Chapter 4

The past year had one of the craziest in her life. Life with her daughter had been fun and exciting and hard and stressful and everything else imaginable, and Josie was only a year old. In that year, Eddie had gotten a full ride to Yale. She and her daughter moved to Connecticut. She rented an apartment for $1500 a month. She slept tent and groceries with a roommate who was a fellow student. Paisley, her roommate, was a sophomore. She gave Eddie advice during her freshman year that was greatly appreciated. She'd even watch Josie sometimes when Eddie had to work or if she had a class and she didn't.

"Hi, Jos. Hi, Ed. How was your day?" Paisley asked as she entered the apartment.

"Pretty good. Jos and I went to the park for about an hour. I went to work for a 4 hour shift. Then I picked her up from the babysitter and we came back here."

"That's good. What are you gonna do for break?" She said, changing the subject.

"I'm probably gonna go home for a little while, maybe just for Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve. I'm not really sure. I'm kinda avoiding people at home."

"Who? And why?"

"Josie's father doesn't know he's a father. His older brother is the only one from that family who knows. I'm still not sure if I really want her uncle in her life. I mean he did help deliver her, but he and his brother and so close and I'm afraid he'll accidentally or purposely tell him about Josie. Also my dad arrested last month. I haven't seen my mom yet since it happened. Coincidentally, Josie's father's family is a family of cops and my father's arresting officer was the oldest brother in that family. So I kinda don't want to go home."

"Yikes, that sounds like a shit storm."

"It is. What about you? What're you doing for break?"

"I'm gonna go home. At least for one of the weeks of break. Then maybe I'll go to New York. I haven't been since I was in middle school."

"Cool. Maybe you could go with me and I could show you the city."

"Yeah, sounds fun."

Break started a week later. Paisley left for Philadelphia the Monday before Christmas Eve. Eddie had decided she was going to stay in New Haven for Christmas, and then she and Paisley would go to New York together for New Years.

Eddie had a nice, quaint Christmas with Josie and some friends she made with she'd been at Yale. Even though it wasn't technically Josie's first Christmas, it was the first Christmas she could open gifts and understand more what was going on. Eddie had gotten a few things for Josie to open and she seemed to love them. For dinner, Eddie and her friend Katy made lasagna. Another friend, Caleb, brought home made key lime pie for dessert. It wasn't exactly them Christmas Eddie was used to, but it was fun and simple.