Chen let out an indulgent smile as she chanced a look in his direction. The intensity of his gaze led her to drop hers again.
"Do you have any idea when you'll be discharged?" Chen asked again, trying to ignore the elephant in the room. Sam shrugged as he replied, "Probably tomorrow morning. According to the nurse who almost bled me dry trying to clean my wounds. She said I'll be free to go if all my tests came back normal" "Why do you ask?" he added, after a pause.
Now it was Chen's turn to shrug as she said, "I'll come discharge you. Since they require the signature of someone who can be put down as an emergency contact."
Sam replied with an oh and the room succumbed to silence.
Yu Chen looked up with an exasperated sigh after a few seconds. She couldn't take the silence any more. "How did you suddenly reach there?" Chen asked the question she had been mulling over for the past minute. It had abruptly hit her that Sam had no reason to be there at all.
Sam looked embarrassed as he said, "You wouldn't answer my calls, and then you blocked me. So recently, for the last few days. . . . " "What did you do Sam?" Chen's voice dropped a few octaves and her eyes narrowed as she asked.
Sam hurriedly shook his head and hands as he said, "I didn't do anything. For the past few days, I've taken to hanging around your apartment building. I was hoping to catch you either leaving your house or coming back. But the guard usually shooed me away before I could even see you. That's exactly what happened today. I had been waiting for about two hours when the guard got angry and threatened me with his revolver. Pretty sure he thinks I'm either a thief or a creep." Same spoke with a small chuckle as he continued.
"Anyways, he had scared me away and I was walking back from the building, planning to catch a taxi or something from another street since yours had too much traffic. That's when I heard some scuffle from the alleyway. I originally planned on taking a quick look and calling the police if something seemed wrong, but well, I saw you and all the rational thoughts flew out of my mind." Same finished and hung his head
Yu Chen let out a tired sigh. She was in no shape, mentally or emotionally, to have this conversation right now. "Go to sleep Sam. We'll talk tomorrow when I come to discharge you." she said and began to get up.
"No wait! Please! Don't go!!" Sam exclaimed and grabbed Chen's wrist. He winced as Chen tried to pull herself free, but stopped when she saw she was hurting him and sat back down.
Same spoke again once Chen was seated, his voice pleading, "Please Chen! I know I made a mistake. I'm a horrible, horrible friend. But, it's just that . . . . I did that because I love you." he finished, tears forming in his eyes.
Chen looked up at Sam's face, her throat choking up. Sam and Hannah had been her best friends for the seven years she had been abroad. If one removed the years before she had made the jump, she had been around Sam longer than Si Xia.