Chapter 7: Maggie's

Upon the end of Cassie's shift Maggie had not so subtly reminded me about joining her for girl's night. She grabbed my phone and placed her number and address in her phone, telling me there would be hell to pay if I didn't show! On our way home, I informed Cassie about it and she was super ecstatic to be making new friends in Chicago. Once we were home Cassie headed straight for getting ready whilst I wrote up a shopping list, we needed to stock our fridge, there was no way I was eating cafeteria food again! I walked into the bedroom and almost had a heart attack at the tornado that seemed to have ripped through the room!

"Cassie! What happened in here?"

"I can't find anything to wear for tonight!"

"Would you relax? Just wear some jeans and a t-shirt" I pick up her favourite pair of blue skinny jeans and a cream t-shirt with gold braiding around the wide neckline which falls off one shoulder.

"What would I do without you?" She leans in and gives me a peck on the cheek grabbing the clothes from me and heading to the bathroom to 'freshen up' whilst I pick out my outfit from the chaos on the bedroom floor. I find a loose fitting dark red shirt and a pair of black jeans. I'm changed with my hair pulled back into a loose braid by the time Cassie makes it out having done her makeup and straightened her hair.

"Cass, I love you, but we need to go grocery shopping first!"

"But… But…"

"I don't care if we are late I need food and I am not eating that awful cafeteria food again!" She looks at me with those puppy dog eyes before admitting defeat.

…

Once we get home I leave Cassie to put the shopping away whilst I organise an Uber to Maggie's place. I then shoot a message off to her apologising that we were going to be late, but we needed to sort some stuff first. Maggie replied telling us to take our time. I help Cassie finish up in time for the phone to alert me that our driver was waiting for us down stairs.

Maggie's apartment was warm and welcoming like her. We were the last to arrive, as predicted by Cassie who shot me a 'told you so' look.

"Hey, Olivia over here" Natalie look very different, her hair was down, and she had relaxed since first meeting her at the hospital.

"Hi Natalie" I say slightly timid. She starts pouring a glass of wine for me "You know I'm only 18?"

"Shh, no one outside this room needs to know, plus after today you could use a few glasses of the stuff" she smiled and handed me the glass of red.

"Well I'm not going to say no to that"

"Alright, Olivia, this is April, Sarah and Doris" Natalie introduced me to the rest of the girls and explained who they were.

As the night went on the conversation went from light hearted silly stuff to more serious things about relationship troubles and hospital drama. It wasn't long before the subject of today's events came to fruition.

Maggie asked the question "so, what was going on between you and Halstead?"

I look at Cassie as if asking for permission to speak. She comes closer to me and wraps her arm around me in a gesture of support.

"Well… My name is Olivia Elizabeth Halstead" I look up to see shocked faces and dropped jaws. "I am Will Halstead's sister and we have not had the greatest of relationships, in fact it has been several years since we have spoken. I graduated at 14 and decided to go to med school at Harvard University, Will was in New York at the time and Jay was deployed. About 6 months later mum got sick and passed away. I was stuck because of the amount of snow and ice in Boston at the time and that is where our relationship took a turn for the worst. He wouldn't pick up the phone or respond to my messages. If it weren't for Cassie, I'm not sure I would have made it through to the end of the year…" Silence fell upon the room, I felt tired, too much explaining for one day!

…

As we made our way back into the apartment I flopped on the bed with exhaustion, Cassie, started undressing me before awkwardly slipping a nighty over my head. I hit the pillow groaning in exhaustion. How many times did I relive the pain of the past? I have had to explain over and over and over again. I didn't really feel like turning up at the hospital tomorrow, I wasn't ready for more drama. Cassie slipped under the covers and embraced me, rubbing small soothing circles on my back. It was not long until sleep embraced me and I drifted into whatever twisted dream land my mind had waiting for me.

Notes:

I am soooooooooo sorry about how long this took me! Stuff happened in my personal life and so this chapter sat half finished for 2 weeks!