Team NYU? Cute… They All Secretly Joined Team Delilah Chapter 04

Team NYU? Cute… They All Secretly Joined Team Delilah Chapter 04

When I woke up, the sharp smell of disinfectant filled my nose.

The nurse beside me visibly relaxed when she saw my eyes open.

“You’re finally awake. Your fever was almost 104 degrees. If your neighbor hadn’t found you collapsed by the door, this could have been much worse.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, my throat too painful for me to speak.

The nurse poured me a glass of water and had just told me not to move around when the door to the hospital room opened.

Andrew came in first.

Nicolas and Sue followed behind him.

The moment I saw them, a dull ache still went through my chest.

Maybe people were pathetic that way.

Even after being left behind again and again, I still instinctively looked for the people closest to me when I woke up.

But Andrew’s first words shattered the last tiny bit of hope I still had.

“Jade Schmidt, did you have to make yourself sick enough to end up in the hospital before you’d be satisfied?”

I stared at him.

His face was full of impatience.

“Delilah needed stitches in her leg. Instead of apologizing, you went and made yourself sick. Are you trying to make everyone feel sorry for you?”

Nicolas stood at the foot of the bed, his voice equally cold.

“Jade, you really went too far this time.”

Sue’s expression was complicated.

“You weren’t like this before. You know Andrew worries about you more than anyone, but you still stood in the rain until you got sick. Aren’t you doing this just to make him feel guilty?”

I suddenly wanted to laugh.

So even getting sick had become another manipulation in their eyes.

A soft knock came from the doorway.

Delilah walked in holding a bouquet.

Her face was pale, her leg was wrapped in gauze, and she trembled slightly as she walked.

Nicolas immediately turned and went to support her.

“Your leg is still injured. Why did you come all the way here?”

Delilah shook her head and looked at me with reddened eyes.

“I wanted to see Jade.”

She held the bouquet closer to my bed.

“Jade, I’m sorry. I know you didn’t mean to break my phone, and I know you didn’t mean to hurt me.”

“Please don’t be mad anymore, okay?”

The smell of flowers rushed over me.

My breath caught, and my throat instantly began to itch.

The next second, I started coughing violently.

Tears flooded my eyes, my nose burned, and my chest tightened until I could barely breathe.

I reached out to push the flowers away.

“Take them away…”

Delilah looked startled and stood there helplessly.

“I’m sorry… I really didn’t know Jade had a pollen allergy.”

I had once been hospitalized for a severe pollen allergy when I was a child.

Andrew had thrown out every flower in our home afterward.

Nicolas reminded me to wear a mask every spring.

Sue had once teased me for being like the Princess and the Pea because I could not even be around flowers.

They all knew.

But Andrew’s first reaction now was to steady Delilah and comfort her in a low voice.

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

Nicolas took the bouquet from her.

“You were only trying to be nice.”

Sue looked at me and sighed.

“Jade, Delilah came all this way to see you. You don’t have to react like this.”

I coughed until my vision went dark around the edges, my eyes red and burning from the irritation.

“Get out.”

All three of them froze.

Nicolas’s expression hardened.

“Jade Schmidt!”

The nurse rushed in when she heard the commotion, immediately moved the flowers away, and frowned at them.

“The patient has a pollen allergy. Why would you bring flowers into her room? Everyone out. She needs rest.”

Delilah started crying again.

Andrew supported her as they headed for the door, then gave me a cold look before leaving.

“Think about what you’ve done. When you’ve come to your senses, go apologize to Delilah.”

The door closed, and the room became quiet again.

No one came to pick me up when I was discharged.

I finished the discharge paperwork alone and took a cab home.

The living room was empty.

They had already left for Utah.

Their social media feeds kept filling with photos.

Snowcapped mountains, blue skies, strings of colorful flags, and smiling faces.

Andrew carried Delilah’s bag.

Nicolas draped his jacket over her shoulders.

Sue and Delilah wore matching scarves and leaned together, making a heart with their hands for the camera.

Their caption said, “Youth is meant to be spent traveling with the people who matter most.”

I swiped through the photos one by one until my finger stopped on a group shot.

Delilah was standing beneath the mountains, smiling sweetly.

Around her neck was the necklace I knew so well.

I zoomed in on the photo.

For a moment, all sound seemed to disappear.

All I could think about was Mom in her final days.

Her fingers had been so thin, but she had still used what little strength she had left to put that necklace around my neck.

She had said, “Jade, grow up safe and sound.”

And now it hung around Delilah’s neck.

She wore it while standing at the center of all their affection.

I blocked and deleted every one of them.

Then I packed my bags and boarded a flight to Los Angeles.

From then on, opposite coasts would separate us.

We never had to cross paths again.