College, Girl ? COMPLETE

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Home (Again)

Andrea woke up with a splitting headache, as she stumbled into the kitchen looking for a glass of water and aspirin. She poured the water as the memories of last night came flooding back to her. It was like a dream. She was silently thanking God that she didn't actually sleep with Nick. But she definitely crossed the line. She would have a long drive home to figure out what to say to Steven. She always told him everything, he knew everything about her. She never had a reason to keep something from him. What she didn't tell him, he'd know anyway just by looking at her. It was like he could read her mind. Every birthday and every Christmas, she ends up telling him what she bought him. She can't keep a thing from him. What was she thinking? She almost ruined her married and for what? Nick? She felt sick to her stomach. This time she might actually vomit.

She went back to her room, got dressed and threw her things in a bag. She reached for the phone to call Steven. It rang five times before he answered, when he picked up the phone she could hear Nate crying in the background.

He shouted into the phone over the crying, "Andrea."

"Hi, honey, it's me. Is everything okay?"

Steven had finally reached his boiling point. He couldn't contain his irritation with her. "No, it's not okay. Nate was up on and off all night. I think he has an ear infection. I need to get him to the doctor today. I didn't get much sleep between worrying about Aunt Millie, Nate being sick and wondering what happened to you last night."

"I'm so sorry honey. I'm leaving right now."

"I'm going to take Nate to the doctor. You should just go right to the hospital. She's at Elmwood Hospital on Beecher Street. When you are done just come home."

"Okay."

"Does Nate have a temperature?"

"Yes, it's 100.5. He'll be fine. I have to go now. I'll talk to you later."

He hung up on her before she could say goodbye. Andrea just left campus before anyone was even stirring at the house. She'd hoped last night was a mistake that she could just put behind her. Steven was her rock besides Aunt Millie he was the only real family she had ever really had. Andrea went straight to the hospital to see Aunt Millie. When she walked into the hospital she was immediately assaulted by the smell of sickness that hung thick in the air it was the smell of urine and disinfectant that penetrated her nose. Most of her memories of hospitals were with her mother. The years and years of heavy drinking finally took their toll on her body. When she died she was only sixty four and her last year was brutal. She spent it in and out of the hospital. She finally died of liver failure. Her mother, Mary kept drinking the entire time and with the medication she was on she was incoherent most of the time.

She fell asleep with a lit cigarette and almost burned down her apartment building. When Mary died, Andrea was looking into nursing home. The weekend her and Steven spent looking at nursing homes almost broke her heart. To see all those people just cast away from everyone and everything just because they were old and sick. There was one nursing home they went to; with a day area there were three women in wheelchairs, with Afghans over their shoulders. The elderly women were watching Saturday morning cartoons completely immobile, completely hidden away from the world in a dazed state. They were sitting there locked away left to die alone with their Afghans and cartoons.

Andrea was almost relived when Mary died. For her entire life she cast a dark cloud over Andrea. She was constantly worried about her, worried what might happen to her when she was drunk. Mary was the worst kind of drunk there were times when she was a happy-go-lucky drunk, laughing and telling stories. Then there were times when she was an angry depressed drunk. The only problem was Andrea never knew what she was going to get on any given day. As a little girl, Andrea always thought that if she was the angry drunk then she could just brace herself that was the way it was going to be. Mary's idea of a family outing was to take Andrea to the neighborhood tavern on a Friday night. While Mary drank Andrea sat in the corner reading or playing video games. Aunt Mille was her only respite from her mother. She started taking her on the weekends to save her from Mary, to rescue her from sitting in a dark corner of a tavern on a Saturday night. Then there were the times that Mary would get so drunk that she would hit Andrea on these nights her mother would black out. She never remembered what transpired the next day.