Part of the Family

by Cristina Grenier

  Chapter 1 - The Acceptance Letter

  10 Years Later

  “Makayla! Makayla, wake up!”

  Groaning, the dark-haired woman pulled her pillow over her head and resolutely kept her eyes closed. She had just gotten to bed two or three hours ago after pulling a double at one of her jobs and she fully intended to sleep for the rest of the day.

  When she realized the previous week that she was going to have a day off for the first time in six months, she made grandiose plans to go to the gym and get out of the apartment. Of course, now, those lofty goals were completely forgotten.

  “Makayla!” Her door burst open, hitting the opposite wall with a sharp thunk. Makayla jumped, but still refused to remove the pillow from her head. Maybe if she pretended she was dead, her roommate would just go away. “Makayla, it’s here!”

  Her eyes popped open.

  Despite her exhaustion, Makayla bolted upright so quickly her head spun and she had to grasp at her headboard for purchase. Melody stood in front of her, looking as smug as a cat in cream. While Makayla was wearing a ratty pair of sleep shorts and a t-shirt that was three sizes too big for her, Melody looked as if she’d just returned from a clubbing session, despite the fact that it was just after ten in the morning.

  At the sight of her friend’s long legs in a sparkly mini-skirt, Makayla arched a brow in inquiry. Did she really want to know?

  Melody merely grinned at her. “I just got home. I’ll give you the juicy details about last night later.” She thrust a thick manila envelope at her sleepy friend and Makayla caught it in both hands. “First, you have to open it.”

  Though she had known exactly what Melody was referring to when she said it, having the damned thing in her hands was more than enough to make Makayla anxious and nervous all at once.

  Her hand trembling slightly, she traced her fingers over the return address in the upper left-hand corner.

  Columbia University

  College of Physicians and Surgeons

  Office of Admissions

  107 Haven Avenue, Room 105

  New York, NY 10032

  All at once, she didn’t know if she wanted to open it. It seemed like she had been waiting forever for this day.

  Makayla recalled the moment six months ago when she had talked herself into applying. She had been finished with undergraduate for almost two years but found herself indecisive when it came to medical school. Of course, it wasn’t just the academic quality of the institution. For her, it was also about the cost.

  Columbia was an immense stretch for her. An Ivy League school that she doubted would even glance at her application when they found that her undergrad degree was only from a lesser known college in the foothills of California somewhere. But still, a small voice inside her urged her to try. The same voice that had helped her to escape when she thought she’d never be able to.

  And now, here she was.

  She stared down at the envelope for a long time - long enough for Melody to get anxious herself.

  The blonde merely scowled down at her, rocking back and forth in anxiety. “Jesus Christ, Kayla, are you trying to kill me? Open it.”

  Makayla merely glanced up at her before finally slitting the top of the envelope open with a fingernail. There was a thick sheaf of documents inside, but she only needed to see the one on top.

  The moment she read the first word, her heart almost leapt out of her chest.

  Congratulations.

  Melody screamed. Actually screamed.

  Makayla clutched the document vicelike in her hand, doing her best to read the rest of the acceptance letter - but the task became increasingly harder as her eyes filled with tears.

  Congratulations. They had accepted her. Accepted her into Columbia University Medical School. Maybe she had fallen asleep after all and she was just dreaming all of this. But she was pretty sure she was awake - Melody was shaking her, hugging her - all but tackling her to the bed. “I told you!” She insisted, her grin nearly splitting her face in two. “I told you so!”

  That she had. While Makayla told Melody she was only applying to Columbia for shits and giggles, her roommate and best friend saw straight through her. She was one of the few people who knew how hard Makayla had worked to get where she was in life - how many obstacles she had to overcome.

  And she knew how much the younger girl wanted Columbia.

  She, of course, was of the opinion that Makayla would be a shoe-in. Though she had gone to a smaller college, her undergraduate grades were perfect - and her MCAT scores were off the charts. When she suggested this to Makayla, however, the young woman had only told her that she would need more than that to get into one of the best medical schools in the country.

  Makayla had never been so glad to be wrong.

  “Let me see, let me see!” She laughed through her tears as Melody grabbed for the letter, giving it over to the blonde.

  Even as her friend read it aloud, Makayla couldn’t believe it. She had been accepted to Columbia School of Medicine. Though she had known from a young age that she wanted to work in the medical field, she had never, in her wildest dreams, imagined that she would make it this far.

  “Look at all this stuff.” Melody had taken possession of the envelope and was looking through its contents excitedly. “It’s got registration dates, housing information...it’s all here! They want you, Makayla.”

  It was, in part, the validation that she seemed to have been seeking her entire life - someone telling her she was worthy. But Makayla wasn’t naive enough to think it would be that easy.

  Nothing ever was.

  Somehow, she managed to get her papers back from Melody, and the two women settled in her bed to look over them more carefully. It was a lot of information to take in - where to report and when to do it by, the different types of physician classes you needed to take for your first year. Of course, every time she glanced at her admissions letter, Makayla’s spirits soared - but the last piece of paper in her packet was enough to bring her back to reality with a nasty jolt.

  Tuition.

  The number was in the five figures, per year, and though Makayla had been expecting it, her eyes widened.

  There. There it was: Her obstacle.

  At the sight of the numbers on paper, Melody snatched the paper away from her once more, her mouth dropping open. “Fifty thousand dollars? A year!? What the almighty fuck?”

  Makayla forced a smile. “It’s one of the best schools in the country, Mel. And it’s in New York City. Are you really surprised?”

  Melody scowled, setting the paper on Makayla’s bedside table before running a hand through her loose waves. Her expression turning contemplative, she chewed her lower lip. “Maybe you can ask for scholarships. They gave them to you in high school, right?”

  Makayla couldn’t help the incredulous laugh that burst from her. “That was a private school in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. This is Columbia we’re talking about. I’m sure there are people who need it a lot more than I do.”

  Her words earned her a hard stare from her friend. “What?”

  “Makayla Renee Price, don’t you dare start. There is no one who deserves this more than you. No one.”

  Her words were still echoing in Makayla’s ears when she settled down enough to attempt her nap once more. Of course, at this point, it was all but fruitless. She was too amped up after receiving her letter - and too disappointed with the knowledge that she’d never be able to afford to attend.

  She closed her eyes tightly, wondering if there was any way she could work her way through med school, like she had her undergrad studies.

  Of course, the school she attended in California was fairly cheap, and even then, she had to work two jobs to make it through. Hell, she was still working two jobs now to take care of the loans she’d taken out in her senior year.

  Though Makayla was no stranger to hard work, she knew that trying to hold down two jobs while getting her MD was a stretch. No sane person w
ould attempt it - especially just after moving to a new city.

  Putting her pillow over her head, she tried not to think about it. She’d gotten in, hadn’t she? Her only goal had been to see if she would even be accepted. She hadn’t even really given any serious thought to going, had she?

  How could she?

  Sighing, she willed sleep to come. When she woke up, she would do her best to deal, as she always had. For the moment, she needed some well deserved rest -if she could get her overactive mind to gear down.

  By the time Makayla got up that evening, she was irritable. The sleep she had was fitful, and plagued with dreams that involved her doing any number of things to get herself to New York City. As a result, she all but snarled at Melody on her way to the shower, and felt immediately guilty the moment she shut herself in the bathroom.

  Wasn’t her acceptance letter supposed to have made her happy?

  Resolving to apologize to her friend, she stared at herself in the mirror. Even though she’d been accepted to Columbia, nothing about her had really changed. She still saw the same person staring back at her. The same untamable curly hair, same dark circles under her hazel eyes, and the same tired frown she wore to work every day.

  She was just a little ray of sunshine, wasn’t she?

  Thankfully, she felt better after a shower. She slunk from the bathroom with a suitably dejected expression and made her way to the living room to face Melody. Her roommate had changed out of her walk-of-shame gear and merely gave her a careful look from where she poured over the book she was reading.

  “Sorry.” Makayla provided almost immediately. “I was just thinking about that stupid tuition and it upset me. No reason for me to be a complete bitch.”

  Her words made Melody smile. “I dunno. That tuition is pretty damn high.”

  Makayla laughed softly, her mood lighter. “It is, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, you think they’d tell you that before they let you get all excited.” Setting her book aside, the blonde stretched leisurely. In her glasses and pajamas, she couldn’t be further from the bombshell who had burst into Makayla’s room that morning. Of course, Kayla knew that, as much as Melody liked to have men salivating over her, at the end of the day she was most comfortable with her hair up, lounging on the sofa in a t-shirt and panties.

  ...which would probably only make guys salivate more.

  “So, are you going to tell me about last night?” Kayla smiled, reaching for her friend’s coffee cup to take a sip of the lukewarm brew. She hardly had to ask. Dishing juicy details about her latest conquest was one of Melody’s favorite hobbies.

  The blonde merely smiled mysteriously. “I don’t know, am I?”

  Kayla rolled her eyes. “Of course you are.”

  Melody giggled. “I like hearing you beg for it.”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you are way oversexed?” Makayla jibed. She shook her head with an amused smile as Melody reclaimed her coffee.

  “Wrong. You are just under-sexed.”

  Makayla snorted. “No such thing. Pretty sure my lifestyle doesn’t leave me much time for flights of fancy.”

  On that, she was pretty sure Melody couldn’t argue. After all, the two women came from completely different backgrounds. The blonde had been born and raised in Seattle, moving to California with her parents at a young age for the sake of her father’s job. She had grown up upper-middle class in LA, the only child of doting parents, and graduated with honors from Berkley, whereupon she had promptly put her art degree to work and gotten a job in a small gallery just outside the city.

  Makayla’s road had been infinitely harder - but somehow she had managed to snag a job as a receptionist at an urgent care center close to where Melody worked - and she now believed that it was one of the luckiest things to ever happen to her. Not because she was terribly fond of her job - even though it wasn’t the worst - but because she had been there the day Melody came in after a car accident.

  Though she hadn’t been very badly injured, Melody was understandably traumatized - the other driver had run a red light and totaled her car. She was lucky enough to come out with nothing more serious than a fractured fibula and a few lacerations. While most of the nurses and the other receptionists had tried to stay away from her, certain the blonde was hysterical, Makayla went to sit with her while she waited for the doctor to see her, talking her down with empathy as she shot her co-workers dirty looks. Gradually, Melody had calmed down. She had asked Makayla to come in to see the doctor with her when her boyfriend at the time hadn’t been able to make it (she had later dumped that asshole), and the chance meeting was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

  Makayla loved that Melody never expected her to be able to match her lifestyle. Rather than invite her friend out every night or insist that she come to fancy dinners, Melody liked nights in. The girls whiled away most of their evenings watching Netflix and eating ice cream, or gossiping about Melody’s most recent sexual encounter.

  “Sex is not a flight of fancy.” The blonde eyed her with a small smile. “And I’m sure you’ll agree once you’ve had a bout of earth-shattering, toe-curling gorgeousness.”

  The very thought made Makayla wince. She had been working like the energizer bunny for as long as she could remember, and so, at the age of twenty seven, she’d only had one serious boyfriend. Though she had been pretty sure the man cared for her -at least a little - he hadn’t been very gentle when he’d taken her virginity - or any subsequent time they were intimate. He had been convinced that being big was all that mattered, and Makayla had often avoided him for fear of his punishing sexual sessions.

  It was enough to turn her off of the act entirely, even if Melody kept insisting that all men weren’t as idiotic as her ex.

  But it wasn’t just her ex that had her tentative about men. Makayla wasn’t very enthusiastic about any human contact. It had taken her a year to keep from flinching when Melody hugged her - and that had nothing to do with the blonde herself.

  Makayla cut that particular line of thought off the moment it popped into her head. She wasn’t going to think about her past. Not now - not ever again if she could help it. She had far more important things to worry about.

  “I think it’s enough for me to live vicariously through you.” She smiled apologetically at Melody. “I think that’s better for both of us, considering how much you enjoy telling me tales of your debauchery.”

  Melody laughed before her grin turned mischievous. “I do, don’t I? You never get even the slightest little tingle in your lady bits?”

  Kayla rolled her eyes. “No.”

  “Not even a little bit?” Even if she did, she didn’t feel like revealing it to her friend. The blonde girl would just take it and run - Kayla would never hear the end of it.

  “Just tell me the damn story before you lose your chance.” That was enough to get her friend to buckle down and start spinning her yarn about the previous night. Apparently, she and a few of her friends had met up to go to a new bar that had just opened in downtown LA. One of the bartenders there was ridiculously hot and he had his eye on her all night. Though Kayla knew how the story was going to go before Melody was even halfway through it, she allowed the girl to continue.

  The night ended in debaucherously, raunchy sex in the guy’s apartment - and Melody was already planning for a repeat performance.

  “His name is Chance, and I’m pretty sure the man is God’s gift to women.”

  Makayla laughed at that particular assessment. “Better not let him hear that. He might get a big head.”

  “If I’m lucky.”

  “Jesus, you’re single-minded.” Kayla swallowed another burst of laughter as she finished off the coffee before settling back against the couch. She was pretty sure that Melody wasn’t watching whatever was playing on the TV in the background, so she set about trying to find a movie. God, she couldn’t even remember the last time she had a day off…

  “You are too. You’re just fixated on b
etter things than I am.” Kayla snorted in amusement at her comment.

  “Like running myself ragged? Turning myself gray before thirty?”

  “Doing something meaningful with your life. You managed to get your pre-med degree even with your jobs, didn’t you? And now we have to find a way to get you to Columbia.”

  Kayla groaned, running a hand through her still damp curls. She had hoped to avoid talking about this for a while longer. Give herself some time before she went back to the Columbia papers and tried to see if there was any feasible way she could attend. Somehow, she doubted it. She didn’t even make fifty thousand dollars a year, so how was she supposed to afford a fifty thousand dollar tuition?

  “Not that I don’t appreciate it, Mel, but I’m not sure there is a way.” Kayla ventured, trying to sound more chipper than she felt. “I’ll look into it a little later, but I think that for now I just want to enjoy my day off.”

  Funny how she had been waiting to hear back from the school with bated breath for six months, and now that she was confronted with the actual prospect of her entry, the last thing she wanted to do was think about what she’d be missing out on.

  Melody’s smile shrank slightly, but she still leaned over to hug her friend tightly, and Kayla relished the contact. Melody was the only person she let touch her - the only person who could comfort her like this. She didn’t think the blonde would ever know how much she appreciated it. “Alright, babe. If that’s what you want.”

  She wanted to go to Columbia. More than she’d ever wanted anything in her life. But Kayla didn’t want to admit that to Melody - didn’t want to put such immense weight on something that she knew, deep down, was impossible.

  “It is.” She gave Melody her best smile before turning back to the television. It was barely the beginning of October, but they were already advertising Thanksgiving specials on the major movie channels and Kayla changed the subject by asking Mel what her favorite one was.

  They spent the rest of the afternoon watching old movies and munching on popcorn - right up until Kayla got a call from her second job around eight in the evening. When she saw the name of the restaurant scrolling across the screen of her phone, she toyed with the idea of ignoring it. The only reason they could be calling was if they wanted her to pick up a shift - on her only off day in months.