A Kiss At Midnight (Delilah and Caelum) novel Chapter 100

A Kiss At Midnight

FROZEN TIME

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Leo’s voice was gently and soft when he spoke again, and I shake my head gently.

“It’s okay,” my fingers tightens around my cup, “It has been almost three years now.”

He nods slowly, his expression softens even more. “Was she your older sister?”

“Yeah,” my lips part softly as I gulped before letting out a small smile, though it never reached my eyes, “By two years, actually,” lifting two fingers between us. “She was supposed to turn twenty a couple of months ago, but never got the change.” My gaze drifted down to the table, “she’ll always be eighteen.”

The words settled heavily in my chest, knowing she had left this world the same age that I was now, and that fact alone filt so cruel, knowing she had been frozen at an age that I was now living through myself.

I gulped harder this time, refusing to let any of that show on my face, when the silence was broken, “What was she like?”

My gaze drifted up to meet Leo’s, watching him stare at him with a hint of curiosity and with a look we have both established we hated. I ignored the look as another soft quiet smile made its way to my face, a memory of our time together cloud my head.

you

“She was..” pausing for a second, I search for the right words, “smart, really smart. The kind of person who could make feel stupid without ever making you feel stupid, if that makes sense.” He smiles faintly at this as I continued, “and she was delicate in a way that didn’t make her weak, noticing everything, even little things other people missed. She could be quiet, but somehow she always made a room feel warmer just by being in it.”

I looked down at my hands, “She was a good person.”

Silence filed the table again as Leo studies me before saying more to himself, “You talk about her like you really loved her.”

Letting out a quiet breath. “She was the best big sister,” my voice softened, “I just wish I had known that when she was still here,” the regret was always there, waiting, “that I had appreciated her more, and now all I have are things I wish I had said and things I wish I had done differently.”

He doesn’t respond and for a while simply stared down at his fingers, quietly picking at the edge of his napkin, then he looked up. “If you don’t mind me asking..can you tell me how she died?”

I bite at the wall of my mouth, as my fingers clenches into a fist. “There was an accident, she didn’t make it.”

That was the story everyone knew, the story my parents had given me when they’d called me out of class nearly three years

ago.

There had been an accident

Daisy didn’t make it

They had told me those words as though I were suppose to accept them without question, but the truth was that I had never told them that I knew.

Knew the story they were desperately trying to hide, the real truth about her death

And I had known it from the beginning

Leo’s lips parted again, clearly about to say something but I beat him to it. “No more twenty questions,” picking up my drink and I get to my feet, “since we are done eating, how about we walk around for a while and find something else to do?”

He seemed to understand what I was doing and nodded without pushing further, “Sounds good.”

10:12 Wed, Aug 12 01

A Kiss At Midnight

We left the café, spending the next hour wandering around the mall, stopping at random stores and occasionally buyrig things neither of us really needed.

Somewhere between a sports store and a bookstore, I learned something I hadn’t expected. Leo wanted to become a doctor. “A cardiologist,” he clarified when I asked.

I looked at him. “Seriously?”

He nods. “I want to treat people with heart problems, people like me. maybe I could save someone’s life one day.”

There was something heartbreaking about hearing a thirteen year old talk about saving lives while knowing his own was sometimes hanging by a thread.

“You would be good at it,” I said.

Shrugging his shoulder lightly. “If I actually get there,” this made me frown and I watched him kicks lightly at the floor as we walked. “The dream is kind of fickle when you don’t know if you’re going to drop dead tomorrow.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I’m just being realistic.”

“No. You’re not,” I say softly before letting out a sigh. Then add, “You promised me you’d stick around long enough for me to hear more of your terrible pickup lines.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Ah..” he tilts his head to the side like he was thinking for a moment before saying, “Are you a parking ticket? Because you’ve got ‘FINE’ written all over you.”

I stopped walking, internally cringing at this. “Oh my God.”

A proud grin plasters on his face. “That was good,” I shiver just at the thought of it, rolling my eyes when I saw he looked entirely too pleased with himself.

Eventually, we finished shopping and began making our way toward the mall exit, that was when I noticed him repeatedly shrugging his backpack higher onto his shoulder.

“Give me that,” he looked at me, “Your backpack, give it..” holding out my hand, half expecting him to argue, but instead, he simply slips the backpack from his shoulder and handed it to me,

I nearly stumbled backward. “What the hell did you put in here?”

He burst out laughing. “Stuff.”

“Stuff?” staring at the bag, “this weighs more than you do.”

Scoffing at this, “Okay, that’s an exaggeration.”

I stared at him somewhat puzzled and amused, before adjusting the strap, then pulling out my phone to check the time and see it was 7:27 p.m.

“We better get you back,” I headed toward the exit and after a few steps, I realized Leo wasn’t beside me.

My step halts as I turned around to find him standing several feet behind me, my smile disappeared, noticing how pale he looked.

“Leo?” he didn’t answer, then I saw his hand

10:12 Wed, Aug 12 01

A Kiss At Midnight

catch him before he hit the floor.

Dropping beside him, my knees slams against the hard tile. “Leo!” his eyes were closed.L and face looked even paler than before, “No, no, no,” grabbing his cheek gently, tapping it with trembling fingers. “Wake up. Leo, wake up.”

He doesn’t respond as my mind raced. His watch, the fucking watch

My fingers immediately found his wrist, and I fumbled with the screen until I found the emergency button, pressing it one too many times.

“Come on,” I pressed it again, my hands shaking violently, “someone help..” my voice cracked as people began turning toward us, “Please! Somebody help him!”

I tried checking his pulse, my fingers press against his wrist, but the panic makes it impossible to tell what I was feeling.

Was that a pulse or not, or was it mine?

“Fuck,” I squeezed my eyes shut for half a second.

Breathe, in needed to breathe and couldn’t lose my head, not now.

Pressing the emergency button again, I stare at the screen as though I could force help to arrive faster. People were gathering around us, someone was calling for medical assistance as another knelt beside me.

But everything felt blurry, distant

The sounds around me became a muffled mess until the ambulance finally arrived, then everything happened at once. Paramedics rushes over, pushing people back as they worked on Leo.

They check his oxygen levels, attached monitors, and place a breathing mask over his mouth. I couldn’t stop staring at his chest, wondering if he was breathing..actually breathing.

I couldn’t tell

“I’m coming with him,”I don’t remember saying it or what I told the paramedic, I only remember somehow ending up inside the ambulance.

The doors slams shut as the sirens started, and suddenly we were speeding through the streets toward the hospital. My hands sweating as I clasp them together in my lap, feeling completely fucking useless.

The paramedics moved around him with practice precision, checking his vitals, adjusting the equipment and speaking in clipped voices I barely understood.

They knew what they were doing, I didn’t, and all I could do was sit there and watch. Watch Leo, the monitors and the oxygen mask covering his face.

When the ambulance finally pulled into the hospital bay, the doors opened almost immediately as he was rushed out on a hospital bed.

“Move!”

“Get cardiology down here!”

“His pressure is dropping!”

“Prep the room!”

they nushed the bed through the doors and I barely

wood or

A Kiss At Midnight

bad.

I just chase after them, my legs carrying me faster than my mind could process. The bed disappears farther down the hallway as more doctors and nurses joined

More equipment appeared and I kept running after them, desperately trying to keep up.

“Juliet..” the voice was so faint-1-almost didn’t hear it and I froze in place for a second before rushing back to his side, looking down at him.

His eyes were barely open, his gaze unfocused but somehow still searching until it found me. I grabbed his/pale hand, right here,” I whispered, my throat tightening, “I’m right here, Leo. I’m not going anywhere.”

His fingers moved weakly against mine as he tried to speak, the tube made his words nearly impossible to understand. “F..fam..”

I leaned closer. “What?”

His brows pulled together as he struggled. “Tell..” his voice disappeared beneath the noise of the machines as he tried again. “Cae..”

A frown rested between my brows. “Leo..” his eyes flutters as he attempts to force the words out again, but nothing understandable came, “It’s okay,” I whispered, “don’t talk, just breathe.”

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