Chapter 8

Barbara sat at her kitchen table, sick to her stomach.

She was fighting the tension and nausea that had been plaguing her since Bobby had been hurt. Today was the day that Bobby was supposed to go back to school, and she was gearing herself up to once again pump sunshine and happiness at her child, despite how she felt.

With full recollection of what happened the night he was hurt, Bobby had lapsed into a depression over what he considered Patty's betrayals. He'd reluctantly told his Mother what had happened. As a result, she'd agreed to turn away phone calls from Patty to her son, explaining to the distraught girl that she would encourage him to talk to her when he was feeling better.

Raul was growing increasingly concerned about the physical symptoms Barb had been developing as she dealt with her son's accident, his physical recovery, and now his ongoing depression. He'd finally persuaded her that on Bobby's first day back to school he would pick them up to save the kids a bus ride, and then take Barb on to see her doctor.

She heard Raul's van pull into the driveway, and he and Sammy rambled in to join her at the table for coffee and juice while waiting for Bobby to come downstairs. Raul was immediately concerned at her pale complexion.

"Any better today, honey?" he asked, trying to sound casual to mask his concern at her appearance.

"Not really," she sighed. "I've already thrown up this morning though, so I should start to feel better soon."

"Well, I'm glad we're going to go get you checked out today. This has gone on too long."

They heard Bobby clumping down the stairs. He rounded the corner and headed straight to the refrigerator for some orange juice without a word to Sammy or Raul.

"Good morning to you too, butt head," greeted Sammy.

"Oh, sorry," he replied. "Still waking up I guess."

"Uh huh," she grunted back sarcastically, which he didn't notice. He did think to make two pieces of toast, handing one to Sammy as he started on the other. That seemed to mollify her.

"I'm glad you're coming back to school, Bobby. You can help me with Julie."

Bobby merely looked at her lethargically, while Barbara asked, "What's wrong with Julie?"

"I don't know. She stopped coming to school after she visited Bobby at the hospital, and she just came back yesterday. She wouldn't talk to me about why she'd been gone, but I know she spent a lot of time in the office when she came back. I worry about that girl. But maybe she'll talk to the love of her life," she said with a wink at Bobby.

Bobby snorted. "If she needs her love life screwed up, then I'm her man."

"You see the horse shit I have to deal with here?" said Barbara teasingly. "I'm afraid he's going to decide to like boys, but I've told him gay people have just as many relationship problems as straight ones."

Raul barked out a brief laugh as he began to herd everyone out towards his van.

Julie was in the same first class of the day as Sammy and Bobby, so they waited for her by the door. As she came around the corner of the hallway, Bobby was immediately concerned. "See?" said Sammy.

Instead of her usual aggressive, irreverent, almost defiant looking walk, she was now merely making slow and steady progress down the edge of the hall, a carefully impassive expression on her face. She was seemingly avoiding all eye contact with people she passed, until she came to a group of older boys blocking her way.

The blank look on her face gave way to an almost murderous looking snarl that startled the boys into instinctively backing out of her way as quickly as they could. As soon as she was past them, her expressionless mask once again fell into place.

"Wow," said Bobby. He and Sammy moved into the path of the slow moving girl. "Hey Julie," called Bobby gently.

Her eyes rose up dully to look at who dared approach her. When she focused on Bobby and Sammy, her whole face lit up into a happy smile. Without thinking, she launched herself at Bobby, wrapping him up in a firm hug that he instinctively returned. As Sammy watched her expression over Bobby's shoulder, she became alarmed as her happy face became a grimace of obvious pain.

"Bobby, let go of her!" she whispered urgently. He immediately released her, looking over at Sammy in confusion.

"It was just a hug Sammy, geez!" he protested. She brushed past him to put her arms around Julie as she bent over and put her hands on her knees, obviously struggling to breathe. "Julie!" Bobby said in alarm.

"Shhhh!" replied Sammy. "Do you need to go to the nurse, Julie?" she quietly asked the gasping girl.

"N-n-no. I'll be okay in a minute," she said, so softly they could barely here her. She managed to stand back upright, leaning against the wall of lockers behind her, as Sammy did her best to prop her up.

After a minute, Sammy asked quietly, "Your ribs?"

Julie sighed. "Yeah - three cracked ones."

Bobby's eyes got hard. "Who?" he asked simply.

Julie didn't answer, as she did her best to make her face expressionless once again.

"Doesn't matter," she said finally.

"Your parents?" asked Sammy.

"Doesn't matter," she repeated.

Bobby's expression softened. "Is it safe for you to go home?" he asked.

There was a long silence as she stared out into the distance over their shoulders. Finally she said, "For a while anyway. He's usually gone for a least a month at a time." She paused and said it so sadly that Bobby thought his heart would break. "But you never know," she finished.

"Your dad?" Sammy asked. She finally, almost imperceptibly, nodded. "What about your mom?"

Julie snorted. "I take care of her. When she's not telling me she wished she'd had an abortion, we get along fine, because she's usually unconscious. When this happened, I lay there all night until she finally woke up the next day, and then she was pissed at me for making Dad mad."

Bobby and Sammy stood in silence and shock, absorbing what they'd heard. Finally Sammy said, "I saw you were in the school office for a long time, Julie. Can't they do anything?"