CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

                                    

                                          
JASON
                          
                   
                          
Beyond my control, one week of waiting to ask Blaire out on a second date turned into two. Things had not been in my favor lately. It had rained for two solid weeks straight and I'd found out after the first round of random flash flooding had started that the basement to Gramps' house leaked like a bitch. I'd had to purchase a pump to get the gallons of nasty water out and then had to repeat the process of pumping it out numerous times. Then came trying to figure out where the freaking leak in the foundation was...which meant I had to fix the leaks that I found. It was a mess and I was well over my head, but toughed it out like a trooper for my mom.
                          
I'd been so stressed and pissed off about the fucking basement and all the damn rain that I hadn't had time to worry about when I should send Blaire another message on Facebook and if it should include my number this time. In fact, I hadn't done anything. I'd been dog-ass tired trying to learn how to do shit properly and then having to learn to fix all the shit I'd broken while trying to fix the first thing the right way.
                          
Over the last two weeks I'd come to a few conclusions about things: One, I sucked at home repairs. Two, my Gramps' place was a fucking dump waiting on the right person to look at it close enough to realize this. And three, Sarah seemed pretty damn close to stealing my spot on the lease of mine and Brian's apartment. 
                          
My life seemed to be in fucking turmoil.
                          
I switched the channel on the TV in the "media room" of Cross Meadows, putting it on MTV. Some stupid show about teen moms was playing. I left it there, hoping to get a riseout of Gramps. Back in the day he would have never let me put the TV on some garbage show like that. Now, he just sat there and stared blankly at the screen without really seeing what was on it at all. Hell, I wasn't even sure he realized I'd been here to visit him first thing in the morning every day this week.
                          
It was sad, really, I was practically watching him wither away to nothing in this place.
                          
They couldn't get him to eat much—his food intake apparently had been decreasing over the last few days—and he never talked anymore. It was like he'd given up, like he'd decided that a world without my grandmother in it wasn't a world worth living in. I admired that, while at the same time despised it.
                          
I chucked the remote down beside me on the floral sofa they'd obviously had donated by some dearly departed old person's family and propped my hand up to stare at him. He was dressed in a pair of slacks and a button-up shirt. He looked nice, but his socks didn't match. I wondered if it was some nurse joke—a way to make him appear more vibrant—or if by the time they got to putting his socks on in the process of dressing him they'd just given up on whether or not he matched and grabbed the first thing they saw. At least he wasn't still wearing his pajamas like some of the other residents here. That had to just aid in their depression. My eyes traveled to his face; it was drawn into a vacant look—one that said he wasn't where he wanted to be and didn't give a shit who noticed.
                          
"Well, Gramps," I let out a sigh. "I guess I'm off. I'll probably not come by this weekend, but I'll be back again sometime next week."
                          
Standing, I squeezed his shoulder and made my way to the exit. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't do a sweep of the hall and the nurses' station before I walked through the door, searching for Blaire. I had yet to see her here, but I knew that her Facebook said this was where she worked...because I'd checked and rechecked it several times to be sure.
                          
No Blaire in sight. Again. She must work the night shift or something.
                          
Checking my phone for the time, I smiled. It was already almost two in the afternoon. I'd never spent the entire day with Gramps before, but the head nurse had called yesterday evening and told Mom she didn't think Gramps had much of a fight let in him. So I'd decided if that was the case then I needed to spend some time with him, regardless if he was practically a vegetable, because I was facing this head-on. I'd decided it all early on and I wasn't about to back down now.