She did not understand why Troy had just left with those few words. It was now the middle of the night and he hadn't come back or called. They'd been living together since the nightmares had made it impossible for her to sleep through the night without him. Though living together was a slight stretch. He spent his nights with her and during the day, while she did heads, he did whatever homeless people did. Once they had the shop and there weren't people running in and out of the apartment, Troy could relax at home. They would lie in bed, snuggled under the quilt, watching a rented movie and Juicy would think, this is what other people do…Working closely together on the shop had allowed Juicy to see Troy in a different light. Maybe in her world he showed a lot of insecurity, but in his own world, with his friends and working with his hands, he was relaxed and very accomplished. He handled the deliveries, ordering the material, did most of the gutting of the old building himse
Ok, so the Doctor had been right about resting. Several days ago, when she was getting lightheaded all of the time and feeling tired, she thought she'd better make a doctor's appointment. Maybe she'd finally developed diabetes or perhaps her blood pressure had gotten out of control. Never in a million years would she have suspected that she was pregnant. Because she didn't have regular menstrual cycles due to the depo shot, she had been given an ultra sound. When that nurse said twenty-two weeks, she frantically began calculating in her head. Five months! Hell that meant that she was over halfway through a pregnancy that she hadn't even suspected! She had been so anxious to tell Troy. She'd been happy about it. Now, he'd ruined that for her. Now she was just afraid; afraid and angry.By the time she left the library and the free Internet there, it was already dark. She hadn't even gone to the shop at all. She had aspirin at the apartment so she just went home, tired, stresse
When Juicy was eighteen years old her Momma died; not immediately¡ªit didn't happen in one day, and perhaps Juicy could consider her mother's entire life as a slow death. But it was when Juicy was eighteen that marked the end of the life that Jassmina Robinson had once lived.Juicy had come home from school. It was one of the few days that month that she'd even bothered to go to school. At the age of eighteen she was only in the tenth grade¡ªnot because she wasn't smart enough, but because she just didn't bother to attend classes. She had absolutely no interest in school. Juicy figured that she could be more productive bringing home money than sitting in a classroom all day while her clients found other people to take their money! Besides, she wanted to do hair for a living, so what good was history and math when she already had her future mapped-out for her? Besides, she barely knew what was going on in class. She didn't do the homework because she was too busy with customers,
The doctor seemed surprised but Juicy wasn't. Not even a stroke could set her Momma back too far. Still, seeing her like this affected her. She had never felt more alone in her life. Juicy cried in the bathroom so that her mother wouldn't know, even though all she did was to sleep and she couldn't see her while she did that. Still, she didn't want her mother to hear her in her sleep. The next morning when her Momma woke up, she looked around confused.Juicy took time to explain all that had happened. She had a drowsy, confused expression. Her face was drawn down on one side, including her eye and someone had mercifully covered it with a bandage. She also had no use of any muscles on the left side of her body and she kept looking at her useless arm as if she didn't understand it. Juicy combed and brushed her hair and put it into two braids while her mother's eye closed in pleasure.That first day she slept more then she was awake and Juicy was able to run home and get showere
"So yeah, we knew that gal was a druggy but we didn't think she was stupid enough to steal drugs from the hospital. But then it was coming up missing way too much. She was just careless about it; taking too much."Anyway, they called your Momma into the office and said that they'd found evidence that she'd been stealing. They found one of those cardboard wrappers in your Momma's locker, which was dumb. No one would leave evidence just sitting in their locker. So it was bad enough to be set up, but worse to be set up by your own best friend."The two of them were in line, reaching for things to place on Mr. Joe's tray and her hand stopped in mid-grab."My Momma's best friend?""Yeah. That druggie gal and your Momma was tighter then a pair of pantyhose on a fat girl's legs! Actually, she got your Momma that job before you were even born. They used to hang out, go to lunch, have barbecues on the weekend."Mr. Joe slid the tray to the cashier and took a few precious moments to
It had been one week since Troy had walked out. Four days since she'd bothered to listen to any of his messages. Seven days of being in a fucked-up depressed state. And she wasn't even sure how long it had been since she'd last contacted her shop. He had lied when he said he'd call her the next day. He hadn't. By then she had been ready to talk to him. She was lonely, afraid and she missed him even though she was pissed as hell at him for being in Connecticut. But he didn't call. She got calls from doctors asking questions about him, she had even gotten a call from some old lady that said she was his mother. She had sounded as flaky as him and Juicy had only listened to her recorded message without ever speaking to her. After all, what could she say when asked how was she doing when all she would want to tell her is that her son was a deadbeat, asshole? Days later, when he started leaving messages for her again, Juicy had lost interest and had allowed his messages to pile up
Troy hung up the phone, staring at it for a full five minutes before he pulled himself around. It had been nearly two weeks now and Juicy hadn't answered the phone in days.He knew that meant that she was pretty peeved. So he made sure that his messages listed every single thing that he did. He would ramble on until the voice mail shut off and the busy tone was all that he could hear.He rubbed his tired eyes and lay across the single bed that had been his so many years before. It wasn't even night yet, but the medication didn't follow the same timeline that the rest of the world followed. When he got tired he slept and that could be even two hours after he'd risen for the day.Troy's eyes drooped and he was soon sleeping deeply and dreaming of the same thing; Juicy.The day that Troy had left their apartment, he had seen the hurt in Juicy's eyes, but all that he could think of is how piss poor of a father he would make. Troy knew the facts, and that fact is that a chil
Mom sat down hard. "Honey, I thought you said that you always felt that you weren't bipolar. I mean, I believe that's true. I don't think that you ever were. Later, when I thought back on it all, it just seemed that they wanted to fill you up with as many things as they could; almost like they were rolling the dice." Troy gave her a surprised look. He never thought that his Mother had an opinion about what was going on with the medication. Even now, he had thought that she was Dad's parakeet—and if he should change his mind about everything, then so would she. But the look on her face showed so much regret. "Back then, your Dad and I thought that we should just trust the doctors without question. Now I know better." Dad reached over and hugged her briefly.After a moment Troy spoke. "I know I'm not bipolar. That's not what I want the medication for.""Okay." His father waited for him to continue."But I have tics, and migraines which I can live with; but not the seiz