Chapter 290

When Spring Break rolls around, I take a brief trip with the guys up to see the Bornstead U campus. It’s literally everything I thought it would be and more. Standing there in the cool mountain air and watching the university come alive in the morning made it all seem more real somehow.

That’s going to be my life.

One day, I’m going to be a student there.

My joy only lasts so long as it takes us to get back to Cruz Bay where Dad is waiting.

Since I last saw him, everything has gone to shit.

I stop in the doorway and look at the skinny man in the wheelchair that used to be my father. It takes everything I have inside of me to put on a smile and walk in there, kneel down by his side and give him a cheek on the kiss.

Later, when he’s gone to bed and I have a moment to talk with his nurse, I learn the truth.

Charlie Reed is under hospice care now.

As in … he’s basically waiting around to die.

I spend the next few hours in the bathroo