Dedicated to book_lover_1716
Chapter Six -Where Informal Support Groups Are Formed
Bailey's Pov
I was horrified at what his brother had said and I wasn't in a random room more than thirty seconds before Caleb was there and he wrapped his arms around me.
"I'm so sorry Bailey; I know how much that offended me and I can't imagine how hard it is for you. At least I've been out for years." I cried as he held me and Kylie came in too I'm not sure who was comforting who because with Kylie in therapy it probably feels to her like it just happened, not like it's been nearly five years since she got put in Rehab, she told me she was in over a year.
Our two relationships are more similar than I thought, Caleb helped her like I helped Julian after they got no progress from her; he was the one to bring some life back to her. I think the biggest difference was her suicide attempt; in that case we were closer to being alike.
I was the one with those thoughts where Julian desperately wanted to live.
"Hey, it's this Back Alley Crack Heads Anonymous?" None of us could help but laugh despite everything when Julian came in and that was the first thing he said, he sat on the bed and we all laid down on the queen sized bed, my nearly on top of Julian and Kylie nearly on top of Caleb to fit.
"I do believe I'm the only crack addict." Kylie said and she giggled a little, maybe we needed to laugh even if it was maybe a little inappropriate but if everyone in here was okay with it then fuck it.
"Well Kylie, you're just a little bit of everything." I said and she sighed
"Yeah I am, I guess I'm just a little fucked up, huh?" she asked and Caleb held her tighter.
"We all are Ky." No need to deny it, we were all fucked up.
"Well let's make it a game." Julian suggested
"What do you mean?" Caleb asked
"Let's blow this place and go play I never at my place with some apple juice." God, that made us sound fourteen.
"I'm up for it." I for one would like nothing more than spending a depressing night in with these three people.
"Interesting, very interesting." Robert said, one more and Julian and were tied, two more and I won.
"What?" we all asked
"I thought I'd come in to hysterics but you all seem to be okay." He was leaning against the door. He looked comfortable right now.
"Five minutes late for that." I sat up and the rest followed
"Interesting." he said softly but I caught it and I smirked at Julian who groaned; one more and this was mine!
"We can't leave without saying goodbye to your mom." Kylie sighed and I groaned.
"Two minutes and we're out of here." Julian got up, I got up and then Caleb and Kylie got up. We headed into the living room where Danielle was tending to Carters wounds not so gently.
"You're an inconsiderate asshole, you know that?" she asked and he winced
"Ouch! Damn it I know." He sighed and she pushed on his cut again
"Don't take that tone with me Carter Cole, I'm your wife not your employee." Oh shit. He shut up and just took it as she got the bleeding to stop and he gritted his teeth through it
"Baby." Julian mumbled and he glared at Julian.
"Shut the fu-"
"Carter." Danielle didn't let him finished and he looked like a dejected child right now, serves him right. I was boiling with an immense amount of anger with him right now, how dare he judge us after what he did to his own brother but mostly after what he did to Sarah!
Recovering was hard enough without people like him.
"Carter." She nudged him
"I'm sorry, I didn't think about how that would come out, I just said it and it was uncalled for, I didn't mean to offend anyone and I certainly didn't mean to make my brother hate me more than he already does. I'm trying to be less of an ass and get this family back together, not make it worse." He sat up and I ignored him as did everyone else as we went into the kitchen.
"We're leaving." Julian announced and his mom nodded sadly. I felt really guilty for this, she was torn between her two sons and she just wanted a happy holiday with her family and it was all ruined.
"Unless you want us to stay and help clean up." I offered softly and she smiled at me
"That's okay sweetheart, I got it. I'm sending Carter home too, I don't want to deal with him, he was always a wimp and never took pain well and I'm in no mood to baby him."
"Mom!" he yelled from the next room and she rolled her eyes which I think made us all crack a smile.
"Shut your mouth child, I'm in no mood for you right now after you ruined my family dinner. You need to learn to keep your mouth shut" she didn't mess around. She was a very blunt person.
"You kids go on; I'll stay and help clean up." Robert was right behind us and we all looked at him and then each other and I grinned
"Interesting." we all said at the same time and he frowned which made us laugh. At least we could find some humor in this whole situation.
"Interesting" he mocked us, mocking him and I laughed
"I win!" I declared and he looked at us all very confused.
"What?" he asked
"We were betting on how many times you would say interesting, you're at fourteen which means no matter what, Bailey wins." Julian explained as he pulled me out the door with the other two following.
I struggled out of his grip.
"Give your mother a hug goodbye, where are your manners?" I asked Julian and he looked taken back but he turned around and his mother shot me a grateful look as he wrapped his arms around her, it wasn't her fault all this shit happened and she looked like she could use a hug.
I went over shyly and I hugged her real quick and retreated. If she was going to maybe be my mother-in-law one day, I needed to try at least with her. I didn't want her to hate me and I hoped we could have some kind of a good relationship when I was a little more stable.
We all headed out to the store and we were going to throw ourselves a slight pity party. I hopped up onto the cart and Julian pushed it around while Kylie and Caleb held hands and walked beside us. We threw in some fruit to be healthy and shit.
Next came chocolate sauce, five different ice creams, cookies, chips, energy drinks, soda, apple juice, candy, and we were ordering pizza, pretty much everything you would see at a kids party since we all were recovering alcoholics.
Once we got back to Julian's I let Kylie borrow some pajamas and Caleb borrowed Julian's then we all sat down on the living room floor with everything all around us as we poured our virgin mix drinks, which earned a dirty look from me when they teased me about that particular way of describing drinks.
"Alright, since this seems to be back ally crack heads anonymous, let's get 'I've never' started!" Kylie said and we turned it into a joke, though that was probably inappropriate but it was better than crying about how inconsiderate people could be.
Laughing about it and accepting who we were was better than beating ourselves up and being miserable about it all.
"I've never shot up." Julian started and the other three of us drank.
"I've never done more than one drug." Caleb said and Kylie drank as well as I.
This would be our buzz, instead of being drunk we would be insanely hyper on sugar, pretty much the same thing, well not really, but it was all we had.
"I've never made out with a girl." I said and all three of them drank and the boys teased Kylie.
"I've never, wait I did that, okay, I've never jumped over a table and tackled someone." Kylie shot at Julian and both of us drank our apple juice and I smiled remembering the first day there, I can't believe how things have changed since I was sentenced to rehab.
I made four of the best friends I could ever ask for and three were sitting in front of me right now, I don't know how you can consider yourself to have a bad life even as a recovering addict, when you had friends like these.
"I've never played this game." Julian said and no one drank, I guess this was all our first time.
"Interesting." I said imitating Robert and we all laughed
"Okay, I've never punched someone." Caleb played off Kylie and the three of us drank, apparently we were a little violent, especially Julian and I.
"I've never made a sex tape." Julian shot me a dirty look and I looked at him patiently and he took a drink but what surprised me was someone else raised their glass and it wasn't who I expected it to be.
"Oh Caleb isn't as innocent as we thought." Kylie took a drink too and it didn't really surprise me.
"Well I'm not alone." Julian said and I sighed, I would just have to get over it.
"I've never made more than one sex tape." Kylie said and Julian and Caleb, much to our amazement if that was even the right word, raised their glasses again.
"Whores." I mumbled and Kylie smacked me
"Rude." She said but she wasn't offended, she was moving past who she used to be.
We sat and played until we got bored and then played cards against humanity before we got bored again and then we settled on go fish and let me tell you this, it was the most intense game of go fish I have ever played in my life!
Everyone was throwing out accusations of cleating and trash talk, over a child's game and I laughed so hard I had to lay back on the ground while Kylie and Julian sat in a shouting match about who really deserved to have that pair of three's.
Funny part about it was Caleb was the one who had them. I laughed so hard I almost peed my damn pants and tears were coming from my eyes, happy ones this time.
"I think BACHA needs a weekly meeting." I said while laughing.
"I think so too." Caleb scooted over to me since Kylie and Julian were now standing and their hands were flying around as they argued. I rested my head on his shoulder and he rested his head on top of mine.
"It's nice seeing them so happy." I don't think I've seen Julian this happy since before Lacey died, when she died a part of us died with her and it's been hard living with only part of yourself but we were getting there.
"I know, Kylie's been so everywhere lately. She's depressed over Lacey and blames herself, she's dealing with her decision to have that abortion, therapy is bringing up bad memories and she's so stressed out with the wedding planning. I like seeing her happy and I forgot how loud she was." I smiled, I'd been doing that a lot since I've been around them, they made it all seam easier.
"She's very blunt and proud. She commands a room and she's beautiful, you're a lucky man." I teased and he nodded
"That I am, I was a huge nerd"
"Was?" I asked and he poked my side making me jump.
"Am, but I was a loner nerd in high school and I kept to myself in college, I was surprised a woman as beautiful and sweet as her would be interested in me. I didn't put together who she was until a lot later. She was a very angry person when I met her."
"When did you know you loved her?" I asked him
"The first night she came to my room at three in the morning crying about a nightmare and bared her soul to me. She told me about the drugs, sleeping around for them, prostitution, her father, the baby, everything. We'd known each other four weeks at the time but I loved her so much."
I liked hearing about them, it made me feel less crazy for how I felt about Julian, I was willing to do all this for him after only knowing him really, a short time. But it felt like so much longer, we knew the worst of each other and maybe that was why, we bonded and we know more about each other than any typical couple who's been together the same length of time.
"Do you think Julian and I will make it? Honestly." I wanted someone's honest opinion.
"I think it's going to be hard Bailey but yes, he looks at you like you are his world and if you two don't let the drama and rumors tear you apart, then yes. Do you trust him?" he asked and I watched Kylie smack Julian on the back of the head and he looked less than impressed as they began to argue again, still about who should have gotten those three's.
"More than anyone." I trusted him more than Drew and to me, that was saying a lot.
"Then hold onto that." He told me and we watched them argue another ten minutes before we broke it up and we all put two fists in and did bubblegum, bubblegum to figure out who was picking the movie and when I won Julian didn't even have to ask, he just put the movie in without a word and we all curled up in the mess of blankets on the floor as the fox and the hound came on.
I haven't been able to watch Frozen since she died so the fox and the hound was my new favorite, at least for the time being. No one protested as we went through movies