I can’t keep Graham. It’s clear he doesn’t want me since he didn’t come see me once in the hospital.
If he is going to figure out what he really wants—who hereallyis—then he needs to walk that path on his own. I don’t want to unknowingly influence him in any way.
No matter how much it’s going to suck.
Pushing up off the couch on my good hand, I head into my room to try and help my parents pack up my room.
“Do you want to pack everything up, Noah?” Mom asks. “Or is there anything we can leave and get later?”
“Just clothes for now. I don’t think Graham will mind if I have to come back.”
“We can always send Dad back to finish up later,” she tells me.
“Just like that?” Dad laughs.
“I have school. And if we need someone to stay with Noah, we can have Piper stay for a few days.”
“I think I can be by myself for a few hours.”
We haven’t even made it back to Denver, and I can feel the headache coming on of having people hovering twenty-four seven.
I love my parents, I really do, but there’s a reason I don’t live with them. Mom is muttering about my laundry not being folded properly while Dad just packs it up tight into a duffle.
Between the two of them—because I was yelled at when I tried to help—they make quick work of it. With the last few things being tossed in, there isn’t much left to do.
Which means I might be able to take the coward’s way out and not see Graham.
“I think this is everything?” Mom asks, looking around my now half-empty room.
“It’s good enough for now.” I left a lot of stuff in storage back in Denver because I didn’t see the point in shipping it across the country when my place wasn’t even ready. And after moving in with Graham, I didn’t really need it. “If I need anything, I can just pick it up in Denver.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll text the travel coordinator to let them know we’ll be ready. Maybe we can grab you something to eat before the flight? Get some non-hospital food in you?” Dad asks.
“Sure.”
It’s then I hear the front door open.
“Do you want to see if Graham wants to come for dinner?” Dad asks.
I shake my head. “No. That’s okay. I’d rather get back to Denver. But I might go talk to him for a few minutes.”
Talking here? That I can handle. Probably.
Dinner with him? With my parents?
Abso-fucking-lutely not.
“We’ll take everything down to the car and meet you out front. Take your time.”
I nod at Dad as he and Mom heft the bags into their arms and head downstairs. I hear the pleasantries exchanged as I grab a Knights zip-up from my closet and slip into it.
I can’t delay this anymore.
Heading out of my room, I find Graham standing in the living room by himself, looking at the back of the front door.
“Hey.”
