Page 52 of The Twelve Months of Christmas
She’d just come downstairs when Arianna texted her.On my way home.
Fifteen minutes later she was walking through the door. She didn’t bother to take off her coat, simply fell onto the nearest chair.
“So, I guess they’re keeping her,” Sunny said, stating the obvious.
Arianna nodded, pinched the bridge of her nose. “They have her sedated and are giving her vital fluids.”
“What happens now?”
“I’ll go back first thing in the morning and find out. I wanted to stay but...” Her words trailed off.
“You could have. I’d have spent the night.”
“I know, and thank you,” Arianna said. “I thought about it, but if Sophie woke up and I still wasn’t here, I didn’t want her to panic.”
“So far, she’s doing great,” Sunny said. “She did ask me when Mia was going to get better.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her the truth, that I didn’t know.”
Arianna nodded. “Good answer.” She fell silent a moment, staring off at something, most likely the scary future.
Sunny tried to find some profoundly comforting words to fill the silence, but none came to mind. The best she could do was, “I’m sorry.”
Arianna nodded. “I really appreciate you hanging here. I...” She bit her lip and her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry I was so awful to you.”
Sunny waved away the apology. “We already settled that.”
Arianna leaned her elbows on her knees and dragged her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose Mom.”
“Let’s not go there.”
Arianna sighed, nodded.
“You got any OTC sleep meds here?” Sunny asked.
Arianna looked up, almost unseeing. “Sleep?”
“Yeah, that thing you need if you’re going to cope with difficult circumstances.”
Arianna shook her head. “I’ll be okay.”
“I’ll be back,” Sunny said. She grabbed her purse and coat and left, drove to the nearby Walgreens and bought a couple different kinds of sleep aids. Hopefully one of them would work. Fifteen minutes later she was back at Arianna’s house, showing her the two different packages. “Choose one.”
Arianna frowned, shook her head.
“You’re going to have a lot to deal with tomorrow. You need sleep.”
Arianna sighed, took one of the boxes and Sunny went for a glass of water. “Drop Sophie off whenever you’re ready tomorrow morning and I’ll get her to school. I can pick her up after for you and she can spend the night at my house if you need her to.”
“I can’t let you do that,” Arianna protested.
“Sure you can. That’s what friends are for.”
Arianna smiled up at her, tears in her eyes. “Thank you.”
“It’ll be fun having a kid at the house who actually likes being with me,” Sunny said. “Anyway, you’d do the same for me.”
