far away from him as she could get. She was looking out her own window, her reflection a pale, ghostly image against the dark glass. She was probably thinking about how she was trapped in a car with a strange boy who was taking her to his strange apartment.

Kofi cleared his throat.

"So... my apartment building has an elevator. So we don’t have to take the stairs."

Thea turned her head to look at him, her expression completely blank.

"...’kay."

And with that, the conversation was over. Dead on arrival. He had successfully contributed one (1) useless fact to the void.

He went back to staring out the window, his face burning. He could feel the taxi driver’s eyes on him in the rearview mirror. The guy probably thought this was the most awkward first date he had ever chauffeured. (If only he knew.)

Kofi decided to try again. Because he was an idiot who apparently enjoyed failure.

"The, uh, the guest room has its own bathroom. So you’ll have your own space. And a lock on the door."

He added the part about the lock because he thought it might make her feel safer. It probably made him sound like a potential axe murderer who was very considerate about his victims’ privacy.

She didn’t even answer this time. Her eyes were still glued to the window.

He finally gave up. He was making it worse.

The rest of the ride was the engine’s quiet hum. The taxi finally pulled up in front of his apartment building, a boring, beige block that looked exactly like every other boring, beige block in the neighborhood.

"Here we are."

The driver’s voice was completely flat.

Kofi paid, the transaction feeling ridiculously normal in the middle of all this insanity. He got out and held the door open for Thea.

She slid out of the car, clutching the plastic bag of her old clothes to her chest. She looked up at the building, then at him. Her face was a mask of pure, undiluted terror.

"This is it."

’Why do I keep stating the obvious?’

They stood there on the sidewalk for a second, the taxi pulling away and leaving them alone. Two kids, a world of problems, and a three-bedroom apartment that was about to become a very, very complicated social experiment.