Open Arms – Part 2
More…hehe…gets
a little diverse here 'cuz I'm using more characters than just Tyler and Val
(although they're still my faves!)
Brianne had a glazed look on her
face as she and Caitie met under the bleacher's after school. Caitie had no
idea how the other girl had remembered to meet her there, because she was
obviously getting over being totally stoned and was still in a state in which
she was not speaking all that well, just kind of sappily grinning. Her words
slurred together and she laughed a lot, so much that it made Caitie wonder just
how many drugs she'd been taking in.
"You know, Brianne, I thought you
were over this whole nearly dying thing." She said, leaning against the metal.
"Who told you?" The other girl
swaggered like she was drunk but then sat down quite well, for if she had been
drunk she would have probably fallen, and just laid her hands in her lap
sloppily.
"Okay, listen, will you? I'm going
to tell Jaime." Caitie said, seriously, although she hadn't seen Jaime all day
to tell him, which gave her the longest time to fret about how she was going to
do it. Lately, she and Jaime had grown apart a little bit. Ever since the last
problem with Brianne, when he had held her in the hospital and after school,
like he loved her more than anything, she had been embarrassed to be near him,
for some reason. Maybe it was because every time she saw him she wanted him
more than anything else in the world—no, check that, universe. Or maybe it was
because she was afraid her tongue would trip over the words coming out of her
mouth and she would sound incredibly stupid. Or was it something else? She had
no clue; sometimes she thought it would have been much easier not to bother
with the whole guy/girl thing, but she couldn't help her natural impulses,
however much she tried.
"Well, then, fine. Does it look like
I…I really care?" She stuttered a little bit but seemed to understand what
Caitie had been saying, which surprised her. This was all so confusing, as she
knew nothing about drugs and what the real effects were and felt like, because,
unlike some stereotype ridden people believed that she was on them.
"All right, you know. Fine…I'll see
you later." Caitie told her, frustrated, and walked off, her feet crunching on
the cool gravel as she headed to the EMS station in search of Jaime. She
couldn't quite remember if Val had said they had shifts that afternoon, or
what, but she figured that was the best place to look, first.
Brooke had only had half a day of
school that day, so she came directly to the station at lunch time to work on
some file organization and office cleaning. Alex's back was bothering him
again, since they were having cold and damp weather, and he had asked her to
help with the cleaning so the station looked spiffy as usual. Caitie's words
from the other day rang in her mind, although she hadn't uttered a word about
it to Tyler, Hank, or Jaime—not even told Val she knew. Her sister would
probably disown her for 'spying' on them. Sometimes she could be sensitive
about those things.
By three thirty, the whole squad was
there and working—Val doing papers with Tyler, Hank on the computer again, and
Jaime checking out some old junk in boxes that were probably even older in the
garage. Like she had the day before, Caitie burst in without saying a word
except. "Jaime?"
And Brooke answered it with another.
"Garage."
The older girl nodded weakly and
went directly to the garage without hesitation—without even going to see Val or
bothering to say much more. Not that
she ever does, though, she thought, and shrugged, turning her attention
back to her work.
Caitie walked hesitantly into the
substantially cooler garage, larger than any of the other rooms but much more
cluttered, especially with Jaime in there beside many open boxes, stuff
scattered everywhere. His face showed frustration, as though he were looking
for something that he was not finding. "Uh, Jaime?" She said hesitantly,
in a voice not her own.
He looked up, surprised, and then
smiled. "Oh, hey, Caitie. Come to help me with this torture?"
She smiled weakly and shook her
head. "No, sorry, you're the super-squad member, remember. I came to talk to
you about Brianne."
Jaime's face fell, as though he knew
what she was going to say before she said it. "What's wrong?"
"She's at it again." Her voice fell
flat as she leaned on the side of the doorway, looking down on his seat on the
floor surrounded by all of his medical stuff.
"What, huffing? I thought she
promised she'd never do that again." With that, he pulled himself to his feet
and came to meet her in the doorway, Caitie noticing at that moment, she didn't
know why, how close they were, how hot he looked, and how perfectly his lips
formed words. Even though his expression was one of worry, his eyes held a
spark to them that she had never seen in anyone she'd ever known.
"Uh, no. It's worse." Her mind
snapped back into the real world—the one where Jaime wasn't madly in love with
her…now that was just a fantasy. "Ecstasy."
"She what?" He leaned over a
little when he said this so that their faces were less than a foot away,
although Caitie knew he wasn't thinking about what she was at just that moment.
And I shouldn't be! Her mind scolded her. I came here to help
Brianne, not stare at Jaime's handsome face, strong arms…or…stop it!
"It's so obvious…I even found some in her
locker…right where she kept the stuff she was huffing. She's not making an
effort to hide it and I'm afraid something worse is going to happen to her. I
came to you because I don't know what to do."
"I don't believe this!" He threw up
his arms and then crossed them across his chest, sighing. "I thought she was
over this…she sounded so sincere…" Jaime let his voice trail off.
"It's an addiction." She stated
plainly.
"I know…" He seemed very
preoccupied, but for a second their eyes met dead square, and it was so
uncomfortable that Caitie wanted to immediately look away. But she couldn't.
There was a glare in his eye, a sparkle, a shine that made it all so much more
pleasing to look at and to know that he was looking in her eyes just the same
way. What did he see in her? Could he see her inside—her soul?
"Thanks for telling me. I know it wasn't
quite that easy." He snapped her out of her daydream so that she didn't hear exactly
what he had just said, so she had to ask.
"Huh?" And it sounded really stupid.
"I meant that I know it's not easy
for you to confide in people and all that—I know you like to deal with things,
well, your own way."
She couldn't tell if that was a
compliment or not.
"Oh. Sorry. I'm not really in tune
to everything today." She knew it was a lame excuse so quickly changed the tone
and asked. "So, what are we going to do?"
"I dunno." He shrugged. "Give me
some time to think…talk to the squad…maybe they'll have some suggestio…"
Before he could even finish the
syllable Caitie cut him off. "No. No super-squad members…they already think we're
messed up enough."
Val looked at her watch
apprehensively. Exactly 3.5 minutes until class—chemistry. Just as she slammed
her locker door shut, Jaime approached her in the hall. Despite the fact that
they worked together and he was the other best friend of her best friend, she
was surprised that he came up to her.
"Val, wait, can I talk to you?" He
said, seeming worried.
"Make it quick, Waite. If I'm late,
my grade will go into the negatives in chem.." She told him in a friendly way.
He smiled, seeming to forget for a
second about what he came to talk to her about and joked. "Hey, at least you're
grade can't get much more dead than that."
She smiled back, but then asked. "What's
up?" They ambled along the hallway; Val hugging her books up to her chest and
Jaime carrying them idly in his right hand, leaned up against his side.
"It's Brianne." He started out
slowly.
"I know. Caitie told me. She said
she'd tell you, but I didn't know when…and I swore by my life I wouldn't utter
a word."
"Same here…although I had to talk to
you. I mean, you're the one who knows her just as well as I do and that
sometimes she likes to take things into her own hands…"
Val finished the sentence for him. "…and
it can get out of control. I know. But I don't know what to do."
"Neither do I," he shook his head
despondently, "and if Bri keeps up with this trend of not listening to anyone
who's trying to help her…I'm afraid it's going to get worse than it's been."
She glanced at her watch and noticed
that there were few in the halls. She was two minutes late and the clock was
ticking. "Shoot, Jaime. I've gotta go. Talk to you this afternoon."
By the time she had run to the classroom
she was out of breath and when she slipped in to the lecture, everyone noticed,
especially Mr. Olson, who only gave her a disappointed look and told her. "Val,
you're not starting a good trend."
"I'm sorry, I had an emergency I had
to take care of."
He gave her a long look, for he knew
that sometimes they got calls during school, but today was a day he knew they
were not on call.
"Let's not make this something
normal, okay?"
Val nodded and slumped down in the
chair and rubbed her temples. Life was not going well at that moment.
Jaime, who had a free period while
Val had chemistry, turned around to face an angered Caitie. "I saw that, Jaime
Waite! I saw it all!" Her voice was raised but low, so that no one would hear,
and she waved her arms expressively as she spoke.
"What? What did I do? I walked Val
to her class! That's all!" He desperately tried to say something that didn't
sound stupid, but Caitie's anger was so heated that she was blind to any
excuses.
"No, that's not all you did! You
told her, didn't you? About Bri?" She didn't even wait for an answer, which she
knew was going to be just a stutter. She forgot about how cute Jaime looked and
how much she desired him every moment of everyday. He'd betrayed her. He'd
told, and that was all she saw in him just then. "You promised you wouldn't!
You promised, and you lied…you told Val!"
"I did, but…I…"
"And you talked to her about me!"
"But Caitie, I…"
"No! Don't even! I don't want to
talk to you…ever again!"
Five minutes later, Caitie stormed
into the girls' bathroom, and Jaime into the boys' on the other side of the
building, which was basically backed up with the girls' side. They both sighed
and leaned against the wall with a huff.
What have I done? Jaime
thought, feeling as though he were the worst person in the world.
What have I done? Caitie
thought, feeling as though she had just killed all chances of a relationship and
broken her heart into a million pieces. And it was all her fault.
End
of Part 2! I'll get out part 3 sometime soon…hope you enjoyed this! (and
remember, it always has to get worse to get better)