Hood Rats | Sandy Milkovich

The Escape from Teenage Pregnancy

"There you go," Jay mumbled as he carefully dropped Lillian's head onto the pillows laid out on the couch for her. He retracted, resting his weight back on his crutches. The stark white cast around his leg was interrupted by large swooping letters that spelt out 'Get well soon!- Rose' in Sharpie, who complained that she ran out of room for her full name.

The woman groaned and settled into the cushions. Her children watched her from the kitchen. None of them moved, unsure of how much help they really wanted to extend to her.

Just a few hours prior she was in a hospital bed, barely awake or able to comprehend anything said to her, and now she was back home.

"Is she going to be okay?"

Rory patted the top of her sister's head as she joined the others. "She'll be fine. Let's go to bed."

The sun was just then coming up, bathing the house in pale light and dousing the law in dew. Rosie glanced out the kitchen window thoughtfully. "But what about school?"

"You can skip today." She said. Rosie had fallen asleep in the waiting room an hour in, but the others hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. There was no use in sending the youngest of them off.

Jay hobbled into the room with them. "She's all set. Are you guys hungry?"

They shook their heads, but Diego didn't respond. He slowly turned away from the scene and slipped out the back.

"Thank you."

At some point Rory slipped away, more exhausted than any of them. She hadn't slept at all, or relaxed for a full twelve hours and her bed was calling to her desperately. She was so out of it that she almost didn't realize that someone was on her bed.

She wanted to cry. Seeing Sandy sitting cross legged at the end of her bed made her think of the last conversation she had with her mother before the incident the previous day. Rory swallowed her tears the best she could and let Sandy hug her.

It was bittersweet. In any other situation Sandy's arms around her would've made her stomach flutter, but she just felt sick with emotion. Rory squeezed her eyes shut.

"Hey." Sandy shushed her gently, but Rory let out a wet sob into her greasy hair. "I've got you." She maneuvered around the smaller girl to shut the bedroom door.

Somewhere in all those choked out cries Rory found the energy to pull her closer. "I thought she was going to die," she whispered.

And she did. No matter how many times Rory joked that she didn't care where her mother was or if she was okay or not, seeing Lillian passed out like that- her eyes twitching under her lids and her chest barely rising off the mattress -it scared her. Being in that ambulance and witnessing the paramedics quite literally bring her back to life made Rory sick with the realization that she could never escape caring for her mother.

It didn't matter what she did, it was always going to feel like her fault. Lillian knew her own tolerance, and Rory wasn't convinced that she had accidentally taken too much. She'd pushed her to it.

After a few minutes she calmed and they sank into the bed. Tired and achy, Rory drifted off into a restless sleep, leaving Sandy to watch her from the other side of the small space like she had so many times before. Her puffy eyes and blotchy face finally looked peaceful.

Once again Sandy was left alone just with Rory and her thoughts. She traced her fingers over the sleeping girl's forehead gingerly. She could push her away and keep her at arm's length all she wanted, but Sandy would come crawling back the second she called. Weak.

It wasn't fair that Rory just got to lean on her whenever she wanted, but still act like they barely knew each other. Fuck buddies was a sick joke.