He knew that it was a shitty thing to do. He knew that every single way he'd handled everything in his life since Alice died was a shitty thing to do. People had kept telling him that Tal was spiraling downwards and that every time someone mentioned it, it had gotten worse and worse.
And Jinx, selfishly, just didn't want to deal with it. He didn't want to watch yet another girlfriend die. So... he just chose not to. He took the easy route and opted out of everything to do with Tal. It wasn't even that hard, since Tal didn't really want to be around him much after it had happened either.
If he'd been a better person, a stronger person, he would have gotten over himself and fought for her. But if this year had taught him anything it was that he was not a better or stronger person. He was, actually, a much shittier person than he'd always held himself up to be. It had been a depressing wake up call.
But Tal was in the hospital now and it sounded like she was trying to get better, which meant Jinx couldn't put it off anymore. He still put it off a little longer though, but he was finally here now.
He finally asked reception where Tal's room was. He finally made his way down that wing. He finally stepped into her doorway and saw her for the first time in a very long time.
She held up a finger to silence him before Jinx could say anything so he waited, wondering if it was more a 'fuck off' and less of a 'just a second.'
His hair was tied up, a little unwashed, and he'd considered attacking the stubble on his face before coming here, but he was sort of getting used to the slightly furry look these days. Maybe he'd encourage it, go full on hipster beard and start drinking hazelnut soy macchiatos or something.