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Quickly pocketing the bottle, I kept searching through the bottles until I found another one with Lizzie’s name on the label along with the wordOlanzapineand shoved that in my pocket, too.
Beyond pissed off, I stormed down the spiraling staircase, moving straight for the kitchen, with only one thing on my mind.
Answers.
When I walked into the kitchen, Catherine and Mike were sitting opposite my mother at the kitchen table, drinking coffee.
“Hugh,” Mike acknowledged, while Catherine offered me a watery smile and asked, “Did Lizzie speak to you, love?”
“Yeah, she spoke to me,” I replied, moving straight for the table and pulling out a chair next to Mam. “She spoke a lot, actually.” Taking a seat, I retrieved both bottles from my pocket and set them down on the table in front of me. “As a matter of fact, she had a lot to say aboutthis.” I took my time glaring at each of them individually before asking, “Why didn’t any of you tell me that mybest friendis bipolar?”
Mind reeling, I sat at the table in the Young family’s kitchen, listening as the grown-ups around me spoke to me like they were communicating with a toddler.
In the past forty minutes, I’d lost count of how many times I’d heard the words,“Lizzie just gets a bit down in herself from time to time”or“she has her up and down days, but it’s nothing for you to worry about”or, my personal favorite,“she’ll pull herself together in no time.”
Yeah fucking right.
Did they honestly think I was buying any of this?
Their daughter wasn’t just down. Liz had bottomed out to the point where she couldn’t lift her head off the pillow. This wasn’t the first time it had happened, either. I knew because I’d witnessed similar episodes in sporadic fashion all the way back to the first day we met.
I knew that when she got sad, she couldn’t be coaxed out of it.
Nothing worked.
The grown-ups told me that when her mood dropped this low, it was called a dark episode, and I thought that might have been the most sensible comment I’d heard all night. At least theworddarkaccurately portrayed how lifeless she became. How, when she went dark, she reminded me of a corpse with a beating heart.
“She has a very complicated mind.”
“The best people do.”
“Elizabeth has struggled since she was a toddler.”
“But those were mostly tantrums.”
“She hit puberty far earlier than we hoped, and because of that, her hormones are causing her some problems.”
“But that’s nothing for you to be concerned about.”
“Once her body gets used to the new medication, Lizzie will be back to herself,” Catherine said, offering reassurance instead ofactualfacts. “Please try not to worry, Hugh.”
Drumming my fingers on the table, I strived for calm when all I wanted to do was scream. Why were they doing this to me? Why were they so insistent on puking out this watered-down, kid-gloved explanation?
“Is it my turn?” I asked when all three of them looked like they were fresh out of bullshit to spew. “Can I speak now?”
Lizzie’s parents nodded, while my own mother pressed a hand to her forehead.
“Can you please not talk to me like I’m dull of comprehension?” I asked them, unable to conceal the bite in my tone. “I’m young, I accept that, but I happen to possess the ability to grasp sensitive topics.”
Sighing wearily, Mam pressed her thumbs to her temples. “Oh, Hugh.”
“I’m serious, Mam,” I shot back, unwilling to climb back into the infant-labeled box they put me in. “I’ve been friends with Liz for going on five years, and I’ve always known she has mental health issues. Contrary to our friends, I’m not blind, dense, or oblivious to what’s happening to Liz. She’s my best friend, forGod’s sake. Iwantto help her, but I can’t do that if you guys don’tletme.”
“I know you mean well, Hugh, but you’re a child,” Mike interjected, sounding even wearier than my mother. “You don’t have the slightest understanding of what’s happening here, son.”
“I have a better grasp on this than you…think,” I replied, forcing myself to addthinkat the end of my sentence.
Because regardless of how I felt about Mike, falling out of favor with him might jeopardize the time I got to spend with his daughter.
