Page 8 of Trouble

“How about we fill one another in on everything that we’ve missed over the past six years and then go from there?”

“Okay.”

CHAPTER 5

HIRED HELP

TRINITY

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

I stared off at the blank wall where a large screen television used to hang. It wasn’t there any longer, and I didn’t have the heart to ask my mom what happened to it. There was literally nothing of value left in her house. I wasn’t sure if someone she dated had wiped her out or if she had sold off everything worth anything to help with her medical expenses before I came back.

“What’s to tell?”

“That your mom is about two steps away from death’s door, for one,” Hollywood whispered. I glared at him for having the audacity to say it out loud. It felt less real when it was something you knew but never mentioned.

“Why in the hell did you think I was back here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because you missed your hometown.” I gave Hollywood that “yeah right” look before I tucked my hair back behind my ears to keep it out of my face. “Talk to me, Trin. What’s going on? When you left for college, I never imagined you would stay gone. Now, you’re back and you’re telling me that you never planned to be.”

“She’s dying,” I admitted. “My mom, for all her issues, is my last family member besides Bishop. She might not have been the best mom, but I always had everything I needed and I guess I felt like I owed her to see her through this. She doesn’t have anyone, can’t afford help, and there was no way I could let her die alone.”

“I get all that, but what about the part where you stopped coming back?”

“I loved growing up here. It was a small community and it felt like everyone was there to help in a crisis.”

“Not seeing the problem,” my friend interrupted and I rolled my eyes at him.

“The problem is that after Trent left, it didn’t feel very welcoming anymore.” We sat quietly on the couch for a few minutes before I continued. “I was tormented all through high school, Carson. Those assholes made my life a living hell. My big brother wasn’t there to help me anymore, my mom was too focused on her latest boyfriend, and my dad was still a ghost. Nothing went right. Why in the hell would I want to stay in a town that made my life miserable for four damn years? They never let up. Not once. Not even when we found out that Trent died.” I choked back the emotion that clogged my throat whenever I spoke of my big brother. He was my favorite person in the whole world and it didn’t feel right that he was no longer a part of it. It had been eight years since he passed away in a training accident. I’d only been able to see him once after he left for the military. One time. One short week and then I would never see him ever again.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It wasn’t your problem. Besides, you were there for the first year of it.” I chuckled as I remembered the day my torment started. “It was your buddy that set everyone off to begin with.”

“My buddy?”

I arched a brow at him and then rolled my eyes again when the clueless idiot didn’t know what I was talking about. He probably hadn’t noticed what everyone said about me either, because despite caring about me, I wasn’t on his radar in his senior year. That was fine because honestly, I was just the little sister of his best friend, not his own family. He had more important concerns, like which one of the girls from school would put out for him that week.

“What buddy?”

“Trouble,” I admitted.

“How did he launch a four-year-long bullying campaign against you?”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean for it to go on that long, but that day you mentioned my crush on him in the cafeteria and he said all those awful things, the kids from school took those things and ran with it.”

Hollywood winced, obviously having not forgotten what was said that day. “I’m so sorry that I mentioned it, but I didn’t want you to get your hopes up. We were already gearing up to prospect for the club and there’s no way they would have let him if he started something with a girl as young as you were then.”

“Well, there was no danger of that happening,” I laughed it off, even though it was still humiliating to talk about. “Anyway, that was just the tip of the iceberg that led to me not feeling welcome in my own town any longer. I was happy in Spearfish. I graduated college, got a good job, and was saving to buy a house.” I waved my hands around indicating the sparse room we sat in. “Now, I am back home and my savings are dwindling by the day. Sheila just quit tonight, and I have no clue who to get to help with my mom while I work. Not to mention, Sheila was cheap, anyone else will charge me way more. I don’t want my mom to die, but I feel like I’m drowning here while trying to keep her alive a little while longer. She’s miserable. I don’t even thinkshe wants to fight anymore. She stopped taking the chemo, but the doctors pretty much told her it wasn’t working anyway. They told her she still had months, but Dr. Vaughn told me she didn’t think it would be that long.”

“How long then?

“Weeks, maybe.” The admission felt like a sucker punch. My guilt over being away so long reared its ugly head again. “I should have been here.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. You were right where you were meant to be.”

“All the time we lost though…”

---