“See you.”
I waved until he disappeared down the hall.
I waited for as long as possible before pressing the help button again, and another nurse dressed in purple scrubs came in.
“Is everything all right?”
“I have a friend here, Arty, I mean Bartholomew Darcy. Is there any way I could go see him?”
She smiled a nodded. “Of course. I’ll have one of the nurses bring a wheelchair and take you—”
“I can walk…”
“Your doctor most likely won’t let you go without approval first.”
“Fine.” I didn’t really care as long as I got the chance to go see him.
She nodded, turning back, and I sat up, flipping the blankets off my legs. As a nurse came in, I held on to him in order to stand. I had spent so much time lying down, plus the medication made it harder for me to walk on my own.
I hadn’t realized how close Arty’s room was to mine until the nurse stopped only three doors down.
“Mr. Darcy, you have a visitor.” The nurse knocked on the door. Arty didn’t even look; he just played cards on the table over top of his bed. I noticed his dark hair had been given a buzz cut.
“Thanks, I’m fine here.” I smiled up to the nurse who nodded and left us alone, and I wheeled myself over to his bedside.
"If it isn’t number thirteen,” he muttered to himself, his eyes never looking to me.
“Number thirteen?”
“Your number for the sugar party I threw. You really forgot how you got into my brother’s bed?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Do you treat all of the people who go to your parties like shit, or am I special because I’m with Theo? If you do, doesn’t that make you a hypocrite? Isn’t the number one rule of the sugar baby community no judgment.”
He sighed. “What do you want?”
“I wanted to see you.”
“Why?”
“Because you almost died.”
He shrugged. “So did you, apparently. But, you didn’t see me coming to your room.”
“Wow.” I tried to stay calm. “You really are doing everything you can to push people away, aren’t you. Believe me, I would know. I’m the queen of keeping people at a distance.”
“Congrats, but you and I aren’t the same, so don’t pretend you know or understand me,” he muttered, flipping another card onto the table.
“You’re right, I don’t know you, but I would like to. You’re important to Theo, and even though he won’t show it, you being here like this really hurts him. He is always trying to help the people around him. Just once, I would like to take some of the burden off his plate and not add to it.” Like his uncle had said.
Arty laughed bitterly. “Poor Theo. God forbid he suffers even a little bit.”
“You want to him suffer?”
His eyes glossed over and his hands trembled. “Just get the fuck out, please.”
I stared at him for what felt like forever. He looked like he was going to puke every time I spoke.
“Arty, what happened?”