Chapter 293 I Have a Girlfriend Now
Lacey messaged: [Still awake?]
Jason replied: [Insomnia's been my constant companion lately.]
Lacey: [In that case, I'm heading to a midnight screening. Care to join me?]
Jason's fingers hovered over the screen, hesitation evident in his delayed response.
Lacey quickly added: [It's a horror film. I've heard the midnight showings are practically empty-like having a private screening. I don't want to end up scared stiff with no one to call for help!] She included a playful tongue-out emoji.
A smile tugged at Jason's lips as he read her message. After a moment's consideration, he simply replied "Sure" before getting up to change.
While driving to the theater, his phone rang unexpectedly. Upon answering, he immediately made a U-turn and accelerated toward Grace Hospital.
The caller was Mike, bearing shocking news: Yara Griffin, the student who had
confessed her feelings to Jason earlier that day, had attempted suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. She'd been rushed to Grace Hospital, though details remained unclear.
At the hospital, a female student was waiting to escort him inside. As he hurried through the entrance, Jason quickly texted Lacey: [I'm terribly sorry, but I won't make it. A student has attempted suicide with sleeping pills. I'm at Grace Hospital now.]
A crowd had gathered outside the operating room-teachers, classmates, and Yara's family. The woman sobbing uncontrollably was presumably Yara's mother.
Mike handed Jason a neatly folded note. "Yara left this for you."
Rather than reading it immediately, Jason pocketed the letter and strode toward the operating room.
"What's her status?" he asked.
"She just arrived. The doctors are preparing to pump her stomach," Mike explained.
Having previously worked at Grace Hospital, Jason was well-known among the medical staff. The attending physician invited him to assist with the procedure.
Fortunately, Yara had been brought in quickly enough. After having her stomach pumped, she was out of immediate danger.
While waiting for her to regain consciousness, Jason read her letter-three pages of heartfelt emotions, the ink smudged in places where tears had fallen as she wrote.
unwitting catalyst for this situation, yet he was blameless. Even Yara's mother, despite her tears, couldn't reasonably hold
awakened about thirty minutes after the procedure. Upon seeing Jason at her bedside,
"Mr. Foster!" she exclaimed.
she now appeared fragile against the stark white
She poured out her feelings to Jason until her father,
yourself enough already?" he snapped, stamping his foot in
embarrassing about first love," Jason
of hope in his
truly care for you I've never felt this way about anyone before. I don't think I'll ever be able to love anyone else.
of her emotional state, didn't immediately dismiss her. Instead, he asked softly, "What is it that you like
not sure," she admitted quietly. "Maybe it's your appearance, or perhaps your voice. All I know is that
earlier intervention, Jason said,
then shook her head vigorously. "You're lying. You've been at the university for months,
"He's not lying."
his well-intentioned deception, a
instead," she explained kindly. "It's fine-we'll have plenty of other opportunities to go to the cinema. Your life is far more important." Jason hadn't expected Lacey to appear, but her timing
in defeat. "Listen," Lacey said with remarkable gentleness,
Lacey's words, Yara glanced toward her parents, a flicker of remorse crossing her
greeting the teachers and Jason, they
glancing at Lacey before whispering something in Yara's ear. Whatever she said caused Yara to look at Lacey with sudden recognition, but a quick nudge from her friend prompted her to
"I just need time to move on. You should go now. For my
She seemed genuinely resolved.
nodded, relieved.
Lacey left the
these days. It seems you're quite the heartthrob
It just shows
good or bad, has value," she said
though her
of myself and step up as a good daughter, filling our home with warmth again. My father often said his life was a failure, which made me silently vow to become his source of pride," Lacey
Jason. "How about you? I believe everyone hits rough patches while growing up. If you haven't
box, lit a cigarette, and
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