Sisters

Chapter 3

I slowly get off the bed, not wanting to wake her up, lay her on the pillow, and tuck her in. I look at her face once again, analyzing every bruise. Her peaceful posture is a stark contrast from the war zone painted on her body with every cut and bruise. And these are just the ones I can see. There are so many others that have bandages on them. My poor baby.

"Can we talk outside?" Michael asks me, quietly. I didn't even realize he's still here. I look up at him and nod my head, following him out the door with one last glance at my sleeping sister. He softly shuts the door and tells me to follow him. We go through a series of hallways until he opens the door to what looks to be his office.

He sits down on the couch and motions for me to sit next to him. "How are you?" he asks me.

His question catches me off guard. I thought he was going to ask about what he saw on her file or something. Noticing that I'm extremely tense, I try to loosen the tension by cracking a joke. "I believe you're asking the wrong person that," I tell him with a smile. "You're patient is in the other room, remember?"

He smiles, "Oh I know, you just seemed really stressed earlier. I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," I say softly. This is my automatic response to this type of question.

He just looks at me with disbelief but chooses to let it go. Taking a deep breath, he says, "I brought you in here to discuss what I saw on Dalia's file. It says that you're her legal guardian, but you're 19." I look up at the ceiling, knowing exactly where this is going. "Now I'm not trying to question your responsibility or your ability to care for your sister, but you are young -"

"Then please don't," I cut him off. "Sorry, that was rude. But you don't know me, or her. I've already heard this before, many times actually, but I've managed to take care of us for over a year now. I won the court case, I convinced the judge, and I got custody over her. So please don't lecture me on how I'm too young or whatever, because age is just a number. I've proven myself so many times yet no one seems to care." I finish my rant.

He looks at me for a second before laughing. "What?" I ask, starting to feel self-conscious.

It takes him a minute to regain his composure, but once he does, he says, "I wasn't trying to question you or judge you at all. If you let me finish my sentence, I was about to talk about your financial ability to cover the medical bill."

"Oh," I respond. I hadn't thought of that at all. Yes, I have been able to balance everything so that there's never a time when I'm in debt, but that doesn't mean it's easy. I work 3 jobs to make ends meet, and that's definitely not enough to cover a hospital bill.

"She will most likely need to stay here for the next week or two depending on how fast she recovers, but I think she should start coming to therapy after. She just went through a highly traumatizing event at a really young age, she's going to need help processing," he tells me.

I nod my head, completely agreeing with him, but worrying about how I can financially cover this. I don't have anyone who can help me. "I agree, I'll take a look at the invoice and then figure something out. If I remember correctly, I'll have about a month to pay the bill off, right?"

He nods, "Yes, but -"

"Perfect, thank you," I say, getting up to leave. I know he was about to say something, but I need to get out of here before I have a panic attack in front of him from all this stress.

Just as I'm about to open the door, I turn around and say, "Please call me if anything changes with Dalia, my phone number is on file. Thank you!" I walk out the door and follow the directions on the wall to the parking lot.

Once I'm in my car, I take a deep breath and try to calm myself down. "It's okay, we have over 30 days to come up with a plan and get the money," I tell myself. Reaching over to turn some music on, I see the time is 12 A.M. Wonderful.

I drive back home with the music playing in the background, but for once, I'm not paying any attention to it. I have to be at work at 5:30 in the morning, and I get off at 8 to go to college. But I can't do that if I want to see Dalia in the morning.

Maybe I can go into work and then discuss it with my boss...I've known the owner of the cafe for years now, she'll definitely understand. I can move my shift back to the afternoon, taking the 4:30 to 7:30 shift, that way I'd be able to stay with Dalia for most of the day.

I only work night shifts at the club anyways, so that'll be fine, and I only teach dance at the studio on weekends, so I have time to figure something out for that. I'm thinking of switching to online for college this term. Just so that I can focus on Dalia's health right now, and work extra shifts to pay the hospital bills as well.

I park my car in the garage, and walk inside the house to hear Cocoa barking. "It's me, buddy," I tell him. Hearing my voice, he comes bounding down the stairs to greet me. "Hi there! Did you miss me?" I laugh as he licks my face.

Cocoa is the best dog ever. He's a husky, so he's pretty big, but he's the sweetest thing ever. He's extremely handsome too, with a black and white coat, and big, beautiful, blue eyes. Unlike most dogs, the blue eyes don't make him scary, they actually make him cuter. But of course, he's my baby, so I have a biased opinion.

I make myself a mug of hot cocoa since I skipped lunch due to a mountain of homework, and dinner because of Dalia's condition. I go upstairs, sipping my hot cocoa, get changed into some comfy clothes, set a wake up alarm, and go to bed with Cocoa asleep by my legs.

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A/N: Hello lovelies! I'm thinking of doing a Q&A for this book and my other one, A Crazy Opportunity. Is anyone interested?

Please vote and comment. Have a wonderful day! Hugs and kisses.