Leave The City (Book 8 of Adopted by the Josephs)

26. Brendon

I felt bad that we wouldn't be able to pick Samantha up at the airport on Sunday afternoon. Zack had agreed to pick her up, and I knew it would throw Sam off, but we'd thought we'd be done with the things we'd had to do. We were planning a Halloween bash at our place, and Sarah was running around getting things planned and organized. She'd hoped to be home in time, and I had some things to do for management and the label, and timing wasn't going to work unless her flight was delayed by, like, a day. I'd texted Samantha to let her know Zack was picking her up, but, I don't know, blame it on a sunspot? it just wouldn't go through no matter how many times I tried.

I was on my way home from my last meeting and had been looking forward to seeing Sam again after so long. Yeah, it was only a couple of weeks, but for the two weeks before she went back home for Mark's trial, she hadn't really talked to us. Tyler had told us she'd been internalizing what had happened and thought we'd want her not to come back. That couldn't have been further from the truth.

Sarah texted to say she'd just gotten home, and Zack was here, saying Samantha had gone up to bed already. I frowned. It was only 9:30. Sure, it'd be 12:30, I guess, for her in Ohio, but she usually tried to push it a little. I sighed. I really, really hoped that she wasn't hiding from us, either internalizing that we hadn't been there to greet her at the airport, and therefore thinking we'd changed our minds about being upset with her.

Sarah and I exchanged a look, nodded at each other and went upstairs to Sam's room. I knocked on the door and waited a second. The door flung open and I was engulfed in a slightly squealy hug, and some laughter.

"Hi, guys!" she squealed, hugging us both again. She was giddy.

"Sam? Are you... drunk again?"

"Brendon!" Sarah said.

"What? She's euphoric. And she smells drunk!" I couldn't believe this. I could not believe Samantha would do this.

"No, I don't think so. I only had a diet Foke on the planter, I mean, plane."

Sarah sniffed the air around Samantha, who was grinning broadly, and not entirely focused. I frowned.

"Where did you get alcohol?" I fumed at her. "Who the fuck gave you alcohol?"

Zack came running upstairs hearing me shouting at Samantha.

"What the hell, Bren?" he asked, in shock.

"Did you happen to see inside her backpack?" I asked Zack.

"Bren, I don't know what you're going on about. Sam was fine when she got off the plane. She was upset at first, because I was there and not you," he said.

"I texted her a million times!" I said.

"Bren, I know. Let me finish. She was upset and I told her you texted her. She showed me she hadn't gotten any texts. She was still in Airplane Mode and hadn't connected to the airport WiFi."

"Okay, so, how does that explain her getting drunk? Again?"

"Okay, I don't know about how she got like this, but all she's had, so far as I could tell was water from the fridge."

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Samantha said, bouncing on her crutches and losing her balance. She shook her head. "Was that pitcher not lemon water?"

She was slurring.

"No," Sarah said. "That was water. Why?"

"I had a glass of water before I came upstairs," she swayed. An alarm went off on our phones and Samantha's.

"Uncle Brend? I don't feel so good," she said, her eyes rolling up in her head as she sank into my arms. I swept her up and carried her over to her bed.