If Only

In My Arms

11- In my Arms

One shake of the doctor's head and it was confirmed. One shake confirmed his death to the world.

I broke into a flurry of emotions. He was more than a second dad, he was a hero, someone to look up to.

Haze gritted his teeth and confronted his sister, who was on the floor in tears. I was too shocked to do anything, but just watch. Watch Haze's mom, Rita, laugh into disbelief and scream hysterically. Watch the doctor call for help and nurses escort her away. She needed my mother but no one knew where she was.

Haze followed the nurses, leaving Hannah on the chair. And I knew that I couldn't leave her there, sobbing her heart out.

I couldn't make it right either. Nothing couple ever replace him. He was a memory with marks on our world.

I gave her the comfort of my arms, which I knew were shaking. I can't remember what caused the shaking: my grief and shock or the motion of her body crying. But she calmed down in my arms, which meant something deeper than I was smart enough to imagine.