Need You Now

I couldn't tell you where my parent's marriage went wrong. I didn't see any warning signs. There weren't any arguments, there weren't any physical altercations, there wasn't any abuse (emotional or physical). I couldn't understand why my dad was moving out of the house. Everything seemed fine yesterday, everything seemed fine this morning. I thought that we were a perfectly happy family, but I guess I was wrong.

I was too scared to ask them what went wrong. I didn't think it was my place to ask. I was only their daughter. I'm not even an adult. Even knowing what did go wrong, I knew that I couldn't fix it. It was their problems and I shouldn't get involved with the already fragile situation.

Brittany and I looked at each other. She looked how I felt. I felt completely empty inside, like a part of me had died. I took another look at my sister. Her face was completely white and tears were forming in her eyes. I stood up and looked my dad right in the eye.

"I got into BU," I told him. The words hung in the air. There was silence that I've never encountered. I left without saying another word.

I heard Brittany shouting after me, but I ignored her cries. I knew I had to get out of here. I had to get out of the house. I had to leave and forget everything that happened.

I drove around town aimlessly, paying no attention to where I was going.

I blamed myself for my parents' separation. If I had been a better student, this wouldn't have happened. If I had been more outgoing, this wouldn't have happened. If I wasn't so lazy or ungrateful, this wouldn't have happened. If I had been a better daughter, this wouldn't have happened.

I was surprised with where I had ended up, in the driveway of Adam's house. I didn't care that we weren't exactly speaking, I needed my best friend.

I rang his doorbell and held my breath. He had every right to turn me away. I knew that I had to try. He was always there for me when things got bad. He was the person I went to when things go wrong. He was the only person who can make me feel better.

It felt like an eternity had passed before Adam opened the door. At this point, I couldn't hold my tears in anymore. Adam did what Adam did best. He held me in his arms as I cried, whispering into my ear that everything will be alright.

Here Comes The New Year

New Years Day came and there was good news. Uncle Mark was becoming more and more responsive. He still couldn't speak to us, but he could mouth words to us. He could move his hands and fingers more fluently than before. With each day the color in his face came back, he was no longer a sickly pale color. Even though he still couldn't eat and drink, I was extremely relieved that he was recovering so well. The big problem is: he couldn't move his legs. He was doing well for a person who's been in the hospital for over 2 weeks and hopefully they will transfer him to a closer hospital.

My mom felt that he was healthy enough that we could leave the hospital and celebrate New Years. Our New Year's tradition was to go over and have dinner at Adam's house and watch the countdown in New York. It was a big tradition of ours since we were little kids.

After the long drive back, I immediately went to charge my phone. I hadn't brought my charger and I had conserved as much battery as I could. Sadly, my phone had eventually died. I realized that I had numerous text messages and missed calls. They were from Haylie, Logan, Justin, Sarah, and Henry asking if I was ok, telling me how worried they were about me, and sending good thoughts to Uncle Mark. I texted Logan back to make plans for our two month anniversary.

I smiled. I didn't know that they cared this much about me. I guess when bad times come to one of us, we all band together. That sounded really cheesy, I know. It's true. Taylor even came up to the hospital to visit Uncle Mark. I don't even think Uncle Mark has met Taylor, but it was a really kind gesture. I think this friends thing is going to work.

I quickly took a shower. I changed into a red dress and slipped on my favorite pair of black pumps. New Years was one of my favorite times of the year. I loved saying "out with the old and in with the new". I finished curling my hair and went downstairs to wait for the rest of my family.

20 minutes later, we were on our way to Adam's house. We were each dressed up for the dinner party. My dad was in his suit, my mom in her cocktail dress, and my sister in a strapless dress. When we arrived, Adam was outside waiting for us.

"Come in," he said, ushering us through the door. He pulled me off to the side. "I'm glad you came, Court." I smiled.

"Why wouldn't I?" I asked, laughing. "It's a tradition!"

"Well, I thought, with everything going on-" he started to say.

"He's doing a lot better now," I said, cutting him off. I didn't want to be reminded of something I didn't want to be reminded of. "Let's go before they wonder where we went." He nodded.

We went into the dining room and everyone was already seated. Adam took a seat next to Brittany. Mrs. Smith told us that the food will take us a minute.

"I'm going to go help her," I said. I went into the kitchen. "Is there anything that I can do to help?" Mrs. Smith looked up and smiled.

"You're such a sweetheart," she said. "I'm glad Adam's found a nice girl like you to be with. Can you help bring out the food?"

I didn't know what to say. I was completely shocked. Adam's mom thinks we're dating.

"Uh, Mrs. Smith, we're just friends," I managed to say.

"Right," she said, winking at me.

Oh, boy.

Last Christmas

As Christmas neared, I started to become more and more depressed. It made me sad to think about graduation and college knowing that our family could be separated next year. If both Brittany and I get into Beachside University, then we would be living in the dorms. My parents were big advocates of the college experience. I wasn't sure that I was ready to leave our house and our memories there.

Each Christmas, ever since I could remember, we would go out as a family and pick out a tree at our local nursery. We would stop by the coffee shop next to the nursery afterwards and each get a peppermint hot chocolate. We would bring the tree home and spend the entire day decorating the house.

My dad was in charge of putting up all of the Christmas lights and the insane outdoor decorations. We had the complete reindeer and Santa sleigh ensemble on our lawn. My favorite outdoor ornament are the giant candy canes.

While my dad handles the outdoor decorations, my mom handles all of the indoor decorations. She hangs all of the cards that we've ever received on top of the fireplace. She takes out all of the little figurines and places them in our walkway. She takes out all of the candles, pillows, tablecloth, and plates and sets them in the living room and dining room. She even takes out the ornaments for me and my sister.

Courtney and I are responsible for decorating the tree. Every year we argue about which colors to use and where to hang each ornament. Decorating the tree is my favorite part of Christmas.

My mom would start on Christmas Eve by making the gingerbread dough with my sister and I. We would build the gingerbread houses early on Christmas morning after we opened all of our presents. We would spend the whole day making Christmas dinner together. My mom makes the best ginger snaps.

Last Christmas my parents had to go on a business trip to New York and we couldn't spend Christmas together. Brittany and I didn't feel comfortable enough to decorate our house without our parents. We couldn't break tradition. Instead, we opted to spend Christmas in San Diego with our aunts and uncles. My aunts and uncles argued constantly and burnt the turkey. It was amusing but nothing like the Christmas at my house.

Last Christmas was the loneliest Christmas Brittany and I have ever had. I'm worried that our college Christmas-es would end up like last Christmas. I don't want our traditions to fade away.

Good Girls Gone Bad

I was still avoiding Adam and Haylie. I think they could sense that something was up. I didn't have time to think about the whole Adam and Haylie dating situation. At least, I tried not to think about the whole Adam and Haylie situation.

I opened my front door and realized that I came home to my parents screaming. I was extremely confused, I had no idea what was going on. I figured out that it was coming from the kitchen. Of course, I'm a coward and decided to run upstairs and hide in my room. I kept the door open so I could hear everything that was going on.

"Brittany, what is this?" I heard my mom yell. She sounded really angry. "Why do you have birth control pills? Are you having sex? You're having sex with that boy, aren't you? Aren't you?"

OMG. I can't believe my mom found Brittany's birth control pills! My eyes darted around my room. Where can I hide mine so my mom doesn't find them? I usually kept mine in my backpack, but I'm worried that she's going to do a search and seizure of both Brittany's room and my room. I ended up wedging the pills behind the tiny gap between my bed and the wall.

"No, I'm not, Mom!" Brittany protested. "I swear I'm not!"

I crossed my fingers for her. I hoped that my mom and dad believed her. Please believe her. I could hear Brittany crying. I felt horrible for her. My parents have the tendency to overreact. Even though I know for a fact that Brittany was having sex with Zack, my parents didn't need to know that. Please believe her. Brittany, time to bring in your Oscar winning performance.

"Don't lie to your mother, young lady!" my dad yelled. "It's that boy, isn't it? He forced himself onto you didn't he?"

"No, Dad! We haven't done anything!" Brittany insisted.

"Where did you get the pills then?" my mom asked, accusingly. Come on, Brittany! Come up with a good excuse!

"I got them at the health convention at school," she said, convincingly. "Planned Parenthood was one of the people who were hosting the convention and they were giving out contraceptives and birth control to the girls."

That's a good excuse! We did have a health convention at school and Planned Parenthood was there, but that's not exactly how we got the pills.

"Why would you get the pills if you weren't having sex?" my mom asked, angrily. "That doesn't make any sense."

"They're for a rainy day," Brittany explained. "Just in case I decide to have sex when I'm in college. I want to be prepared!"

"That's stupid," my mom said.

"I'm going to call the school and ask if they had a health convention," my dad said. I laughed into my pillow. I could imagine how that conversation would go. If I worked in the office, I would hang up on him. I smiled.

"Courtney! Can you come down here?" I heard my mom call. They knew I was home.

Calm down. Breathe. They don't think you have birth control pills too. Besides, you're not having sex. You don't have anything to worry about.

I braced myself and went downstairs.

"Honey, your dad and I want to ask you if there was a health convention at school," my mom said.

"Yes, it was last month," I told her.

"Ok," my dad said. "Both of you, go upstairs."

Brittany and I walked upstairs and locked ourselves in my room. We needed a little sister time. I had to make sure that she was ok and that she wasn't mentally scarred for life. I still can't believe that my mom found her pills. I managed to hide them for 2 years and Brittany only had them for a couple months.

"Are you ok, Brit?" I asked her. She took a deep breath and sighed.

"Yeah," she said. "I can't believe she found them!"

"Where did you stash them?" I asked. I was curious. There were so many places where she could have hidden them. I don't know why my mom was in her room in the first place. She was probably snooping. I had a suspicion that she snooped in our rooms when we weren't home.

"In my dresser, she never looks in there," she said. "Well, she never did look in there."

"You're an idiot, you know that?" I told her. She laughed. I'm glad that she can laugh this off.

It took a couple days for this whole thing to blow over. My parents were acting normal again. I'm so glad that we can put this behind us.