I had a lot to think about, I’m not a total asshole, well not all the time, but I had seen her today for the first time since she’d been back, I mean really looked at her and my baby was almost emaciated. That wasn’t one of the consequences I had in mind.
Fuck what the fuck did she want from me?
Someone was here, I could feel it the moment they entered the room.
“How the fuck did you get in here?”
The shadow moved but said nothing, the hairs on my body stood on alert so I knew instinctively who my visitor was but did not let on.
“I came to take back what’s mine.”
Chapter 25
Josh
I didn’t say anything at first, my heart raced in my chest, I was still mad and yes a little hurt, but I couldn’t turn love away like that, not anymore.
After my soul searching I’d made some decisions.
“Can you........”
There was a thud and I was off the bed in a flash.
“Carrie......”
I picked her up and started running, fucking shit she was light as a fucking feather what the fuck had she done to herself?
I ran all the way to my parent’s wing of the house and barely felt her in my arms.
“Dad.”
He came out of the room tying his robe around his waist.
“Joshua, what’s going on...is that Carrie?”
“Help her, help us please.....”
“Give her to me son...shit, what the hell happened to her?”
“Her father said she hasn’t been eating.”
“For how long?”
He moved quickly towards the stairs.
“More than two weeks.”
“What?”
The others must’ve heard the commotion because they all came running.
“How did she get here?”
“She drove half way but then her truck broke down and she walked the rest of the way....I’m sorry Joshua but I had to let her in.” Vanessa was wringing her hands and crying.
“It’s okay sis, I’m not mad at you.”
“We have to get her to the hospital, she needs a drip stat.”
I followed him out the door as he headed for his car with the others behind us in their pajamas.
I held her in my lap in the backseat, looking at her for the first time.
Her eyes were sunken pools in her head; her cheek bones were so prominent there was hardly any flesh there.
I was afraid to lift her shirt to see beneath, I could feel through the thin shirt she wore that she was just a shadow of the girl she’d been a month ago.
Her breathing was sporadic and labored.
I couldn’t think, why couldn’t I think.
“Dad?” My voice sounded foreign even to my ears.
“We’re almost there son hold on, she’s going to be okay, you just hold on.”
I held on long enough to make it to the hospital, to watch them work on her. Thank God she’d only fainted.
Dad saw to it that she was hooked up to an IV and settled in a private room.
Somewhere around the time mom was calling the Captain I was no longer there. I could feel myself breathing; I could hear the hustle and bustle of movement around me but I couldn’t feel, couldn’t move.
“Joshua, Joshua, son can you hear me?”
“What’s wrong with him, dad?”
“Wait a minute Matt......”
“Get a room ready for my son....now.”
“You kids start talking....now, what the hell is going on with these two, I know my son would never take drugs so what the hell is this? He’s fucking catatonic.”
I could hear all of this but couldn’t respond, why couldn’t I respond?
“They broke up dad, or had a falling out.”
“And.....”
“That’s really all we know dad, Vanessa and I tried getting Joshua to talk about it but you know how he is, he shut down. Just stopped even mentioning her name, it was like she never existed or something, you know he gets like that dad, we tried to bring him around but....”
“And Carrie, why didn’t either of you notice that she was wasting away, all this time your mother and I thought that Joshua was spending more time at her house with her dad, you mean to tell me that he was home all that time?”
“Yeah, he stayed in his rooms.....”
“You still haven’t told me why you or your sister didn’t notice that she was sick.”
“Because we weren’t talking to her either, I mean I saw her, after a while I noticed the weight loss, I even mentioned it to Joshua but I had no idea it would be this bad, I mean Patti goes for days without eating and nothing like this has ever happened.”
“That’s because Patti is a .......”
“Margaret....”
“So let me get this straight, Joshua broke up with her and you guys went into family mode and cut her off too, but you missed a step there.....she’s family too, you fucked up, all of you.”
“Dad....”
“No Matt, how many girls have your brother brought home?”
“One.”
“What does that say to you, how did he introduce Carrie to us, before we even met her, what did he say to us?”