AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ten minutes later, she’s shuffling into the living room, still in her pjs. She frowns when she sees me in my recliner, but climbs in my lap to lie with me.
“I kinda hate this chair,” she mumbles against my neck.
“Why?” What’s wrong with my chair? And for her to hate it, she sure does like to sit in it with me.
“Because it means you’re having a rough day.”
I chuckle. “Stop pointing out my tells.”
“You point out mine.”
“Yeah, but you know them already.”
She shrugs her shoulder and doesn’t say anything else. There’s something I’ve been thinking about all afternoon and hopefully, Brittany won’t be upset with me.
“I want to talk to you about the anxiety.”
She tenses, but it’s only for a second. “Okay.”
“Can you tell a difference since he increased your dosage?”
“Not really.”
I brace myself because I know she’s not going to like where I’m about to take this. “You might want to ask him about a med change.”
“Trace, no.” She sits up to look at me. “It’s only been a little over a week. Aren’t I supposed to wait two weeks for it to go into full effect or something? Med changes suck. It took like forever for me to find this one.”
She’s right. It took quite a few med changes for Dr. Gunner to find a medication where the side effects didn’t outweigh the intended effect. I think that’s the major reason why she came to hate taking her medication and why she would want to stop cold turkey.
“I know, but it might be time. You should at least see what Dr. Gunner thinks.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to…I don’t know, wait until the semester is over? If I’m going to have wacko side effects, I can’t handle that while I’m in school.”
“Who says you’re going to have wacko side effects?”
She raises an eyebrow at me. “This is me we’re talking about. We went through six medications before finding this one, Trace. Six. And it was nearly as bad as the anxiety.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “I don’t want to do that again.”
“I know. Just think about it, okay?”
“Fine,” she grumbles, returning to rest her head on my shoulder. “I guess I might as well talk to you about something that will make you uncomfortable.”
“Like what?”
“Well, my parents know I’m not doing so great, and they want me to come home this weekend. They want me to get away for a little bit and see Dr. Gunner in person. While Mom is curious about my new boyfriend, especially since I haven’t even said his name, I’m only telling you so you’ll know I’ll be unavailable this weekend. Not because I think we should tell them yet.”
Yeah, I think it’s way too soon to tell her parents. Not to mention that I’m so not prepared for that. “Okay,” I say, grateful that she’s not asking me to come with her. “That could be good for you and gives you the week to think about asking Dr. Gunner about the med change.” She doesn’t comment, so I add, “This romantic date I owe you, if I plan it for next weekend, does it still count if I also make it a Valentine’s Day date?”
“Trying to kill two birds with one stone, Trace?” She laughs softly, and it’s good to hear.
“Yeah,” I tell her honestly.
That gets a real giggle out of her. Brittany sits up with a smile. “I guess it can still count, though it makes you seem lazy and uncreative.” She leans forward and gives me a quick kiss. “What did you get for dinner?”
For a second, I’m stunned that she’s hungry. “Chicken quesadillas.”
“Well, let’s go eat.”
We eat our dinner in the kitchen, and then Brittany leaves. She wants to email a few of her classmates to see what was covered in class. She seems to be in a better mood and doing better for now. Hopefully, it’ll last until morning and she won’t miss another day of school. She’s too close to finishing to mess it up.
