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“Here you go sweetie, meatloaf with rice and vegetables!” the nurse enthusiastically said as she placed tray of hot food before AJ.

AJ cringed as he caught whiff of his generic meal. The way the nurse had made it sound like it was the best food in the world had made him sick to his stomach. The nurse lifted up the lid off his plate, which revealed one scoop of rice, steamed mixed vegetables, and two slabs of brownish, red meat drenched in gravy. If he hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought this to be crap mixed with diarrhea.

AJ looked up and gave the nurse a crooked smile. “Thanks.”

The nurse smiled back. “No problem.” And with that, she walked out of the room.

AJ stared at the door when he noticed that she didn’t close it, she simply stood there talking someone, but the half closed door was blocking his view of seeing whom she was talking to. A couple seconds later, the nurse pushed the door open again and had allowed Howie to walk in.

“Hey!” AJ said as the nauseating thought of his food was dismissed.

Howie approached his bed and smiled. “Hey yourself. How you doing?”

AJ shrugged and looked down at his plate of food. “Could be better if they didn’t have to feed me this s*** they call food. And how about you? How does it feel to be free from the hospital?”

Howie sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Not as good as I thought it would feel. You remember me telling you about Nick?”

AJ nodded, “Yeah, that his younger brother was killed, right?”

“Yeah… well, he just found out not too long ago about his death from his younger sister. He completely lost it and is mad at both Brian and I.”

“What?” AJ muttered, grabbing his fork to probe at his food. “How could he be mad at you and… Brian? It’s not your guys fault that his younger brother died.”

“I know, but…” he sighed once again. “He’s mad at us because we lied to him. We didn’t tell him that his younger brother was dead while this whole time he believed he was still alive. I had told him that no one died…”

“What?” AJ asked him in shock. “Why would you tell him something like that?”

Howie shrugged, “I don’t know… I wasn’t thinking, it just kind of slipped out. We couldn’t tell him that Aaron was dead, he needed all the time he could have to rest up and heal.”

AJ continued to stare at his plate of food, sticking his fork into a mushy broccoli. He twirled it around in the thick meatloaf gravy for a while before bringing it to his lips and eating it off the fork. He cringed as the bitter taste exploded within his mouth. “Did you guys apologize?”

“Over and over…” Howie replied in a phase. “He wouldn’t hear it though… to tell you the truth, I don’t blame him.”

AJ shrugged and stuck his fork in another broccoli tree. “Man, what I wouldn’t give for McDonalds.” They both fell silent and AJ slowly looked up towards Howie, a slow grin creeping up on his face.

Howie looked up at AJ as well and began to shake his head. “Oh no, I am not going to get you McDonalds, you know you can’t eat that.”

“Please!” AJ began to beg. “What they don’t know won’t hurt!”

Howie continued to stare at AJ, begging helplessly. He finally gave in with a sigh. “Fine, whatever… only this one time though! And I’m only doing it cause I have nothing better to do, and I feel sorry for you!”

AJ smiled a cheesy grin. “Thank you…”