Page 34 of Full Circle

“More severe?” I echoed as knots twisted my stomach.

He winced and wouldn’t meet my eyes fully when he replied, “There could be other causes of pain this bad.”

The rest of his words were drowned out by the roaring in my ears. I remembered the doctor saying something similar about Mama when she was first admitted to the hospital. It was all too reminiscent of her downward spiral and the de ja vu I was experiencing made the walls cave in. The air in the room was suddenly stifling as cold sweat trickled down my back. I needed to escape, needed to breathe, needed to go back to last night before any of this happened and I was safe in the rapture of Wesley’s puppy love.

I could hear Nana’s voice calling my name from a distance, but it sounded muffled, like it passed through a series of air vents to get to me. Nothing could make me stay in that room a second longer. Frantically, I ran down the hall, dodging nurses along the way, before bursting into the small waiting area next to the elevators and emptying my guts into the small trash can there. Since I had barely eaten anything in the past 24 hours, it was mostly acidic bile that burned its way up my throat.

When it turned into a sputtering cough, I dropped into a plastic chair and wiped my mouth on the back of my hand. My hearing returned to normal, so when a nurse with a look of concern came to ask me questions, I assured her I was fine. More than anything, I wanted Wesley’s megawatt smile to shine on me and take the pain away. Even though he had never been through anything like this with a parent, Wes was the only person who would understand how this shook me to my very core.

My legs were wobbly as I slowly walked back to Daddy’s room. Nana was talking to someone in scrubs at the nurse’s station in the center of the hall and did not see me as I skirted past. Just outside of Daddy’s door that was cracked open an inch or two, Desiree’s steely voice wound through.

“That good for nothing, little brat is the reason he’s in here and then she doesn’t even have the decency to stay!” my stepmother hissed.

“Where did she go? It’s not like she can drive,” Jeremy asked.

A snort that sounded like it came from Hillary echoed from the room. “Probably out with Wesley Madden again. He has a chauffeur to drive him around, doesn’t he?” There was more than a hint of jealousy in her tone.

“I’ll make it clear to the staff that Celeste and that meddlesome old lady aren’t allowed in here anymore,” Desiree huffed. “And I’ll make sure Wesley keeps his distance from her. It’s all about who you know, Hillary. Remember that. Celeste Hendricks will be nothing but a distant memory by the time I’m done.”

The injustice of it all rankled beneath my skin. At fifteen, I had no authority over anything and there was nothing I could do. Even Nana couldn’t push the issue too much, if she even believed me in the first place. My stepmother-to-be had all the power right now, and she knew it.

My shoulders slumped as I leaned back against the wall. I had nowhere else to go.

CHAPTER 14

PROBLEM SOLVING FEELS GOOD

WESLEY

The glass door to The Comfy Cushion all but swung off its hinges with the force of my entry. Blinds rattled against the metal frame, but I didn’t bother to shut it behind me. I hadn’t heard from Celeste in over 24 hours and I was prepared to wait in the restaurant all day in order to speak to her. Today might be the first day of school, but I wasn’t going without her at my side.

There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Desiree was the one keeping us apart. She was just like every other slimy woman who saw dollar signs whenever she looked at my father. The only difference was that Desiree had her claws hooked into Mr. Hendricks, which made no sense to me. Although The Comfy Cushion was always swarming with people, the Hendricks family certainly didn’t live the high life like my father did. It was unlikely they had the kind of money a woman like that coveted.

Still, Desiree’s act didn’t fool me. She was cashing in on poor Mr. Hendricks somehow, it was just a matter of discovering it. Regardless of her interactions with Celeste’s dad, I’d be damned if Desiree kept me from Celeste. We had been apart all summer; there was nothing that was gonna come between us now. I had done my fair share of the respectful schtick that Celeste insisted upon, but everyone in this town was in for a rude awakening if that spiteful bitch tried to keep her from me. River’s Run wouldn’t just get a scene, they’d get the whole Broadway musical.

Feeling particularly feisty from my built up anxiety, I slammed my hand down on the little counter bell to alert everyone in the back of my presence. Marla’s head poked out from the kitchen, shooting daggers at me before she stomped out.

“Did you forget your manners while you were out globetrotting, Wesley Madden?” she hissed through her teeth. “Don’t you dare come barging in here and causin’ a ruckus like that!”

Marla was actually pretty great, one of those rare adults where her sass meant she well and truly cared about you. She had given me more than a handful of verbal lashings since I first landed in town, and I had come to value her opinion nearly as much as Nana’s and Mr. Hendricks’. My conscience—which I had come to picture as a Jiminy Cricket version of Celeste—was screaming at me for talking to Marla like this, but my rage was drowning it out.

“Where. Is. She?” The glare I served was intended for someone else, but Marla was the only one available.

Her jaw popped open as her eyebrows receded under her bangs. Yeah, my audacity was surprising me, too, Marla. She came out from behind the counter and yanked on my elbow so that I was forced to follow her over to the corner of the restaurant, away from the other patrons who were looking on with unabashed interest.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to pull here, Wes, but it ain’t gonna get you what you want!” Marla whisper-shouted at me.

I rolled my eyes and looked away from her. At that moment, I’d look at just about anything if it meant I didn’t have to see her disappointment at my behavior. Jutting out a hip, I folded my arms across my chest and huffed out a long breath. The lie I was about to deliver already tasted sour in my mouth. “I don’t really care what you think, Ms. Marla,” I ground out. “Where is Celeste? That bitch is keeping her from me!”

Marla’s body visibly softened, enough so that I dared to look her in the eye. Her look of pity was so reminiscent of all my old shrinks back in Atlanta that I turned and slammed a fist on the counter just to let out a fraction of the wrath overtaking my common sense. From the corner of my eye, Marla startled at my outburst, one hand clutching her chest.

Pacing like a caged bull, I didn’t offer her an apology, only an explanation. It was hard enough to admit the thoughts out loud that my voice broke at the end. “Desiree found me in bed with Celeste. I swear on my life that nothing happened! We just fell asleep! But Desiree flipped her lid and swore she was gonna keep us apart, and now I haven’t been able to get ahold of Celeste all day. Something’s wrong, Marla, I can feel it.”

She frowned at me. “It’s never okay to speak about an adult like this, Wesley. Doug would be downright insulted to hear you talk about his future wife that way! Just because you got in trouble doesn’t give you permission to carry on like you’re a king! However…given the circumstances…” Marla trailed off and noisily cleared her throat. It was then I noticed her eyes were welling with tears and I felt like the world’s biggest douchebag. I never wanted to make Marla cry.

It brought me up short. “I’m sorry, Marla!” I said in a panic. “Please don’t cry!”

She shook her head as she wiped a tear from her cheek. “It’s not you,” she replied tearfully. “Doug has been in the hospital since yesterday morning. Celeste is still there right now.”

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