Page 67 of Rise & Fall

Dakota

IhatewatchingNolanleave me after everything that happened this morning. But he’s got some prep to do for his next big project and I have to get to my mom’s before heading into work tonight.

But everything I feel is distracting me from doing anything else other than standing in this shower and daydreaming about how amazing I’ve been feeling ever since meeting Nolan.

Asher could have caused a disaster. But Nol never let it slip us up. He stood up for me and made sure I knew that he trusted me. And that I can trust him.

And now, we’re serious.

Hearing him call himself my boyfriend sent chills down my spine. My head is still spinning at the words. And I love the idea of being his.

After finally deciding to crawl out of the shower and get dressed, I check my phone to see I’ve got a text from Barbie.

So, any tea you’d like to spill?

I smile as I type out a message in response.

Basically, trash is out for good. It’s a long story but let’s just say I’ll never see his sorry ass again.

I brush through my hair, spray some of my lavender honey perfume over my ensemble—a knee-length leopard print skirt and a rolling stones band-tee tied in the front—and give myself one last look in the mirror. It’s band night at the bar tonight, meaning live bands and casual attire. Which I won’t argue with seeing as I’m getting a tad tired of men gawking at my short shorts.

I get another text from Barbie.

Proud of you, babes. See you when you get into work!

Then I make my way over to my mom’s house.

She’s running around the backyard with Dex and Emsley. A sight I haven’t seen…well, since it was my mom, myself and my dad. It warms my heart. Something deep pushes its way to the center of my beating organ and I can’t stop the smile spreading like a wildfire across my face as I hear Em’s ridiculously cute laugh.

“Oh hey, Dakota.” Dex stops when he notices me standing at the back gate. My mom stops too and waves at me.

“She’s doing good,” I say, mentioning how much energy my mom seems to have gotten back.

The past week, Dexter has been really focusing on getting her back to herself. He goes to all of her appointments and makes sure she eats and hydrates properly. And he seems to be really doing her mental health some good.

I can’t help but to feel grateful for him.

“We got her on some anti-depressants and the doctor wanted to switch up her anxiety meds. I think she was on edge more than anything at this point. Side effects for what she’s been through can be very strong but with the right combination of medication, they can pretty much be suppressed and contained. So far so good.” He gives me a wink as my phone starts to ring in my purse.

He takes back off toward the girls and yells, “I’m it!” as I swipe my phone to answer, seeing that it’s my doctor.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Miss Young? This is Dr. Marshall. Is now a good time to talk about the labs from the blood work you had drawn?”

“Yes, now’s fine,” I say as I fall back a little, sitting down at a picnic table my mom has in her backyard.

“Well, as you know you wanted to schedule an appointment for birth control, and before we did that we needed to get a pregnancy test done and make sure there was nothing else we needed to treat before we were able to proceed.”

I take a breath as my doctor pauses her thought, giving me a little bit of a scare to be honest.

“Your pregnancy test came back negative and your blood tests came back fairly regular as well.”

“Fairlyregular?” I question, not liking the way she said those words together.

“Well, we noticed that your progesterone hormone levels are really low. I remember you stated that your periods are pretty irregular which can be a side effect of low progesterone. Have you had experience with daily headaches at all?”

“No.”

---