Fighting To Stay by P. J. Belden Read Free Book Online

came in and I knew more,” Hailey sobs.
    “You should have called sooner, Hay, but what’s important right now is Josh. Is he okay?”
    She pulls back and looks down at Josh in the bed. “They said his leg is broke, two ribs, and a fractured skull. They have him sedated right now due to swelling on his brain. They will wake him when the swelling goes down.”
    “So, we wait? Do we know what happened?”
    “No, his neighbor said he saw him fighting with someone and called the cops. For any details, I think we are going to have to wait for him to wake up,” Hailey replies sitting back down.
    To be honest, I’m a little pissed off at my sister right now. Who was she to dictate on when I should find things out or not? If something had gone seriously wrong, I would not have had the chance to say my goodbyes, but she would have.
    “You’re mad at me, aren’t you?”
    “Tell me,” I say not taking my eyes off my brother. “How would you feel if I were to get seriously ill from all this chemo and what not I’m going to be going through and my body was just giving out and Josh waits to call you until he knows for sure that’s what’s going on?”
    “I’d be fucking livid. He would have had time to prepare his heart and I wouldn’t have…” her head drops. “Oh,” she says ever so softly.
    “Yeah. This time it wasn’t a life or death thing, but what if it had been and I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye? Would you like it if you didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to me? Or to Josh?”
    “But you live so far away…” she starts, but I cut her off.
    “I would have come here at the drop of a dime and you know that.”
    “Okay, I get it. I’m sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing,” she concedes sadly.
    Reaching over, I place my hand on her shoulder. “I know you did, Hay. I know you did, but please don’t do this again.”
    “Okay,” Hailey mumbles.
    Silence stretches between us. At this moment in time, I watch my brother fight for his life. It gets my mind thinking again about my life.
    Just as I really start to get into deep thoughts, a ringing breaks in. Looking around, I see a pile of clothes on the floor by his bed. They are blood stained and my heart tightens in my chest. Closing my eyes and swallowing hard, I reach into the pocket and pull out his phone. The phone flashes ‘ True Love ’. The words cause me to pause a moment. Is this a sign , I wonder.
    Answering the phone, I hear a teary voice come through the other end.
    “Josh? Josh, please tell me you’re okay?”
    “I’m sorry, but…” Then it dawns on me on who this is. “Pollyanna?”
    “Yes? Who is this?” She sniffles on the other end.
    “I’m sorry. I’m Josh’s sister, Donna.”
    There’s a pause on the other end of the phone. For whatever reason, I wait for her response.
    “It’s nice to talk to you, but I really need to know if Josh is okay.”
    “Why do you think there’s anything wrong?” I ask completely confused.
    “I was… Oh, God. I was on the phone with him,” she sobs.
    “We don’t know much about what’s going on right now, but do you think you can tell me what happened?”
    Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t be pushing this, but I am desperate. I need to know what happened to my brother and if he was in some kind of trouble.
    “We were talking and,” I can hear the smile in her voice as she pauses and sighs. “He told me he loves me and that he wants to meet, wants to be together. Before I could respond, he starts screaming at some guy to get off his property and if he ever caught sight of him again, he’d regret it.”
    “Okay,” I say trying to urge her to continue.
    “He starts saying something about hurting his sister and talking about a bat or something. I was trying to scream at him to call the cops, but there was a loud groan, the rattling noises of the phone hitting the ground and then the call went dead. Is… is he okay?”
    “He’s hanging in there, but we won’t know