ENTANGLED: A McCarthy Love Story

CHAPTER 023

When Sammy got back to her apartment, for the first time in months she lay on her bed. She spread her arms and legs apart like a spider and enjoyed the feel on the bed underneath her. Her body enjoyed having enough room to manoeuvre for the first time in months and then she coiled into a ball and then she let herself cry. No weep.
She wept because of the things Vicky had said to her, she wept because of the thought of never seeing Nick again and she wept because of that pain in her chest. The one that had started since that night at the hospital, the one that had refused to go away until yesterday when Nick had held her hand in the waiting room, it was back now and it somehow intensified. Would she never stop hurting? Because right at this moment it didn't feel like she ever would. It felt like she was going to be sad forever, like she was going to be in pain forever.
It felt like she had always been crying, like her life was one puddle of tears and Sammy was tired. She was tired of everything, she just wanted to go back to a time where she was content with her life, where everything that happened in her life didn't just make her sad and miserable and teary. A time where she wasn't plagued with memories that hurt.
She slept off with the tears still in her eyes and the pain in her chest, but that didn't last long because she awakened to someone pounding on her door.
Nick. She thought almost sprinting out of bed.
She rushed to the door and opened up immediately forgetting to ask who it was, but hoping it was him. It wasn't him. Instead it was a sober looking Vicky at the other end of the door.
Sammy sighed on the inside, she didn't say anything instead she turned around and went back into her apartment but she left the door ajar for Vicky to entire if she wanted to. She knew she didn't have to knock, there was always a key under the mat for her to use whenever she wanted.
Sammy walked to the kitchen, she poured herself a glass of water while mentally preparing herself for a fight. She had said nothing to Vicky when she said those things at the hospital only because she had been caught off-guard so she readied herself for whatever her friend was going to say now.
"You can come in, he's not here. Yet" she purposely added yet at the end after a second thought.
Vicky came in slowly and then gently closed the door behind her.
"I brought this back" she told her holding out the bag Sammy had brought to the hospital.
Sammy's heart sank, so they didn't eat it.
"Okay" Sammy said trying to pretend she was fine by her friend rejecting something she had worked hard to make.
"Momma said it was delicious" Vicky told her walking towards the kitchen
"She ate it?" Sammy asked noticing for the first time that the bag didn't look as full as it had before.
"Of course she ate it, we both did. She was really impressed"
"I didn't cook it"
"I didn't tell her that" Vicky said and they both stood in awkward silence for a minute
"I didn't mean it, what I said at the hospital," Vicky began breaking the silence
"I'm sorry"
Sammy sighed in relief, letting herself relax for the first time since Vicky had walked in. She was so glad her friend didn't come to fight.
"Then why did you say it? You hurt me" she told Vicky
"I know and I'm truly very sorry. It's just..." she inhaled sharply and then scratched on her ear,
"the bank called, they got an offer on the diner"
"What? I thought we had a week?" Sammy asked
"Me too, but apparently someone made a very generous offer to the bank and now they are considering selling" Vicky explained.
"That's awful" Sammy said coming around to hug her friend.
"I still haven't told momma, I don't know if she can take it"
"It's going to be fine" Sammy told her friend, even though she didn't know that it was.
"did you hear from your dad?" she asked and Vicky sighed. She let go of her and rolled her eyes.
"He came to the hospital after you left last night but I kicked him out. I don't have time to listen to his useless excuses, momma is talking about a divorce"
"Oh God"
Vicky went ahead to go and settle down on the sofa and Sammy followed,
"Sam," she called
"I was mad at you, at the hospital. That is why I said all that stuff"
"Because of Nick?"
"No. I just... I was just thinking about the cheque that you tore up"
The cheque! Sammy didn't even remember that. That money would have gone a long way in saving the diner.
"I'm so sorry"
"Please don't apologise, I feel so terrible already. You have nothing to be sorry about"
"If I'd..."
"Don't even complete that statement. We didn't know that we would need that money and even if we did, I'd never ask you to do something you didn't want to. I was just in a mood at the hospital and you were an easy target, I'm sorry"
Sammy nodded, she couldn't help but to feel bad about the whole situation. She had had the means to help and she had because of pride and anger ruined it. Vicky was saying now that was okay, but it wouldn't be okay if her mom lost the diner
"Would you hold me?" Vicky asked and again she nodded and made room while Vicky placed her head on her bosom and let her cradle her.
"Nick and I are done. I told him not to come looking for me anymore" Sammy told her friend while still cradling her.
"You didn't have to that, I didn't mean those things I said" Vicky said raising her face.
"I know but I needed to hear them. I would have let myself get sucked back in, heck I let myself got sucked back in.
Today, when it was just us, I started to feel things again and that's not right. I don't know if I can be able to live without him but I do know that I want to try. It hurts so much but that is how it's supposed to be, I'm supposed to hurt now so I can move on" she didn't believe a single word of the things she was saying. She didn't think there was any way she could move on from Nick, but she had to try to.
Vicky nodded,
"Can I tell you something selfish?" she asked and Sammy smiled with a nod.
"I'm glad that you're not seeing him anymore, I just felt like he was going to take you away from me"
"No one's ever going to take me from you" Sammy told her friend and it was the truth because no matter what happened and where she was, Vicky would always be her number one person.