New "Best Friends to The End" Chapter!!!

[writefiction]

Title/Chapter: Best Friends to The End (02/?)
Author: amanda: jaclyn’s twin sister
Pairing: Taylor Hanson / OFC: Kayla
Rating: PG
P.O.V.: First Person, switches back and forth but is clearly marked.
Notes: This was written for The Spark Inside Spring 2010 challenge. It’s a rewrite of a hanfic I wrote my senior year of high school (2002 - 03)
Word Count: 2,297
Warnings: uh, they say “pissy” a few times and underage smoking but that’s about it.
Previous Chapters
Summary: When Taylor finds out his best friend is having treatment for an unknown illness, he hops a plane and races to be by her side.

 

CHAPTER TWO

TAYLOR’S POV

Kayla and I both wake up when the alarm from the IV machine goes off. At first it startles me and I immediately think something’s wrong. But then I look up at the IV bag and notice it’s empty, she’s done with her treatment for today. Kayla does a small stretch like a cat and rubs her eyes with her fists. “Am I done already?”

“Already?” Suzy scoffs. “We’ve been here for four hours.”

Linda comes in then and turns off the alarm, unhooking the IV from Kayla’s hand. She checks her vitals and temperature for the last time and takes the catheter out of Kayla’s hand. She has my friend put pressure on the needle mark while she gathers an ace bandage. She wraps it around Kayla’s hand and tells her to take it off in a few hours. Kayla nods and then we’re ready to check out and make her next appointment.

I open the passenger’s side door for Kayla. She hops in to the Toyota and once I’m sure all her limbs are safely inside the vehicle I shut the door. I jog around to the other side and climb up in to the SUV. I put the key in the ignition, starting the engine and carefully back out of the parking space. Kayla turns the radio on low and asks, “So how long are you staying?”

I turn on to the highway and answer, “A few days. But I was kind of thinking that maybe I could visit every time you have your treatment. Maybe then your mom wouldn’t have to take a whole day off from work to bring you here.” I shrug.

Kayla grins. “Really?!” she squeaks. I chuckle quietly and nod. Her enthusiasm makes me feel indescribable. If I were a peacock I’d be strutting around with my brightly colored tail feathers spread out for the entire world to see. “That would be great! I’d love to see you more often, you know that. And besides… you’re comfy,” she jokes. I laugh and we lapse in to a comfortable silence. That’s one thing I love about our friendship, silences are never awkward with Kayla. I never feel pressured to say something just for the sake of small talk.

After a moment, my best friend speaks up. “So how’s Natalie?”

I glance over at her and then back to the road. “You don’t have to be polite around me, Kay,” I tell her.

Kayla crosses her arms over her chest. “My mother always told me to be polite,” she mutters.

“Yeah, but I know the topic of my wife doesn’t make you happy.”

“Do you have to call her that?” Kayla asks grumpily, staring out the window.

“What? My wife?”

“Yeah.”

“Hate to break it to you, but she is my wife.” Kayla mutters something under her breath and I can only guess it’s nothing nice. I don’t know why, and I’ve never understood it, but Natalie just rubs my best friend the wrong way. And I have to say, the feeling is the same on my wife’s end. The rest of the car ride is silent except for the radio playing the top forty.

As soon as we get to Kayla’s and Suzy’s, Kayla makes a beeline for the stairs. I sigh and shut the door. Then I make my way out to the three-season porch. There I find Suzy at the table drinking tea and reading the newspaper, cigarette held between two fingers. I flop down in the chair across from her and she puts down the paper. “Where’s Kay?” she asks.

I sigh. “I think she’s mad at me. She stomped upstairs as soon as we came in.”

Suzy blows her cigarette smoke to the side. “Why’s she mad.”

“She brought it upon herself,” I tell her. “She asked me how Natalie was doing. I told her we didn’t have to talk about her. But I think what pissed her off was when I said, Hate to break it to you but she is my wife. That’s when she stopped talking to me.”

Suzy shakes her head and takes a drag on her cigarette. She blows the smoke away saying, “I don’t know why she even brought Natalie up. She knows she always gets in a foul mood when she’s mentioned.”

“I know.” There’s a beat of silence. “Think I should go talk to her?” I ask.

“Wait about three seconds,” Suzy replies.

No more than three seconds later the porch door opens and Kayla walks out. She stands in front of me, arms crossed. “You’re in my seat.” Not wanting to make her any angrier, I get up and move to one of the rocking chairs.

I watch as Kayla sits down and picks up her pack of Marlboro Ultra Lights. She takes one out and sticks it in the corner of her mouth, lighting it up. She takes a deep drag and all is quiet. When she’s done with her smoke, she puts it out hard and lights up another one. She inhales deeply and blows the smoke away. “So are you going to talk to me?” she asks, catching me off guard.

“I think I’m going to leave you two alone,” Suzy says putting out her cigarette. She picks up her tea and paper, then heads inside the house.

Kayla flicks her ashes. “So?”

“So what?” I ask. “You’re the one that brought up Natalie. I told you we didn’t have to talk about her.”

“What’s your point?” Kayla grumbles, taking a long drag off her smoke.

“My point is that you made yourself mad, so stop being pissy,” I tell her. Kayla blows smoke out her nose almost looking like a dragon and puts her cigarette out. She looks down at her lap for a moment. Then she pushes her hair out of her face and looks up at me.

“Sorry,” she murmurs. “It’s just that Natalie makes me just so…. Gah!”

I nod. “I know. That’s why we don’t have to talk about her.”

Kayla nods slowly. “So where are your bags? We should probably bring them upstairs.” I stand, telling her they’re in the trunk of my rental car.

We go outside to get my bags and then bring them up to the attic. The attic is Kayla’s hideaway, a place just for her. There’s a big orange couch and a few chairs stationed around the entertainment center and a huge desk in one corner where she usually does her home schooling and uses her laptop. She has bookcase after bookcase lining the walls. Some are filled with books while others hold movies and CD’s.

I sit down on the couch after dropping my bags to the floor. I pat the cushion next to me. “Come sit,” I tell her. Kayla walks over and sits beside me. I wrap my arm around her shoulders, pulling her against my side. “Talk to me, Kay Kay.”

Kayla puts her head on my shoulder. “What’s there to talk about?”

“Your mom said you feel like it’s seventh grade all over again,” I tell her. “You yourself told me you’re getting depressed again and you’re cutting.”

Kayla sighs. “It’s just… My therapist and case manager push me because they’re trying to help me,” she says. “But they’re pushing too hard right now. It’s all so overwhelming and I’m not comfortable with the pace they’re setting for me. It just… It feels like I’m drowning and I don’t know what to do.”

Tears are rolling silently down her face and I wrap her in a tight hug. I hate seeing her cry. Ever since the first time I saw her cry at her sister’s wedding I’ve always felt this weird pang in my heart. I feel so helpless when she cries. Especially when she cries about her mental health because I know I can’t do anything to make that better. All I can do is support her in her recovery. It’s so hard because I just want to fix her. I want to take the pieces she considers broken and glue them all back together. “I’m so sorry, Kay,” I murmur. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

Kayla wipes her face with the back of her hand. “I just… It happened so quickly.” She pauses then says, “You want to hear something I wrote? It explains how I’m feeling.”

“Of course,” I reply. “You know I love your writing.” Kayla makes her way over to her desk and pulls a notebook from one of the drawers. She flips through the pages as she walks back to the couch. She sits down facing me and begins to read.

“I’m walking down a path. I’ve walked it before. A long time ago, when I was crazy. I’m hoping this path will end. And a new one will begin. One that will lead me back to where I belong. I don’t know how long this path is. I don’t know how far down it will lead me. Down to the dark place in this life. I’m scared as I walk down this path. It’s a dangerous place to walk. Everything’s shadowed. There’s no sun. There aren’t any smiles. There’s nothing to brighten my life. I have to keep walking. Till I get to the end of this path. At the end there could be a fork. Which path will I take? Will they be clearly marked? Will I know which path will lead me back where I belong?”

Kayla closes the notebook and looks at me, studying my expression. I’m not sure if she’s able to read me. She usually can, but seeing as how I’m not exactly sure what I’m feeling myself, I doubt she can read it on my face. “Wow,” I murmur. “I don’t know what to say. But I feel like I understand now how you’re feeling. You’re not just depressed, you’re scared.” Kayla nods, a tear rolling down her cheek. I wipe it away gently with my thumb.

The pretty blond looks down at her watch. “It’s late,” she says. “I need to go take my pills.”

I nod. “Okay. Should I pull the bed out?”

“Yeah, I’ll bring up the bedding and pillows when I’m done with my pills.” I hug her tight before she heads downstairs.

It doesn’t take me long to turn the couch in to a bed. It’s pretty easy to pull out. I flop down on the bed and wait for Kayla. Just then my phone rings. I climb over the back of the couch and dig through my knapsack. I pull the phone out and put it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hey, hun.” It’s Natalie. I should have known.

“Hi, Nat. What‘s up?” I ask.

“I just wanted to see how things went today. How’s Kayla?” my wife asks and I know it’s not out of concern.

“Things went fine. Kayla is… okay,” I answer slowly.

“Oh. Well, that’s good. When are you coming home?”

“In a couple of days.”

“But you said Kayla was fine,” Natalie whines.

I roll my eyes. She reminds me of a three year old trying to get what they want after they’ve been told no four times already. “I know. But she needs me right now. It’s only a few days.” I hear my wife sigh.

“Fine,” she pouts. “I’ll see you in a couple of days.”

“I love you,” I tell her.

“Love you too,” she replies.

I put my cell phone back in my bag just as Kayla comes up the stairs. “Who was that?” she asks, dropping the bundle of bedclothes and pillows she’s carrying on to the floor.

“She who must not be named,” I answer. I really don’t want to start up another conversation about my wife and piss Kayla off again.

“Oh,” she says quietly. I pick up a sheet and start to make up the bed. With Kayla’s help it takes us no time to get the job done.

Once the bed is made up, I change in to old sweats and a wife beater. Kayla’s already in her pajamas, having changed sometime before she came back to the attic. I pull the blankets back and climb in to bed. I look over at my best friend. She’s staring down at her feet, twisting the bottom of her night shirt around her finger. I wonder why she’s so nervous. “Are you going to join me?” I ask. Kayla looks up and nods. Then she slides between the sheets. “Are you okay?” I ask. “You seem nervous.”

Kayla rolls on to her side to face me and shrugs. I brush a lock of hair out of her eyes and say, “Talk to me. You know you can tell me anything.”

Kayla shrugs and replies, “I don’t know. I’m just numb. It’s the depression.”

I sigh and kiss her forehead. “I wish I could make you feel better, Kay.” Kayla only nods. She picks the remote up off the end table and flicks the TV on. She turns the channel to TNT. Law and Order is on. I smile. “You still watch this every night?”

“Of course. I’m addicted,” Kayla replies playfully, setting the timer on the TV for an hour. Then she wiggles down under the blankets until only her head is visible. I lean over and kiss her forehead.

“Goodnight, Kay-Kay.”

“Night, Tay-Tay,” she says, closing her eyes. She ends up falling asleep before the TV goes off. I lay there next to her, watching her sleep. It hurts to know how bad she’s feeling. It hurts even more to know that there’s nothing I can do to make it better. It’s frustrating beyond belief. I eventually fall asleep, still worrying about my best friend.

& & &

Stay Tuned for Chapter Three
Comments are greatly appreciated <3

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