Sugar Lust

Chapter Fifteen

Nicholas

His head hurt. Instead of the three Tylenol helping, it seemed to be getting worse.

I must be tired, he thought. This is stupid. It's not like I haven't done double shifts before.

He checked his watch. Only forty-five minutes left to go, and then he could crawl into bed with Emmeline. It couldn't happen fast enough. He loved sleeping next to her, hearing her breathe softly. Hopefully, Millie would be sleeping. She had been sleeping longer and longer at night. It was something to be grateful for.

He had got up early that morning to do a shift at the ticket wicket from four to eight, then went and put in a full day at school, and now he was back at work, trying to keep from falling asleep. This wasn't unusual; he had done it a hundred times before. It was just today; today he was tired. Keeping up with everything was hard: school, work, baby snuggles, and a stolen moment here and there with Emmeline.

He never imagined it would be this easy; it just didn't occur to him that it would be this hard. Sometimes doing it all was too overwhelming, but when he looked into that squirmy little girl's eyes, it was all worth it. Millie was magic that way. She was strong-willed, determined, and it always surprised him how quickly she picked things up.

He was grateful to his friends, especially Callum and Ginny. They had been an incredible source of support, making sure he never fell behind in school, taking notes for him if he was away, and doing the lion's share of work in group projects.

Why can't I get rid of this headache?

He promised everyone he wouldn't leave school. He knew he wouldn't have any future if he didn't finish high school. Then he needed to somehow get to college. He just wasn't sure how he was going to make that happen. His parents were still paying for him to finish high school. Maybe they would help out with college too. They could just as easily have decided to let him finish out his high schooling at the public school. But that being said, he would still rather do it on his own than listen to them talk about Emmeline and Millie.

After Emmeline had tried to fix things, he called again and spoke to his mother, but she spent the entire conversation pressuring him to give up custody of Millie so that he and Emmeline could focus on their studies. He hadn't even bothered telling his parents about the engagement. However, he found it hard to believe that no one would have mentioned it to them through the small-town grapevine.

If they wouldn't let the custody issue go, then there was nothing he could do to fix their relationship. Millie and Emmeline were his family now. He and Emmeline might have made a mistake by getting pregnant, but he loved that baby. She brought meaning to his life like nothing else had ever done. The way she smiled when he picked her up was something incredible. She was Daddy's girl. Emmeline even said so. She looked like him. His sandy brown hair, instead of Emmeline's dark. She had a wide, open face, just like him too. And his dimples. Maybe that was it, when she smiled—her dimples. The hours were worth it for those dimples.

His hands frantically rubbed the side of his head, trying to relieve some of the pressure.

After school, he had popped back for a minute to the house, the boxcar. Emmeline was nursing Millie while she read Hamlet for an English assignment. Nicholas felt a little guilty that he was still going to school as if nothing had ever happened and Emmeline had to change to homeschooling. She didn't want to be away from Millie, and daycare wasn't an option. Housing was barely an option. He had looked at the damn boxcar with disgust.

He went back and forth regularly between resenting the rusted, graffiti-painted thing to being grateful they could stay there. The trains were noisy, they woke Millie up, and there were always people around. Time was running out. It wouldn't be long before they needed to find someplace else to stay. The thought weighed heavily on his mind. Maybe they would put off the restorations for a little longer. He could hope. The one bonus was it was so close to the train station, meaning that his four am start time at work was not as miserable as it could be. He could roll out of bed, throw on his uniform and be at work in fifteen minutes.

He yawned. It was 10:42 pm, almost time to go home; he was counting the minutes. The headache that had started small in his temple around lunch was spreading. His whole head felt like it was exploding. He wanted to close his eyes. That would help. He rechecked the clock. Seventeen minutes left.

"Owww!" He held his head. The pain was getting worse by the minute. He felt dizzy. He sat down and put his head between his knees. He wasn't sure he could handle it anymore. It was stabbing, blinding.

He fell. Everything went white.