Next in Line

by R. L. Wilson

  A little while later I was laughing at a funny part in the movie when I looked over at Holly. She had fallen asleep. Maybe I should have put on a girly movie for her. I watched the rest of the movie, gently stroking her calf with my finger. Once it had ended I turned the TV off and scooped Holly up in my arms. She let out a loud gasp and I laughed. “It’s okay Holly” I said. “The movie is finished now so I’m putting you to bed”. “Oh” she said as she put her arms around my neck. “Where am I sleeping?” She asked. “You can sleep in my bed and I’ll sleep in Coopers. Mine is probably cleaner” I said laughing out loud. I carefully placed Holly on my bed and went to walk out when she grabbed my arm and said “Please don’t go yet”. She didn’t have to ask me twice. Holly moved over so there was enough room and I laid down beside her. I looked into her sleepy eyes and gently stroked her cheek. Holly ran her fingers through my short hair and pulled my head towards hers locking our lips together. My entire body started to tingle as I moved my hands to her hips and pulled her closer to me. I felt her tongue gently start touching my lips, without me even thinking my lips separated and my tongue moved in response to hers. I pulled her in tight and rolled us over so Holly was on her back and I was lying on top of her. I kissed her harder and more passionately as I ran my hand down her side until I reached her leg and pulled it up. Holly let out a little moan and it was then that I realised how far things were going. I was excited but another part of me was a little nervous. Holly suddenly pulled her head away and started to squirm as if she was trying to get away. I moved off of her and asked “What’s wrong?” “Nothing. It’s just, well, it’s embarrassing.” I laughed a little and said “You can tell me.” She let out a sigh and said “Well seeing as how I can’t get into my apartment at the moment and I can’t get any of my stuff, which means that I can’t get my pill.” I laughed again and rolled onto my side so that I was facing Holly. I pulled her close to me and kissed the top of her head. “Not tonight then.” Holly placed her head on my chest so I wrapped my arms around her and we both fell asleep.

  When I woke in the morning I stretched my arm out to find Holly but she wasn’t there. I sat up and looked around my bedroom when I heard a little crash coming from the kitchen. I pulled the covers off me and stopped in the doorway when I saw Holly standing in the kitchen with her hand in the sink. “Morning” I said rubbing my eyes and slowly started walking towards her. “Oh Morning. I didn’t wake you did I?” “No, I woke up and couldn’t find you so I thought-“When I was standing next to Holly I realised that she was holding her hand under the running water. “What happened?” I asked as I saw the bright red mark on her hand. I went into the cupboard and pulled out my first aid kit and put it down next to Holly. I grabbed her hand out of the water and was looking at it when she said “It’s okay. I just burnt my hand on the stove. I’m so clumsy.” I put her hand back under the running water and made her keep it there until it wasn’t as bright red. I sat her on the couch and started bandaging her hand up. “You really don’t need to do that. I’m fine” Holly said. Every time Holly got hurt I seemed to be there after it happened and there is nothing that I can do to help her but this time there was something that I could do so I was going to do it. “Please just let me bandage your hand” I said. She let out a sigh and said “Fine then.” I looked up and she was smiling at me. Once I had finished bandaging her hand I gently kissed it and then placed it on her lap. “Thanks” Holly said, dragging the word out a little. “Can I get back to breakfast now please?” she asked in a sarcastic tone?” “Only if you promise not to hurt yourself again” I replied back. Holly looked up at the roof for a moment as if she was trying to think hard and said “I can’t make that promise.” She laughed as she slowly started walking backwards. I jumped up off the couched and walked up to her. I picked her up, threw her over my shoulder and started walking towards my room when I said “Well if you can’t promise not to hurt yourself anymore then I’ll have to keep you in my bed and make sure that you’re safe.” Holly started squirming and laughing and I kicked my bedroom door shut behind me.

  I drove home from work as fast as I could probably breaking a few laws along the way. Whoops. I was loving that Holly was staying with me for the week while Cooper and Sophie were gone. When I walked up to my door I saw Holly sitting on the floor in front of it again. How did she beat me home? She wasn’t supposed to finish work for another hour. Before I could even say anything she said “I got out early today. We had too much staff on so I volunteered to leave.” I reached out my hand to help her up and when she was standing next to me the smell hit me. “Oh wow. You smell beautiful today” I said to Holly laughing as I opened the front door. Holly let out a sigh and said “Yep. I was holding baby Henry today and he was upset so I gave him a cuddle and he decided to share his regurgitated lunch with me. He must have thought my shirt was hungry. It went on my shirt, down my shirt and in my bra. I can feel it on my boob.” I couldn’t hold back the giant laughter that burst out of me. I really don’t understand how she gets thrown up on at work and still loves her job. Then again I get shot at occasionally and hit all the time and I still love my job. I grabbed a towel out of the cupboard and handed it to her. “Thanks, but I thought you liked the smell” She said.

  The week went by quickly. I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t going to be able to have Holly there when I woke up but I was glad to Have Cooper back. We had never spent that much time apart since kindergarten so it was strange to not have someone making inappropriate jokes every time I did something. Coop opened the front door, threw his bags down and yelled “Honey, I’m home” I walked up to him quickly and gave him a hug. “It’s good to have your smart ass back” I said. Cooper laughed as he picked up his bags and threw them in his room. “Will you help me grab the stuff out of my truck and put it in the girls’ apartment?” He asked me. Stuff? He only took a few bags and he just brought them inside. What could he possibly need help with? I followed Cooper out to his truck to see that the back of it was full of baby stuff. There was bags of clothes, a cot, a pram, one of those bouncing things and a whole bunch of other stuff that I didn’t really know what it was. “Wow” I said as I started laughing. “What’s so funny?” Cooper asked me looking confused. “Nothing man. I just can’t believe that you’re going to be a dad” I said. “Ha, you and me both.” We both laughed and then started grabbing everything out of the truck and took it up to the girls’ apartment.

  When we got inside the girls were sitting on the couch looking at a photo and smiling. “Well now that we are all together I can tell you our news” Sophie said as she walked over to Cooper and grabbed his hand. It was a little strange to see him holding hands. He didn’t like relationships too much. “Well we had an ultrasound when we were visiting Cooper’s mum and we found out that we are having a boy!” Holly let out a little squeal as she jumped up and gave Sophie a hug. Cooper walked up to me with a giant smile on his face and said “You’re going to have a nephew.” I laughed and hugged Coop before then going and saying Congratulations to Sophie and giving her a hug too. It felt weird hugging her. I didn’t hate Sophie but we weren’t really close. We were usually only in a room together if either Cooper or Holly was in the room with us too. Cooper and I spent the next two hours putting all the baby stuff together while the girls started trying to pick some boys names that they liked. I smiled at how cute Holly was, getting all clucky over the ultrasound picture but I couldn’t help but feel a little clucky too at the comment that Coop had made about me being an Uncle. I didn’t have any siblings so this was the closest that I was going to get to become an Uncle and I loved Coop, not that I was ever going to admit that to him. “I think you should call the baby Logan after the greatest Uncle in the world” I said smiling. Cooper and Holly laughed and Sophie sat there shaking her head. “Well I thought it was a good idea” I said chuckling a little. “Where do you want all of the baby stuff to go Soph?” Cooper asked. I looked around the apartment and started to wonder the same thing. “I’l
l make some room for it after. I might go and have a nap” Sophie said. “I’ll come tuck you in” Cooper told her.

  Holly

  I had been feeling so happy the past couple of weeks. Things between Logan and I were going great. Logan had made me dinner and then we watched a movie. I didn’t want to leave him but I was so glad to be in my bed. I’d had a few bad works days the last couple of days but I was determined to not let that ruin my good mood. I saw Mr Sullivan every day this week and he was acting very strange. I thought maybe he was mad at me for rejecting him the other week but chose to ignore it. This is one of the reasons why I didn’t want to date him in the first place.

  “Holly. Please. Wake up” I heard Sophie say as she was shaking me. I looked over at my clock. It was 3:07am. “Are you crazy, Sophie? It’s 3am” I said back to her rubbing my eyes and feeling slightly annoyed that she had interrupted my much needed sleep. “Holly please help me. I’m bleeding.” It took me a second for my brain to process what she had just said. I jumped up in my bed and turned the lamp on. I looked at Sophie who was hunched over from the pain and gripping her stomach. She had blood all over her pyjama shorts and some running down her legs. My hands started shaking as the adrenaline ran through my body. “Ok. Don’t panic. Just go change your shorts. It’ll be ok.” Sophie walked back into her room and I grabbed my keys and ran next door to the boys’ place. I started knocking on the door as loud as I could until it swung open. Logan was standing looking angry for a second and then confused. I pushed past him yelling “Where’s Cooper?” I didn’t wait for him to answer me. I ran into Cooper’s room and found him still sleeping in his bed. I shook him as hard as I could yelling that he needs to get up. Logan came into the room looking worried and said “What’s wrong Holly.” I looked back at Cooper and realised the he was sitting up now and had the same look on his face that Logan did. “It’s Sophie” I screamed out. “Something is wrong with the baby.” Cooper jumped out of bed and grabbed a shirt as he ran next door with me and Logan right behind him. When we got back to the apartment Sophie was walking out of her bedroom still hunched over but she was now grunting because of the pain. It was getting worse. Cooper ran up to her and placed his hands on her shoulder and looked straight into her eyes. “I’m bleeding Coop” She said to him. Without another word Cooper scooped Sophie up in his arms and we all ran to the car. I tried to put the keys in the lock but I was shaking so much that I couldn’t do it. Logan grabbed the keys from my hands and said “I’ll drive.” We all jumped into the car and raced down to the hospital as fast as we could.

  Logan and I were in the waiting room for hours before Cooper came out to the waiting room and started walking up to us. His eyes were red and puffy and his cheeks were wet. My eyes instantly filled with tears but I fought hard to stop them from spilling out. “She um” was all that Logan could say before more tears started pouring down his face. “She lost the baby, didn’t she?” I blurted out. Cooper looked at me as a sob escaped from his chest and nodded. Oh god! I couldn’t believe this was happening. “They don’t know why it happened but something went wrong because the doctor said it’s very uncommon for this to happen at 4 months.” Cooper told us. I couldn’t stop the tears from spilling out and running down my face. I tried to cry as quietly as I could because I didn’t want to upset Cooper any more than what he already was. “She just out of surgery then. They had to clean out her womb or something. I’m sorry I’m just telling you now” Cooper said. Logan grabbed Cooper and pulled him in hugging him tightly. They stood there hugging for a minute when Cooper said “I should really get back in there. I want to be there when she wakes up.” As Cooper turned to leave he looked at me and gently touched my cheek wiping away the tears. I tried to smile at him but more tears started running down my face. As soon as Cooper was out of sight I let out a loud sob and the tears were now pouring out. Logan held me tight to him stroking my hair and reassuring me that everything would be okay. He sat me down next to him, still hugging me and kissing the top of my head every few minutes while I cried in to his chest.

  Chap

  ter Eleven

  Holly

  I turned my music up louder and stuck my head under my pillow to try and drain out the sound of Cooper and Sophie arguing once again. It had been a month since Sophie had the miscarriage and it was obviously still effecting her in a bad way. She was angry all of the time and she would start fights with everyone. Especially Cooper. For the first few days of them fighting I would try to defuse the situation but I always seemed to make it worse so now I would just lock myself away and be as loud as I could be so I didn’t have to listen. I grabbed my phone off my nightstand and started to text Logan.

  Are you home?

  Nah, I’m at the station. Is everything alright?

  I’m trapped in my room at the moment. Sophie and Cooper are fighting again.

  How long have they been fighting for this time?

  They have pretty much only just started.

  Okay, well I’ll be at your place in half an hour. We can go out for dinner and let those two finish their argument.

  Can’t wait :)

  I jumped off my bed and started to get ready. Almost exactly half an hour later I heard Sophie yell “What the hell do you want?” Logan must be here. Just then he popped his head in my room and asked “So are you ready to go? I think we should probably leave before Sophie rips my head off or something.” I grabbed my bag and Logan and I quickly left the apartment.

  We had dinner at my favourite café which was only a few blocks away from the apartment so we decided to walk.

  On our way home we had just turned onto Fifth Street when we saw two men standing in the middle of the footpath having a pretty heated argument. When they started to push and shove each other Logan turned to me and said “please wait here” before he ran in between them and held his badge in each of their faces. “You both need to stop and walk away now before this ends badly for everybody” Logan said in a deep voice. One of the men went to say something but Logan quickly said “Or we can sort this out at the station. It’s up to you.” Neither of the men said anything. They both turned the opposite way to the other and walked away. I was smiling at Logan when he walked back up to me. “I’m not going to lie. That was hot” I said feeling a little embarrassed. “What was?” Logan asked me. “What you just did. Getting off on the power trip from being able to boss people around.” Logan smiled at me, grabbed my hips and pulled me close to him. I gasped a little as my heart started to race. “Oh is that what I do is it? Well in that case, you need to kiss me right now otherwise I’ll have to handcuff you” he said. “You better not. I might like that” I said laughing out loud and feeling silly for what I was saying. Logan made a little moaning noise before kissing me hard. Then he put his arm around me and we started walking back home.

  Before we went back to the apartment I went to check the mail which I’m pretty sure hadn’t been done in a few days as it was almost overflowing. I started looking through the mail and I came across a pamphlet. “Oh there is a fair on this weekend. We should go” I said to Logan with a giant smile on my face. I love the fair. It was a perfect place to go and act as immature as you could without consequences. “Sounds good. Cooper and I usually go anyway” Logan said. I was so glad when he said that. I really wanted to go but I didn’t want to go by myself because I knew with the way Sophie had been acting lately that she wouldn’t want to come with me. I started flicking through the rest of the mail when a small folded up piece of paper fell to the ground. I picked it up and started to unfold it. This was strange. When I opened it there was one hand written word on it ‘Always’ “Did you leave me a letter?” I asked Logan as we started walking towards the apartment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about” he said back. I wasn’t sure if he was being serious or joking so I handed him the piece of paper. He had a puzzled look on his face so I knew that it wasn’t from him. “I didn’t write that” Logan said. When we reached the door to my apartment,
Sophie and Cooper were still arguing. I let out a big sigh before opening the door and walking in. “How is this my fault?” Cooper shouted. “Well you’re the one who got me pregnant in the first place. If it wasn’t for you none of this would have happened. It’s over Cooper. I’m done with you” Sophie yelled back. Was she actually blaming Cooper for what happened with the baby? I knew that Sophie was having a really hard time but it was just so unfair to blame Cooper for it. Even though I knew it was a bad idea I decided to say something to Sophie. “Soph, you really can’t blame Cooper for that. It wasn’t anyone’s fault” I said. Sophie turned and glared at me. Yep, I definitely shouldn’t have said anything. Straight away I felt bad for what I said. “Shut your mouth Holly. This has nothing to do with you” Sophie yelled at me. “Excuse me.” Even when Sophie weren’t friends in school she had never spoken to me like that. She took a step towards me and out the corner of my eye I saw Cooper and Logan whispering to each other but decided to ignore that. I was too frustrated with Sophie.

  “Just leave Holly, seriously. You don’t care about what’s going on. You’re too busy trying to get the boys to like you, to help your best friend.” Anger quickly spread through my body and I started to shake. My hands clenched into fists as I walked right up to Sophie so I was standing directly in front of her. “How dare you say that I don’t care. I have always been the one there for when you screw up.” I hadn’t realised that I was pointing at Sophie until she hit my arm away. Without even thinking my body reacted before my brain could tell me to stop and I pushed Sophie making her take a step back. Before anything else could happen Cooper was standing between us and Logan grabbed my arm and pulled me out of our apartment and into his.