Day 40

For Kyle's fortieth birthday, I brought a friend. Lakeisha wanted to see the boy who, in her words, was giving me signals from his hospital bed.

So, she told her mom she wanted to go and hang out with Renata. She never specified that we were going to hang out at a hospice center. Which is just as well. Since Lakeisha's mom would undoubtedly make Lakeisha go and confess her sins if her mom ever found out.

Kyle took in Lakeisha for a moment before asking me, "Are you going to tell me now that you have a sister from another mister?"

"Yes, she does," said Lakeisha point blank. "And my sister here told me she was kissing some boy from his hospital bed. So, I just decided to pop in and introduce myself. You know, just in case this boy think it's alright to break my sister's heart!"

"Whoever you are, whether I end up breaking Renata's heart or not is between Renata and me." Lakeisha's mouth opened ready to say more when Kyle interjected, "Besides, Renata already broke my heart."

Lakeisha closed her mouth and nodded as her look took on one of sympathy. That is, until Kyle said, "Calm down, it's not like we fucked yet or anything."

"Yet?" is all Lakeisha said. It was enough to surprisingly make Kyle cringe. Uh oh.

"Lake--"

"No, no, no, Renata. Don't you Lake me!" She pointed an accusing finger at Kyle as she exclaimed, "This mofo has the nerve to assume you would sleep with him." Lakeisha then narrowed her eyes at Kyle as she added, "When there are plenty of hot available men at our school who are not stuck in a place like this."

"That's enough!" I yelled aloud. Surprising both Kyle and Lakeisha.

I stood near my friend as I told her, "First of all, if I want to sleep with Kyle then it's my choice. I wasn't forced or coerced into anything by him. In fact, he at first wanted me to stay away."

Lakeisha turned her head in Kyle's direction with a raised brow. "It's true. Your sister can be a great nuisance."

"Second!" I said loud enough to make both Lakeisha and Kyle snap their eyes away from each other and at me. "Kyle didn't choose to be here, nobody chooses to be here. It doesn't help to make him feel like shit about it."

"Okay, okay, I hear you girl!" said Lakeisha. She looked back at Kyle and reluctantly said, "I'm sorry for the low blow, Kyle. I was just looking out for my sister's interests, you understand?"

"Crystal," Kyle replied back. Kyle glanced at me as he said, "Now Renata, where is my card?"

I had the card in my hand and reach it out towards him but he grabs and pulls me towards him instead. The card falls out of my hands as Kyle's lips met mine. I didn't know how long we kissed only that Lakeisha's, "Hey!" made me pull away. "If you're going to move on to PDA, then make sure I'm not in the room!"

Kyle wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me towards him so we were waist to hip. "I hear you Crystal clear, Lakeisha. That doesn't mean I'm much inclined to listen."

"Read your damn card, asshole," replied Lakeisha with a glower.

"Nice to know we agree on one course of action," Kyle replied as he slowly unwrapped his arm from my waist as he sweeped his legs on the edge of the bed to reach down for his birthday card.

When he straightened up in his bed, he slightly grunted in effort. Lakeisha's furious look at him softened to a mild frown after that.

Opening his card, he made the creaking sound of a door with dramatic gusto. Then he read aloud, "On your Fortieth birthday, you and your family vacation in the Bahamas where you scuba dive for the first time." He closed his card and sighed. "Completely inaccurate, Renata. I've already scuba dived once. I didn't care for it."

Lakeisha's frown deepened. "Oh, so you're the privileged type. I knew I smelled that on you."

"Really?!" said Kyle as he sniffed his hospital gown. "I thought I got rid of the smell of money weeks ago."

I snorted at his words while Lakeisha smirked. "You got an answer for everything don't you?"

"That's not true, Lakeisha," Kyle said as his eyes cloud over for a moment. "If I knew the answer to cheating death I would've already taken the risk."

I knew liking Kyle was wrong on so many levels. He's rude, has been called an asshole more than once by different people, and was dying.

Back then, I just thought I liked him.