Spirit Lake Ep. 1.14

Julie woke up, stretched, and in the process she accidently knocked Carla right in the side of the head, waking her up.

"God, watch were you’re swinging." Carla rubbed the side of her face.

"Sorry."

Julie looked around the waiting room, but she couldn’t find Roy.

"He’s still in there." Carla yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "We should probably head home. Roy will call when he needs to be picked up. I don’t think it’ll be for a while though."

"You’re okay with that?"

"With what? Paul and Roy? Hell, I don’t want him! If Roy wants to burden himself with that monumental pain in the ass, then that’s his problem." Carla laughed.

"I still can’t believe you two got married."

"Neither can I sweetheart." Carla got up and headed over to the coffee machine, fishing through her pockets as she walked.

Julie just watched, suddenly seeing how much older Carla really looked. It wasn’t in her face, but in her body. It was the way she held herself. She seemed like she was constantly ready for a fight. When had that kicked in?

Carla had always been the calm one. She was the one who everyone turned to when they needed a shoulder to cry on. Now that shoulder was looking a little callused.

"You want anything? This round is on me." Carla turned, giving Julie a quick glance.

"No, I’m good." Julie paused. "How long ago did you two get married?"

"Three years." Carla started popping coins into the coffee machine. "You know, things were okay then. Roy was with Chester, and I was with Paul." Carla turned, leaning against the machine, her hands in her pockets. "You would have known all this if you called once in a while."

"I’m sorry."

"Don’t be. I know why you left. We all did. I can't blame you for running head first down that highway and never looking back. If I had to live with your father, I would have been high tailing it out of her the second I could walk." She sighed. "I don’t know how you lasted as long as you did."

Julie didn’t speak. She could feel the shame starting to creep in. She had been able to hold it off for a while, but now it was to strong, and she was to tired to fight it. It wasn’t her friend’s fault for the way things turned out, and she had punished them for what her father had done.

Carla sat next to her, placing the scalding paper cup of coffee on the small table in front of them. She didn’t look at Julie.

"I was pregnant." Carla looked down towards her feet. Her toe was tapping on the tile floor. "Paul and I got married because I was pregnant. After you left he kind of moved all those dreams he had with you over to me, and, well, I bought it. It was all working out to. We seemed happy enough, and we had a baby on the way, and then..." Her shoulders tensed.

"You lost it?"

"Yeah." She wiped a tear from her eye. "A couple months later Chester died, and then Paul started drinking, and spending more time over at Roy’s. I started drinking, and spending more time alone." She let out a small, forced laugh. "It was not a pretty picture. I’ll tell you that. It’s better now. It got better. Paul moved into his own place, and I sobered up, and... well, things are better."

Julie couldn’t speak. Suddenly she started to notice the little wrinkles forming around Carla’s eyes and mouth. Her friend seemed to be aging right in front of her. Every word that Carla spoke Julie could see manifest itself as another wrinkle, or freckle. She had been able to overlook those things before, but now, hearing everything, they stood out like battle scars.

"I need to call work. Tell them I won’t be coming in today." Carla was about to stand, but Julie stopped her.

She wrapped her arms around her friend, clinging to her. Julie could feel the sobs breaking in her chest, her shoulders quaking.

"I’m so sorry." The words were a watery mess. "I’m so sorry I left you."

"It’s okay." Carla patted Julie gently on the back. "I’m alive, and that’s all that matters. We all survived." Carla stood. She looked at her friend, a small smile cracking on her face. "You’re here now, and that’s all that matters."

Julie sat there, the guilt gripping her insides, ripping at her stomach. Her brain was to tired to process everything.

She pulled out her cellphone and dialed. She had to call a cab, to go home, to be alone for a little while. She couldn’t stay in that waiting room, looking at the people she had once called her friends and knowing what a horrible person she was for abandoning them.

Carla came back just as the cab pulled up to the giant sliding doors leading outside.

"I need to go." Julie used her sleeve to clear the tears from her cheeks. "I’ll call you after I get some sleep."

Carla just nodded, and gave Julie a tight hug.

"It’s okay honey," she whispered. "I don’t blame you."

Julie walked out of that hospital as quickly as she could.