The Things I Love About You Part 2 (Completed)

C h a p t e r T w e l v e

Through the whole night, I keep waking up in a cold sweat. Every time I wake up, Scott is already awake to comfort me. After falling asleep in his arms and waking up at least twelve times, it is 7:30 in the morning and I give up on trying to sleep.

"I...I'm gonna go make some coffee." I say with a yawn. I sit up and stretch, ready to get out of bed and start my day until a thought rushes into my head.

"What's wrong?" Scott mumbles, eyes wide open and fixed on my face.

"Shit." I mutter, dragging my hand over my face.

"What?"

"I have to call Anna. She needs to know what happened."

"Mitch, you haven't talked to her in...how many years?"

"It doesn't matter, she needs to know."

"She cut you out of her life."

"It doesn't matter, Scott. I have to call her. There's actually a lot of people I need to call, huh?" My stomach sinks as I think about calling my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, even Anna, and telling them what happened to me parents and sisters. "I'm gonna call Anna first." I reach for my phone and Scott says, "I'll give you some privacy."

"No, please. Please stay, the last thing Anna said to me was...one of the worst things anyone has ever said to me. I just need you to sit here. For emotional support. Please?"

"Okay. That's fine." He sits up against the headboard and I situate myself under his arm.

"I don't know if I even have her number in here still." I mumble, scrolling through my contacts and half hoping that her name won't show up, but when it does, I press her name and wait for her to pick up. I try to get a word in before she hangs up on me, so when the dial tone vanishes, I say, "Anna, I just need you to-"

"Fuck off, asshole." And the line goes silent. I try again.

"Anna, please."

"What the hell do you want?"

"I-" A lump forms in my throat.

"I'm one second away from hanging up if you don't start talking."

"I thought you should know that...Dad died." She is silent for so long that I start to wonder if she hung up. "Anna?"

"Mitch, if you're messing with me you will seriously regret it."

"I'm not. He died in a wreck. I just found out yesterday."

"What about Nel?" Her voice is quiet now, I and get the feeling that we are treading on common ground, at least for the moment. "Was she with him?"

"Yeah, she died too. So did the triplets. I know that they don't really matter to you. They weren't your sisters, but-"

"I'm sorry to hear that. About them and Nel."

"I just thought you should know about Dad."

"Yeah. Thanks." She sniffles, and I wonder if she will start crying. "Thanks for telling me. Listen, uh..." She trails off.

"Yeah?"

"I have to go. We can talk more about it, uh, later. I'll call you, okay?"

"Okay."

"And Mitch?"

"What?"

"I know it's probably too late for this, but I really am sorry."

"Don't be. I deserved it." The silence is deafening, even only for a few seconds.

"No you didn't. No one deserves to hear what I said to you, and I'm sorry." Another pause. "Also, I know this probably isn't much consolation, but I know how it feels to lose your mom, and I'm sorry. It sucks. A lot. But as your sister, even if only your half-sister, I want to offer my condolences. Nel was...great. She didn't deserve that. Neither did Dad."

"I know." I don't know what else to say, so I wait for her to speak again.

"I have to go. Bye." After another second of silence, she says, "I'll leave you to call the family and tell them. I don't really think they want to hear from me. Plus, you can call your mom's family. They never liked me much anyway."

"Yeah, I'll take care of it. Don't be a stranger, okay?"

"Yeah. Bye."

****

I spend most of the morning making phone calls, and by the time it is noon, I am exhausted again.

"I think we should get out of the house." Scott suggests from the kitchen when I toss my phone down on the couch.

"Where should we go?"

"Ice skating? That's always fun."

"Sounds good to me." A conversation I had with Kirstie a few days earlier comes to mind and I realize that I never called her back about it.

"I have to call Kirstie on the way there."

"Okay. Do you want to grab lunch first? It's already noon and you've been too busy calling people to eat." I nod and hop off the couch, slipping into my shoes before following Scott out of the house and to the car.

****

Kirstie picks up immediately.

"Hey." she says, sounding exhausted.

"Hi."

"What's up?"

"You sound tired."

"I am."

"I remembered that, a few days ago, you said you wanted to talk to me about Peyton? What was that about?"

"Hang on, let me go into the other room. He and Jer are doing something loud." She chuckles and is quiet for a few seconds. "Okay, yeah. There's kind of a situation."

"Is he okay?"

"I...kind of? He's been getting beaten up at school, and no one's doing anything about it." I feel guilty, knowing that he already told me that and I didn't tell her.

"Do you know why?"

"He said it's because he's a girl." She sighs. "And he told some people in his class so."

"Wait. Peyton said that?"

"Yeah. I mean, I wasn't really surprised when he told me that. You know how he's always loved dolls and dresses and makeup and stuff. That part wasn't surprising to me."

"Yeah, honestly I'm not really surprised either."

"But the kids at school called him stupid and started making fun of him for it. I think his teacher told him he's just confused and he'll grow out of it, which really pissed me off."

"Understandable." Kind of pisses me off too. I think, but I don't say it out loud.

"The hardest part is that he's so young, so when I told him to just be himself, he took that as wearing a dress to school and using the girls' bathroom. The school was not okay with that, and when I told him he couldn't wear a dress to school he asked me why."

"What did you tell him?"

"I just told him that the other kids wouldn't like it and they might be mean to him for it."

"He's a strong kid. He can hold his ground."

"No, he can't, Mitch! He's gotten beat up every day this past week. I don't know what to do anymore. No one is doing anything about it. Jeremy wants to go down to the school and give them a piece of his mind. Honestly so do I, but my doctor said I should avoid high stress levels with my 'current condition'." She scoffs.

"After your last pregnancy, I would say that that's probably a good idea. Just let Jeremy handle it. It'll get worked out, I promise, Kit." She sounds like she is crying.

"How do you know?"

"Because, I just do, okay? I just do." We pull into a parking lot and I say, "I have to go. Call me later, okay? I have something important to tell you."

"Okay, can do. Love you."

"Love you, too."

****

I'm warning you guys now, my updates will probably start to get shorter and off schedule again pretty soon because I go back to school tomorrow. This might be the last full length update for a while. Sorry in advance.