Any luck I’ve ever had has been bad.
But that night in the warehouse, that luck finally took a turn. Or maybe there is a God. And maybe he heard me. Because I’m sitting beside Rafa’s hospital bed holding a fucking cup to his mouth as he drinks water from a straw and I’m so fucking grateful. I am so fucking grateful.
“You look like shit, you know that?” he says to me.
I set the cup aside and smile. It’s been almost a week since the shooting. I haven’t left the hospital since we got here so yeah, I probably look like shit.
“Pot calling the kettle black,” I say. And what I feel, it’s elation. All that’s happened, what he did…all I can think is that he’s alive. He’s alive. “I’m going to beat the shit out of you when you get out of here.”
A shadow crosses his features just as the door opens and we both turn to find Gabriela walk inside.
I stand, smile at her, wrap my arm around her waist. She has some scratches, some bumps, but she’s fine. Again, I’m grateful.
“How do you feel?” she asks Rafa.
“Pain killers are doing their work,” he says.
He was badly injured. The bullet his father put in him missed his heart by a hair or this would be much worse. That wasn’t the only bullet he took but it was the worst.
She touches the bandage on his face. “Girls like scars, right?” He’ll have one across his right cheek, a constant reminder of how close he came to death.
He doesn’t smile. “I’m sorry,” he says, looking from her to me. “I’m sorry for all of it. I knew better and I’m sorry.”
My throat tightens.
Gabriela pushes hair off Rafa’s face then leans down to kiss his forehead and whispers something to him. She straightens, turns to me and slides her hands into mine.
“I’ll wait for you outside. You need to come home with me Stefan.”
I nod, squeeze her hands. I don’t watch her go.
Rafa stares up at me.
“You almost died,” I say, sitting back down.
“I deserved to die. Part of me wanted to. I betrayed you, Stefan. And all you’ve ever been is a brother to me. Blood or not.”
“You took a bullet for me. That’s what I know,” I pause, consider what I’m about to say. It may be the thing to seal his fate. “I do have one question for you.”
The way he looks at me, it’s like he knows what I’m going to ask before I ask it. Knows the importance of his answer.
“Did you know they’d put Gabriela at the bottom of that well?”
His face contorts, eyes wet as he shakes his head. “No. I didn’t know they’d do that to her. Believe it or not, I never wanted her hurt.”
I do believe it. Maybe it’s stupid of me, but I do.
The door opens again and Gabriela peers inside. “The car’s here.”
I nod, stand and when Rafa’s hand closes over mine, I see on his face the pain it costs him.
I close my other hand over his and I look at him and think about what he’s lost too. And I know myself. I don’t forgive easily. And I never forget. But I want to.
“Get better, brother.”