Brat

by Alicia Michaels

  “That sounds a lot like me and Jules,” Matthew said once he’d caught his breath from laughing. “We’re crazy about each other now, but we hated each other at first.”

  Shooting him a dirty look, Julie nudged him with her shoulder. “That’s because you were a high-handed jerk.”

  I smirked at Chase. “Oh my God, it’s déjà vu.”

  “We were both volunteering for Red Cross after Hurricane Ike hit Galveston back in ‘08,” Matthew continued. “This little lady was working with a group of girls who were helping to pass out water and lunch bags to people we were bringing into a relief tent—the ones who weren’t injured, anyway. At least, she was supposed to be in the dang tent. Jules got it in her head to wander off.”

  “I heard a little kid crying and screaming,” she insisted. “All the paramedics, nurses, doctors, and National Guard were busy and no one was close enough for me to flag down to ask for help. So, I took matters into my own hands. I found this little boy trapped in a basement. His house had collapsed and he couldn’t find his way out. I spent half an hour digging through what was left of the house before I found a way down in there.”

  “That was when the wreckage shifted and collapsed on top of them,” Matthew added, shaking his head. “I was across the street with a couple of other volunteers going through the remains of another house. I just happened to look up in time to see her disappear into the ground and half the house come down on top of her.”

  “Wow,” I said, my eyes wide as I stared across the table at Julie. “That must have been scary as hell.”

  She nodded emphatically. “Oh, definitely. To make matters worse, a beam fell on my ankle and broke it. So, I was pretty much buried with this poor kid and couldn’t do much to help him out of his situation. Matthew spent half the day working with a team to dig us out. You should have seen his face when he jumped down into the basement and saw me lying there under the beam.”

  “I told her she had no business moving debris around like that when she didn’t know what she was doing,” Matthew added, laughing at the memory. “I yelled at her for almost getting herself killed while I pulled the beam off and treated her ankle. Oh, but she didn’t take it lying down. She yelled right back at me and insisted she was just trying to help the little boy. By the time I carried her out of that basement, I was half ready to tear my hair out and half in love with her. After getting her to the tent, I watched her ask for a pair of crutches and go right back to work, insisting that she was fine. I saw how good she was with the little ones, calming them down and helping them cope with what had just happened … by the end of the day, I just knew she was the one.”

  Julie smiled and threaded her fingers through his. “After a few months of dating, we got married and we’ve been together ever since.”

  “That’s really sweet,” I said, “and terribly romantic.”

  “She really is my better half,” Matthew murmured, having eyes only for his wife in that moment. She gave him a dreamy look and grinned. “My life couldn’t be what it is without her. The only thing that could make it better is having a child to raise together.”

  “Not that we’re trying to pressure you or anything,” Julie added, giving her husband a loaded look. “Please don’t think we are. I can’t imagine how hard this decision is for you two, and you should be absolutely sure that you’re making the right decision.”

  “Do you mind if I ask …” Chase trailed off, seeming to struggle with the wording of his question.

  “Why we need to adopt a baby?” Julie finished for him. “It’s a fair question and we don’t mind talking about it.”

  “We’ve been trying pretty much ever since we got married,” Matthew said, putting a protective arm around his wife. I knew instantly that their road to adoption had been long and hard, especially for Julie. Her face said it all. “Jules got pregnant for the first time three months after our wedding.”

  “We were so excited,” Julie reminisced. “Starting a family right away was what we wanted and we immediately started making plans, picking baby names, the whole nine. I had a miscarriage at fifteen weeks.”

  “She was devastated,” Matthew said. “We went to the doctor looking for answers and found out that Julie had fibroid tumors, and that was what had caused the miscarriage. Fibroids are usually easily treated, but Julie’s were located near her fallopian tubes; it was a miracle she even got pregnant the first time.”

  “We tried so many treatments,” Julie said with a sniffle. Her eyes were starting to water, though I could tell she was trying to hold her tears back. “The medications didn’t work, so I agreed to surgery. We tried again as soon as we could after the first surgery, and got pregnant again about four months later. This time I carried the baby to twenty-five weeks. I developed more fibroids during the pregnancy, and even though they tried to treat them with drugs again, I lost that one, too.”

  “It was a boy,” Matthew croaked, his voice husky with emotion as a lone tear streamed down his cheek. “We named him Tristan.”

  “After that, I just didn’t want to do it again,” Julie sobbed, swiping at her eyes. There was no holding back the tears now. Even I was getting emotional, the lump in my throat threatening to throw me into a fit of crying as well. “The doctors told me another pregnancy would be a risk, and that was only if I could even manage to get pregnant again. So I told them to just remove my uterus and fallopian tubes. I didn’t want to have to cremate another baby.”

  Julie lowered her head, her shoulders shaking as she tried to compose herself. Matthew held on to her, his presence steady and strong. I loved how this couple were like a perfect team. Julie was hurting, and even though Matthew was too, he was her rock. It just furthered my confidence in them.

  “I’m sorry,” Julie said after a while, her nose red as she wiped her eyes with her fingertips. “It’s just hard to talk about. For so long, we gave up hope that we’d ever have children. Once we became more financially stable and bought our first home, we decided adoption was the way to go. We’ve been waiting for a mother to choose us for adoption for two years now, and every one that passes without choosing us just gets harder and harder. I know we said we didn’t want to pressure you, but you have to know … nobody will love that little baby more than we would. I don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl. I don’t care what it looks like, or if it grows up in sixteen years to hate me like teenagers do … we want this baby.”

  “We want you to be the parents,” Chase said suddenly.

  I glanced over at Chase incredulously, surprised to find tears shining in his eyes as well. He pressed his thumb and forefinger against his eyes and wiped them away before meeting my gaze. I found there the same surety I’d felt the first time we’d met the Hammonds.

  “What?” Shock rippled across Matthew’s face as he glanced back and forth between me and Chase. “Really?”

  Julie pressed a hand over her mouth to stifle another sob. “Oh my God,” she whispered, her voice muffled.

  Chase took my hand and squeezed it. I smiled at him, then at them. “You’re the ones,” I said. “We’re sure of it now. We want you to adopt our baby.”

  “Oh my God,” Matthew said, echoing his wife. “I don’t even know what to say … this is incredible!”

  “Say yes, for starters,” Chase said with a chuckle.

  Matthew laughed too, and Julie sobbed some more, this time from happiness. She stood and threw her arms around me, her tears wetting the front of my dress. I hugged her back tightly, a sense of peace flooding through me now that an official decision had been made.

  “You two don’t know how happy you’ve made us!” Julie exclaimed as she let me go, clenching her hands tightly in front of her. “This is a dream come true. Thank you so much!”

  “No,” I said, “thank you. Chase and I talked for a long time about the kind of parents we wanted for this baby, and you are our dream come true.” Julie’s smile was already so radiant, I couldn’t help but want to make her day even better. “
We had another sonogram done today,” I added, reaching into my purse for the image. “The doctor said everything looks great and the baby is perfectly healthy.”

  “Oh, can I see?” Julie asked breathlessly, even as I handed her the little picture. Matthew held on to her shoulders and peered over the top of her head. Silence filled the yard as they stared at the picture for a long while, just soaking little Blob in.

  “Would you like to know the sex?” Chase asked. “Or do you want to be surprised?”

  “Are you kidding? Of course we want to know!” Matthew exclaimed.

  Chase and I exchanged smug grins before telling them together, “It’s a girl!”

  Chapter 11

  That night, I returned home to find Kinsley sprawled on the floor of her new bedroom. I never would have noticed if it weren’t for her foot, sticking out just over the threshold of the door. My heart leapt into my throat as a dozen different reasons she might have collapsed went through my mind.

  “Oh my God, Kins!” I screeched, dropping my purse and keys on the floor, dashing into the room, and dropping to my knees beside her. The room was dark, but the hallway light cast a triangle of meager light inside, illuminating Kinsley’s face. Her normally rich brown skin had paled and had a grayish cast. I reached out to touch her, grabbing her shoulder and shaking it gently. “Kinsley, are you okay? Talk to me!”

  Through the strands of hair that had fallen into her face, I could see that her eyes were wide, but glazed over and unfocused. Her lips were parted, but her breathing was shallow and rapid. Tremors shook her from head to toe, causing her teeth to chatter in concert with her noisy breathing. Pulling her into my lap, I held on tight and screamed for help.

  “Chase! Christian! Somebody, help me!” My tears splattered her face as I leaned over her, hopelessly trying to understand what was happening here. “Kinsley, what’s happened? What did you do?”

  The tremors increased and Kinsley’s lips moved as if she was trying to tell me something. “Just … one more … week …” she managed before the tremors turned into full-on convulsions.

  Eyes darting around the room, I found a brand new bottle of diet pills on the nightstand nearby. I cursed, my grip on her tightening as I tried to keep her from hurting herself—the convulsions were so powerful now, I could barely keep a grip on her.

  “Chloe, are you—” Chase’s voice trailed off on a strangled gasp when he noticed Kinsley in my arms. Christian bumped into him, having barreled up the stairs right behind him at the sound of my screams.

  “Call an ambulance!” I cried, hysterical by now. “I think she just overdosed on diet pills!”

  “How could I not know this was going on with her?” Jenn cried as she paced back and forth in the waiting area of Seton Medical Center’s Emergency Room. “I’m her best friend!”

  Luke stood and went to her, pulling her against his chest. “It’s okay, Jenn. You’re not a mind reader. We all knew something was going on with her, but she wouldn’t talk to anyone about it.”

  “I knew that bitch coach was riding her ass about losing weight,” Jenn said, fisting Luke’s shirt tightly. “I should have seen the signs. I’ve been so caught up …”

  “I knew,” I whispered from my seat between Christian and Chase.

  Chase frowned, turning toward me. “You knew?”

  I lowered my head and tried not to let myself fall into a fit of tears again. The guilt was so heavy, I thought it might crush me. How could such a great day have gone down the toilet so quickly?

  “I just found out last week,” I said quickly. “I took the pills from her and told her how dangerous her behavior was. I thought she just needed someone to point that out to her, and if it didn’t work, I’d tell you guys maybe we could stage some kind of intervention or even call her parents. I never got that far, though.”

  “You knew and you didn’t tell me?” Jenn screeched. “Chloe!”

  “Hey!” Christian interjected, jumping to his feet. “Leave her alone! She has her own shit to worry about between the baby and her parents and all. You’re supposed to be her best friend and you weren’t there for her because you were too busy with Luke!”

  Jenn gasped, and Luke quickly jumped to her defense. “That’s not fair,” he growled, stepping in front of Jenn and squaring off with Christian.

  Christian didn’t back down, coming forward until their chests bumped and they were almost nose to nose. “Isn’t it? We’ve hardly seen you two since you started screwing. No one else exists anymore since you moved next door.”

  Luke’s fists flexed at his side like he wanted to hit Christian. Good thing he didn’t, though. I think we all know he’d have got his ass kicked. Jenn grabbed one his arms as if to stead him, shaking her head. “Our relationship has nothing to do with this,” he hissed from between clenched teeth, “and we have been around. We’ve all tried to get through to Kinsley.”

  “Exactly,” Chase interjected calmly, “and nothing worked. That can’t be helped. You guys can’t play the blame game, you need one another too much right now. Kinsley is your friend and she’s going to need all of you as a single unit. So stop fighting and sit down. They’ll send someone out when there’s word.”

  Surprisingly, Chase got through to them, and Luke, Christian, and Jenn took seats across from us. Jenn looked up at me meekly.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, a fresh wave of tears running down her face. “I’m glad you were there when it happened.

  I nodded. “I know you didn’t mean anything by it. We’re all just worried sick. It’s okay.”

  “I’m sorry, too, man,” Christian said to Luke. In typical guy fashion, Luke accepted the apology with a silent nod and they were back to being best buds again. I don’t know how they do that.

  A few moments later, a nurse emerged from the swinging doors leading into the Emergency Room. We all stood and converged on her at once, our voices mingling as we pelted her with questions.

  “We’re going to have to admit her for observation overnight,” the nurse said once she’d waved her hands for silence. “As you suspected, your friend overdosed on those diet pills she was taking. That was quick thinking, calling an ambulance and getting her here so fast. If you hadn’t, she might have suffered a heart attack and died.”

  Jenn gasped. “Will she be okay?”

  The nurse sighed. “Listen, your friend is showing all the classic signs of an eating disorder. She resting now, and we haven’t had a chance to talk to her much yet, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that in addition to the pills she’s also been bingeing and purging. It’s a serious problem, and even though we can get her better, recovery isn’t going to be easy. She’s going to need constant help and support … maybe even enrollment in a program.”

  “Like rehab?” Luke asked, his brow wrinkled.

  “Kind of like that, yes,” she said gently. “For a bulimic, purging is like an addiction. So are the diet pills, and anything else she might be using to lose the weight. It’s an obsessive compulsive behavior, one that she’ll need therapy and perhaps even medication to overcome.”

  “We’ll be there for her,” I said, stepping forward. “We are her family.”

  The nurse smiled in understanding. “That’s wonderful, but I’m sure her biological family will want to know what’s going on, too. Has someone called her parents?”

  “I did,” Christian chimed in. “They’re driving in all the way from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, so they won’t be here until morning.”

  “Can we see her?” Jenn asked, wringing her hands. “Please?”

  “I can’t allow you all to go back here. Two at a time, and only for a little while. Her room will be ready soon and we’ll have to transport her upstairs.”

  “Chloe, you and Jenn go,” Christian said decisively. “The rest of us can wait until she’s released. We don’t want to overwhelm her.”

  Jenn nodded and grabbed my arm, holding on tight. “That sounds good. You guys wait out here for us.�
��

  We followed the nurse through the swinging doors and past several curtained-off beds. When we came to the last one on the left, the nurse pulled back the curtain and ushered us in.

  “Ten minutes,” she warned before leaving us alone and closing the curtain.

  Jenn and I slowly approached the bed, clinging to each other as we gazed down at Kinsley’s emaciated form. I hadn’t noticed until now how thin she’d gotten. Just then, I realized that for the past few weeks she’d been wearing baggy clothes to hide how much weight she’d really lost. I’d been engrossed in my own problems, I hadn’t even noticed. Now, hindsight was twenty-twenty and I realized that I’d completely missed the signs. She was practically swimming in her hospital gown, her collarbones protruding prominently. She gave us a weak smile.

  “You guys can come closer, I won’t break,” she joked.

  “You almost did break on us,” I chided, sitting on the edge of the bed near her feet. “Kins, you scared the crap out of me.”

  She lowered her eyes to her hands, which were clasped tightly in her lap. “I know,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry, but I’m glad you came when you did.”

  “If she hadn’t, you would have died!” Jenn cried, her voice equal parts sadness and accusation. As her best friend, I was sure she was a bit angry with Kinsley for not coming to her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were struggling like this? I wanted to be there for you, but you wouldn’t let me.”

  “Because I didn’t think you’d understand,” Kinsley whispered. “It’s not just about being thin, you know. After a while it became about being in control of something in my life. Nothing is happening the way I thought it would and I just … I got such a great feeling from it, like a natural high … I know it sounds sick, but it’s the truth. After I throw up, I feel so good. Like I can do anything, and be whoever and whatever I want. I don’t just have to boring, smart, predictable Kinsley anymore. But then the high leaves and I crash, hard and I’m miserable all over again. I hardly understand it myself.”