**3 MONTHS LATER**
I had just finished fixing the horse fence on the edge of their pasture. Lately, some animal has been pushing it's way through the fence and kept bending it to the point where it eventually needed to be replaced. It was now mid January, and it was fifty degrees outside. One of my favorite things about North Carolina was how it almost never got cold. Even when the northern states were in the negatives, down here still sunny and perfect.
The New Year was a great one. Chase's grandparents came over and we through a small party while we watched the local news channel for the countdown and Mrs. Taylor even made all kinds of sweets. Daisy celebrated by drinking one glass of wine and stuffing her face with cookies and homemade fried chicken. Billie-Mae drank so much she passed out before the ball dropped, and the Taylors and I casually drank and laughed and they told me stories about when they were teenagers. Turns out, Mrs. Taylor has a tattoo on her butt.
It was now the middle of January, and I've been receiving more letters from Chase. He says that now that's it cooler over here, it's hotter over there. It still through me off on how everything was the opposite for us now. I was sleeping when he was awake, I was working when he was switching shifts. I was in winter, he was in summer. He was there, and I was here. Sahara was a fan of the cool winter air. His young legs would buck and run around the entire pasture whenever there was even a slight drop in temperature. The rest of the horses had taken to him nicely, and seem to being showing him the ropes. As soon as spring hit, I'd have to start breaking him so he'd be good around people and knew commands for riding. He came galloping over to me once he noticed I had stood up from the fence and started nudging my hand. I laugh at his call for attention and rub his head lovingly. He was already getting so big, his fur getting slightly darker and his muscles stronger. He was still too young for certain things, but he was healthy and quite beautiful. I have the vet coming in a few days for a check up and to check his DNA drawn since I was still clueless on how he was nothing like the other horses.
I walked away from Sahara and made my way back inside, pulling my hood over my hat a little more as a gust of wind passed by. The warmth from inside greeted me and the sound of the T.V. playing filled the space. Daisy was sitting on an exercise ball, bouncing her hips in a circular rotation while holding her swollen belly. She was now almost seven months pregnant, and she has grown in size significantly. I tease her all the time about how the doctor lied to her about only having one baby, which usually ended in her getting mad and paranoid and constantly worrying if she really was pregnant with more than one baby.
"So I think I decided on a name." Daisy says from the living room, her favorite reality show playing on the T.V..
"Oh really?" I ask. I notice the mail was tossed on the island and I started shuffling through it. Bill. Bill. Junk mail. Coupons. Pharmaceutical notice.
"Yeah. I've been watching a lot of 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians',--" she begins.
"You don't say." I say dryly, raising an eyebrow at her as I shuffled through the mail. She ignored my sarcastic comment and kept going.
"And I was thinking about giving the baby a unique name, you know, something that no one else is going to have." she says. I look up at her from the mail in my hands and give her a concerning look. The fact that the idea of a unique baby was inspired by cosmetically altered reality stars wasn't exactly a reassuring thing to hear. "What about. . .Glitter." she says, giving me a convinced smile.
"Hell, no." I say immediately, tearing open the pharmacy letter.
"What? Common, it's cute." Daisy argues. I turn my back to her as I toss the junk mail in the trash.
"You are not naming your daughter after the STD of arts and crafts." I say. "Where'd you come up with 'Glitter' anyways." I fold my arms and lean against the counter.
"Well, I was just thinking in bed one night, and thought about how glitter is this amazing thing. It's all these tiny little things that makes things look so much more complicated and beautiful, like out family, but really it's just all the beautiful specs that make you smile when you have it in your hands." she tries to explain. I stare at her like she just told me she did a hand stand on Sahara's back while he ran full speed across the highway. I shake me head at her and pinch the bridge of my nose.
"I'm not happy when I have glitter in my hands. In fact, the first thing I think when I do is, 'shit, this is never gonna go away'." I tell her. She rolls her eyes and crossed her arms.
"Fine, Glitter is a no." she gives in. I sigh and chuckle at her silly idea for a name as I read the letter from the pharmacy.
"Oh, Daisy your vitamins are in." I say. I grab my keys and start making my way to the door when I noticed the time. "Shit. I still have to make dinner." I say. Daisy quickly stood up and snatched the keys from me.
"Say no more. I'm starving, so you go ahead and make dinner, and I'll run and get my vitamins." she offers.
"Are you sure?" I ask her before agreeing. She nods her head and smiles at me, seizing the opportunity to get out of the house for once since getting pregnant. "Alright. Drive safe." I say.
"Do you need anything while I'm out?" she asks from behind her shoulder.
"Can you pick up some milk and eggs, I need them for your baby shower cake." I say.
"Okay." she says giddily. I've been planning on throwing Daisy a baby shower, and promised her that I'd make her favorite cake from my mom's recipes. When the door closed, I started pulling out chicken breasts, potatoes, and vegetables to start making dinner.
"Billie-Mae! Dinner!" I shout from downstairs. My cousin had been in her room all day. Yesterday, she attacked the bills and payments that were due for the house, along with her online classes. She did that all while drinking an entire bottle and a half of wine. I've been starting to realize that Billie-Mae had been drinking a lot more often, and when she did she got shit faced drunk. I've never been around her like that so much in my life, and I started to get concerned.
My cousin comes trudging down the stares wearing a huge blue hoodie and baggy sweatpants. Her hair was in a messy of a pony tail and her eyes look tired as hell. Hangover, again. I already had a glass of water filled for her and I slid it to her across the island top. She caught it and took a few sips before cringing in pain from her head.
"Billie, can I talk to you about something?" I ask as I start to dish out dinner on her plate. She groans in response.
"Yeah. What's up?" she mumbled. I took a deep breath as I watch her take small bites of her chicken breast. This would've been a lot easier if Daisy was with me, but she was still out getting her vitamins and the groceries I asked for. What the hell was taking her so long?
"I've been noticing that you've been drinking a lot lately. More than I normally see you drink." I say cautiously. Billie-Mae keeps eating as she glances at me from under her eye lashes, not giving me an answer right away.
"So?" she says blatantly. I was taken aback at her nonchalant response. So? What the--the phone suddenly started ringing, interrupting my thoughts. I sigh in frustration and walk over to the house phone.
"We'll talk about this later. Drink you water." I tell her. I grab the phone and answer it like I wasn't having a discomforting conversation just seconds ago. "Hello?" I say.
That was when my heart dropped. When suddenly I felt like I couldn't breathe. I felt like I was going to pass out, and a thousand bad images and memories started racing through my mind all at once. I almost dropped the phone before the lady on the other end asked me if I was still there. I shook my head clear and told her I was, and ended the call as soon as she was finished. I couldn't stand any longer. I reach of the counter top to steady myself as the room started to spin. Billie-Mae rushed to my side quickly and caught me by my waist before I fell to the ground.
"Hayden!" she shouts. She lead me all the way to the floor gently and held my face in her hands. "Hayden, what happened? Who was that? What did the say?" she asks me concernedly. I looked at her with fear in my eyes, my head unsure of what to do or say and my heart racing a mile a minute. I could see the concern and worry all over my cousin's face as she scanned mine. She had every right to be right now.
"It's Daisy. . ." I start. I felt the tears before the spilled out of my eyes. "She got into a car accident and is being taken to the hospital." Billie-Mae's face went white and her hold on my face only tightened. She pulled me forward and wrapped her arms around me, enclosing me in a hug to attempt to comfort me. I let the tears spill and fall out from my eyes. I clutched at my cousin's hoodie desperately as I sobbed. The last time I got a call like that was when my parents died. It wasn't even a year later, and it was already happening again.
After a few minutes of crying and comforting each other, Billie-Mae got changed while I called Mrs. Taylor to inform her on what happened. She promised to be here when we got back and to help us with anything we needed.
"I'll be praying for her, Hayden. Her and that baby." she said. My heart sunk to my stomach. The baby. I could feel a new wave of tears creeping up, and I quietly let them fall as I scrambled to pull my shoes on and grab my truck keys. I've never sped down a street so fast in my life. I couldn't help but think that it wasn't fair how this kept happening to me. How I'm continuously losing the people I love. First my parents, then my husband, and now possibly my sister. I felt Billie-Mae's hand rest on my shoulder and I broke from my trance. I was white knuckling the steering wheel and holding in my breath. I exhale calmly and relax my grip on the wheel, but my foot remained on the gas pedal like it was made out of lead.
When we reached the hospital, I didn't even bother taking the keys out of the ignition. I just opened my door and ran to the doors. I looked back to see in my cousin was following, and she was jogging behind me with my keys in her hand. I pushed past people in the parking lot, not even apologizing. I rush through the spinning doors to the emergency room entrance and run straight for the desk. "Daisy Alistair." I say immediately. The receptionist typed away at her computer then turned to me.
"Yes, she just arrived. She's currently with the doctor, so you'll have to wait a few minutes." she says. I slam my palms on the counter and startle the receptionist. Billie-Mae pulls me away and apologizes to the startled lady and guides me to the side.
"Hayden, calm down. The doctor is with her, she's getting checked out. Everything is going to okay." she says, rubbing my arms comfortingly.
"How do you know that? What if I lose her like I lost Mom and Dad?" I asked, panicked. I felt more tears coming, but I didn't want them to show so I turned away.
"Because, Hayden. She's always been a fighter. She's gonna pull through and so is the baby." she tells me. I try to take a few deep breaths to calm myself down so I don't flip out on her. I wanted to tell her that it wasn't going to be okay, that I'm going to lose her too. But I didn't. I had to try and remain optimistic, because that's what a southern woman does, right? Daisy leads me to a couple empty seats and she leans back, clutching her purse to her chest as I lean forward with my elbows on my knees, my leg bouncing anxiously. In this moment, I couldn't think of anything else. Not Chase, not the horses, not myself, nothing. Just me big sister and her unborn baby lying in a hospital bed in God knows what condition. I didn't want to think about it, but I could stop. I didn't say another word to anyone, not even to Billie-Mae when she asked me if I wanted something to drink. An hour went by, then another.
"Daisy Alistair?" asked a male voice. I stood up quickly and spot the middle aged looking doctor with graying hair and walk over to him immediately.
"I'm her sister Hayden, please tell me she's okay. Please." I plead with my arms folded protectively, begging for good news. The doctor's face remained calm, but something told me that it wasn't all good news.
"Yes, Hayden, your sister is stable and doing fine. She was in a car accident that was caused by another that lost control and crashed right into the driver side. From what I'm told, the car spun and almost tipped over in the ditch. But, luckily, she only suffered a concussion, a dislocated shoulder, and a fractured ankle." he informs me. The air came back to my body. I clutched my heart with one hand and reached for my cousin with the other. I pulled her into me to hug her in relief as tears of joy spilled from my eyes. Daisy wasn't leaving me after all.
"Oh, thank God." I breath.
"However, there were some complications with the fetus." the doctor chimes in. My heart skipped a beat in fear and my face got hot. The baby. "Due to the amount of force in the impact that your sister took, there was some damage that requires us to perform and emergency C-section in order to save the fetus." he says with very worried eyes. My heart was pounding again. "As the only living direct family member, and with absence of the father, I need your permission in order to proceed with the operation." he asks. I gulp and blink my thoughts clear.
"Yes, yes, of course. Please, do what you can to save that baby girl." I beg, still grabbing my heart. The doctors nods then heads back into the hospital. I turn back to my cousin who had tears on her cheeks like I did. I gave her a weak smile and took a deep breath. "She's going to be okay." I say calmly. Billie-Mae pulls me in for another hug, this one more grateful than the last few. "We're all going to be okay."