Year of Goodbyes [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 7 - Hidden little forest

"Family members of Sophie Avery Monroe?"

"That's us" Noah said and did a little jog to get to where the nurse who called out for us was, me and EJ followed after him.

"Where are your parents?" she asked, "Our father is dead and our mother is drunk and high somewhere in the streets, I legally adopted Sophie" Noe said. The nurse stammered a bit, taken a back by the directivity of Noe.

We all tried to get mom to get her shit together, nothing worked. Eventually, we gave up trying and decided that at least one of us would become a legal guardian of Sophie, so that if anything ever happened we knew that they couldn't take her away easily.

"Okay, sir. You are all siblings, am I correct?" she asked, "Mhm" Noe hummed. "Well then, Sophie is awake now and accepting visitors. You can go in, room 207 in the second floor." she said.

"Thank you!" we all said in unison as we walked quickly past her. We knew from previous experience that we should avoid running at hospitals.

-

Soph was up playing with a few dolls that the hospital had given her, as soon as she saw Noe she let out a big gasp. "Noe-Noe?" She called out with that big, bright, contagious smile of hers. 

"Hi Sophie-Soph" He smiled and ran to hug her, it was a weird hug but Sophie looked so happy. "What happened to me?" she asked after the hug was done, "Well, dad had diabetes and he passed it on to you. Diabetes is when you have a lot of sugar in your blood and you need to level it." Noah explained slowly so our little sister could understand.

"Am I going to go with daddy?" she asked and sounded scared, "No, Sophie. You are not" I spoke immediately after in a firm manner, to reassure both her and in some way me. EJ turned to look at me, he knew that something was off.

"Phoebe? Are you--" I cut him of; "I need some air" I walked out quickly, everything was just too much.

I decided to go outside, this environment was one of death and sadness, it made the air heavy, lingering with fright.

I basically ran to the main exit, I took in the biggest breath, the air wasn't heavy anymore and I could finally breath. I walked towards a bench and just... sat down.

All I could think of now that I knew that Sophie was okay was about how her diagnostic made perfect sense. I searched up the symptoms for diabetes in kids, I wanted to kill myself because it was all there, every symptom it was-- it was all too obvious.

Then, something that could not leave my mind was how much money it all costed and how much the insulin will keep to cost. I started to think of the things that I could get rid of; my phone, clothes, Soph's ipad, mom's stuff, I could even sell my bike and walk everywhere.

It eased the things a bit that I knew that my brothers would contribute, EJ has a good paying part-job, so does Noah -- though he's getting closer to having a high-paying full-time job as a lawyer -- and I have that babysitting job and could get back to work some nights at the local diner. It would be tough to also balance everything with school but this is rock bottom, it only get's better from here.

My phone started ringing; Miss. West. I picked up and waited for her to say the first word. "Hi Phoebe, how are you?"

"I don't know, Miss. West, I don't know. What's up?"

"Oh, well, I wanted to ask if you could watch the twins tonight, I know that you require a two-day notice but--" she wanted to give me an explanation, what she didn't know was that she was actually helping me. "I'll do it, and since we're talking I would also like to talk about my payment"

"Is it not enough?" she asked worriedly, "No, it's within the reasonable but... I don't want to talk about this over the phone, mind if we discuss it tonight?" 

"Of course, Phoebe. I'll text you the details"

"Great, thank you. Goodbye" I hung up.

I didn't want to go back inside, I wanted to go to my safe place. I decided to text my brothers that I would be out for a couple of hours and that I'd have to babysit later on, I didn't wait for a reply before putting my helmet on and heading off on my bike.

After some eternal twenty minutes I arrived to a hidden little forest with a hidden little lake, untouched by humans of any form --except for my dad and I--, did I mention that Dad spent four months building a hidden little parking lot for his little princess -- AKA me --? Yeah, that's where I parked my bike.

Anyway, when I missed my dad I would go there to be in silence or to talk to him. I found visiting his grave morbid, anyone who knew my dad would tell you that he was far from morbid. This hidden little forest was his eternal grave, it didn't matter if his actual body wasn't in it.

"Hi dad. I miss you, a lot." I sighed, "I don't know how this whole diabetes thing works, you were pretty closed off about it but-- but don't let Sophie go with you. She's a little girl she-- she has so much to do in this world, so much history to make." I wiped a forming tear out of my eye, I hated being emotional.

"Tonight I'm babysitting for the Wests, they're a nice family and the twins are the best. Mia likes me, she's shy but I can tell and then well-- then there is Connor, the little man, you would be jealous 'cause he's my boyfriend, according to him that is." I chuckled at the last bit.

"I uhm... I always ask you this... help mom out, will you? Noe and EJ gave up on her, but I know that deep, deep down the woman that raised me, the one that made me so happy and made me feel so loved over the years is still there, she can't be gone just like that" I cracked a smile remembering all the fond memories with my mother.

-

"Phoebe, hi! My wife has already left, come in" David opened the door for me, I nodded at him and walked in, he closed the door after me. "Susan told me that you wanted to discuss something about your payment, what is it?" he asked.

"Well, just today my little sister's heart stopped she-- she was diagnosed with genetic diabetes and it's all too expensive and that is excluding the insulin she needs, I was wondering if you could maybe increase my earnings until me and my brothers are able to pay our debts off, or perhaps I could come around more often. I totally understand if--"

David cut me off by placing a hand on my shoulder, "You're the first nanny that Mia likes, Connor adores you and you take perfect care of the the twins. You could do both, come around more often and we could also increase your payment."

I chuckled in disbelief, I thought that he and Miss. West would scream at me and would tell me to fuck off. I don't know what took over me but I hugged David, a few tears wanted to escape but I didn't allow them to.

"Thank you thank you thank you" I mumbled in repeat like a broken cassette. "It's alright, Phoebe. It's the least we can do" I could tell that he was uncomfortable by our contact so I let him go, he offered me a kind smile and just then Mia came running down the stairs.

"Pho!" she called out for me with a big, bright smile plastered on her face, "Mia!" I couldn't keep the true smile that was forming on my face when that little bundle of joy threw herself into my arms. 

"Ryle should be here in six hours or so, he'll give you the money and then you'll be free to go"

"Perfect, thank you"