“Oh, didn’t I tell you? Tully got out last night. I’m going to swing by and see her for a while. I’m sure she’s probably going nuts being locked in her room all day,” I tell him, “and I picked up all her schoolwork so she doesn’t run out of things to do.”
“Shit, I raised you right.”
I roll my eyes. Dad will never skip a chance to inflate his ego. “Sure did,” I laugh. “I’ll see you tonight.”
“Alright. Drive safe, Squish. Love you.”
“Love you, too,” I tell him before ending the call. I toss my phone down on the seat beside me and pull back out into traffic, feeling a shitload better. At least my little sister isn’t standing out in the cold wondering how her big sister could forget about her like that. Crisis averted.
After turning one more corner, I pull up at Noah and Tully’s place and the very first thing I notice is the white Camaro missing from the mountain of cars that usually live here. “Damn,” I mutter to myself. Noah must still be out working for Anton.
I hope he’s alright. He’s been gone all day. Usually, the jobs he does for the guy has him gone for a few hours at the most. Things are definitely changing, and not for the better.
I climb out of dad’s old pick up and grab the heavy bag beside me. As I walk down the path leading towards the front door, I can’t help but rake my eyes over the mangled mess of Rivers’ black Freebird. We didn’t know an address to send it so he could have it at his place and he isn’t here to do anything about it, like calling the insurance company and getting this shit sorted.
Instead, we look at it each day. It couldn’t have been easy for Tully walking in here last night and seeing it after just getting out of the hospital. Though, I’m not sure she was really focusing on that. She was going so slowly getting out of Noah’s car that he lost his patience and scooped her up. He practically charged towards the door while she screamed and whined about being able to do it herself. But what did she expect coming home? Noah is going to be right by her side every chance he gets. She’s going to be cursing him out in no time.
By the time Noah got her through the door, there was a whole new problem to deal with; Violet and Eddison. They had absolutely no idea that Noah had discharged her and believe me, they weren’t thrilled about it. Nonetheless, Violet turned into Supermom and had Tully’s bedroom perfect, dinner cooked, and was busily picking out movies and TV series for Tully to watch while Tully made herself comfortable in her room.
I don’t think she had time to notice the mangled metal sitting outside beside her Jeep, but now that she’s spent that day sitting in bed with nothing to do but look out the window, I’m sure her eyes have raked over it once or twice.
I make my way down the hall and push into Tully’s room. “What the fuck is all that?” she grunts, looking at the bag in distaste.
“All the school work you’ve missed out on,” I explain proudly, walking forward and dumping it on her legs.
Tully instantly opens the bag and peers inside. “You’re fucking kidding, right?” she smirks, looking up at me as though I’ve gone a little crazy. “You couldn’t possibly think that I’m going to sit here and do schoolwork?”
“Yes. I do. I need to raise my grades and you need to keep yours.”
“You’re fucking nuts. Are you forgetting one thing?” she questions with a raised brow. “I don’t give a shit about my grades.”
I grin to myself before dropping down onto the end of her bed. “You should if you want to come to BHU with me to do a business degree.”
Tully laughs out, holding her stomach to try and avoid the internal pain as her body shakes. “Ok, now I know you’ve lost your fucking mind. All this alone time is making you insane. You’re being left alone with your brain for too long and it’s giving you ideas of a future that’s never going to happen. I should seriously kick Noah’s ass for allowing that to happen.”
“Shut up,” I say, smacking her leg. “You need to do a business degree if you want to have your flower shop and you know it. Stop being such an idiot and face the facts.”
“I know,” she says. “I have faced the facts but going to BHU is a little unrealistic, don’t you think? Community college is more my speed.”
I shrug my shoulders. “Maybe, but either way, it’s never going to happen if you don’t give yourself a shot. Besides, I have so much schoolwork of my own and I’d prefer to bring it here, but if your mind isn’t occupied, you’re going to talk, and talk, and talk, and it’s going to drive me crazy to the point that I’ll end up leaving. So, it’s either accept the schoolwork and work your ass off on it, or sit in a room alone every afternoon while I do mine at home.”