THE HEARTBREAK
I know something is wrong as soon as she walks into the house. The front door shuts behind her and I hear footsteps clomp up the stairs immediately. She does not call out to see if anyone else is home like she normally does. I fight my instinct to chase after her and find out what's wrong. She's nineteen she probably doesn't want one of her mother's smothering her every time she has a bad day. I turn my attention back to my laptop continuing to read the article I was in the middle of.
Over the next few minutes I begin to hear shuffling followed by loud thudding coming from Sofia's room. "Alright, time to go investigate" I say to my self bending down and grabbing my prosthetic from where it rests on the floor. With my leg now secured on my body I take the stairs. I can barely here my own footsteps on the stairs over the periodic thudding which has grown increasingly louder. Before I even arrive at Sofia's door I hear music and it's not the music it's the volume of the music that is yet another alert to me that something is very wrong. She only listens to music this loud when she is trying not to think about something.
When I reach the door, I knock once I receive no response I knock again still no response. "Sof I'm coming in." I announce entering her bedroom. Curled up in a ball Sofia is on her floor. I watch her body tremor slightly with silent sobs. The C.D is playing from her D.V.D player. So, I grab the remote from her bed hitting the pause button. Sofia doesn't even look up or make any indication that she is aware of the now lack of noise.
Moving closer to my daughter I sit down in front of her. Gently easily careful of my prosthetic. "What's wrong?" I gently reach out brushing away strands of her wavy midnight hair, that has been stuck to her face glued by wet tears. She doesn't answer me just looks at her open closet.
For the first time since I entered the room, I notice what a mess it is. Sweaters, notebooks, books. C.D's, along with various other clothing and objects are thrown all over the room.
"Alright, what the hell happened in here? Did Samantha the ghost come for a visit again?"
The joke was bad but when the corners of her mouth turn slightly upward I know it accomplished what it was meant to. Pulling at memories of her childhood of the ghost Callie swore haunted the house, and for some reason unknown to any of us dubbed it Samantha. All evidence of a smile fades as fresh tears burst out of her eyes.
"Did we know you were coming home this weekend?" I ask trying to remember but things have been hectic I've spent many nights on call lately. This is the first time I've been home all week and I can't remember if she was coming or not. I don't think we did though because with her at school at John-Hopkins it's not like Baltimore to Seattle is a quick easy trip. With the realization of this fact sinking in my worry only triples what it was a moment ago.
"Sofia?"
After more minutes of silence, she collects herself enough to speak. "Spring break is this upcoming week. I told you and Madre I wasn't coming home until Wednesday, but I actually got in early this morning. Ryan and I were going to hide out at a hotel just the two of us until Wednesday morning. He and I ended up getting up in this disaster of and argument. We…broke…upp" she finally manages to explain before bursting into another round of tears.
It all clicks now I knew that Sofia and her boyfriend Ryan Baker had been having a rough time lately. Sofia had received a partial scholarship to study pre-med at Hopkins in Baltimore; while Ryan received a full scholarship to Harvard to play on the hockey team. The 408 miles separating them has made their relationship more difficult.
"Sofia, what happened exactly?" I push for more answers needing to know how much damage is done to see if it could be fixed.
"We started talking about our plans for summer, and we realized that we had completely different plans. He has the opportunity for an internship in Boston and I'm supposed to do some shadowing at the hospital over the summer break. We just realized that my life in Baltimore and his life in Cambridge have steered our lives in two completely different directions." More tears spill from Sofia's eyes as I pull her into me.
I scan the room I recognize the scattered items now. They were all things relating to Ryan in some way. The clothes on the floor were the ones Sofia had "accidently" stolen from him over the years. The rest of the objects had been gifts from him on every celebrated occasion they have had for the last four years spent together as a couple.
I stand up bringing Sofia up with me. "Here you go sit down" I guide her to her bed. "I'll be right back" I promise her, grabbing the remote unpausing the C.D, letting the sound feel the room once again.
Quickly down the stairs and into the garage I go in search of a box big enough, back upstairs I plop it on the floor in front of Sofia. "Okay, you're going to fill this box up will all this stuff on the floor. Don't look at what it is. Don't think about what it means or all the memories that come with it. Just put whatever it is in the box." I order before heading back downstairs.
My first stop in the kitchen is the cabinet holding the mugs. With two mugs on the counter I move to the refrigerator to grab the milk because Sofia prefers her hot chocolate made with milk instead of water.
When I am in the middle of mixing the chocolate powder with the now steaming cups of milk, my pager beeps. I stop what I'm doing long enough to look at it. It's not a 911 so I'll let someone handle it. There are other people at the hospital who can take care of the tiny humans for a night. Tonight, though I need to make sure my girl survives the first night of her first heartbreak. A hot mug in each hand I climb the stairs again back to Sofia.
AN MY HEART IS BREAKING THAT JESSICA CAPSHAW IS LEAVING! THE CHARACTER OF ARIZONA ROBBINS HAS BROUGHT SO MUCH TO MY LIFE SHE HAS MADE ME LAUGH ON SOME OF MY WORST DAYS. SHE WAS ONE OF THE FIRST CHARACTERS I FELL IN LOVE WITH WRITING! AND SHE BROUGHT ME A FRIEND I CAN'T PICTURE MY LIFE WITHOUT NOW! SO I AM GOING TO DO A SERIES OF ONESHOTS TO HONOR THE LOVELY ARIZONA ROBBINS. REVIEWS WOULD BE GREATLY APPERICIATED! I WILL ALSO TAKE REQUEST FOR FUTURE ONESHOTS IF ANYONE HAS ANY REQUESTS OR SUGGESTIONS I'LL BE HAPPY TO HEAR THEM HAVE A GOODNIGHT AND A HAPPY EASTER LOVELIES!
