#PartyBoss isn't a term Tulip Carpenter coined herself but she wears it with pride. Her life is a party, she's doing what she loves, creating mindblowing celebrations for the happiest moments in people's lives. But when the baby she put up for adopt...
"Sweetie, calm down." Niesha's comforting voice came through the speakers of Tulip's vintage Bronco as she barrelled down the dirt country road. "Breathe and go back."
Tulip wiped her face. The tears hadn't stopped falling since she got in the car and grew heavier in frequency once she pulled out of the driveway blurring the path in front of her. The bright headlights cut through the obsidian night that swallowed up the moon's glow and reduced it down to just a beam overhead. The speed of her tire revolutions kicked up thick clouds of dust and sent pebbles skidding into the long grass surrounding the vehicle now that the Young property was miles behind her.
"I can't...I can't." She wiped with a shake of her shoulders that caused the SUV to veer a millimeter off the road and into the loose dirt of the shoulder. She quickly pulled the truck back in the lane and tightened her hands on the side of the steering wheel.
"Sweetie, what can't you do?" Niesha asked with worry threading every word. "Let me help you. Tell me what you can't do."
Tulip couldn't pinpoint the proper answer so her mouth just opened and locked there. Her lips quivered as her mind played hopscotch with memories. The day she met Jasper and became smitten with his physical beauty, the day his body took the backseat when his personality got her high during a concert, and the night on the shore of a beach. The beach was manmade but under the dark blue sky, there was nothing man-created that could describe how Jasper was making her feel. His mind entranced her, his touch revived her, and his body pleased her just like it did half an hour ago.
Her college roommate told her the first time would be a disaster and unfilling; to just swipe her V-card and move on to the next. But she wasn't a fumbling mess, it was magical like they locked into a wavelength crafted just for them and when she reached her peak beneath him how quickly he pulled out was the last thing on her mind. Some things never changed. Back there, in his bed, she wasn't thinking about the condom. She didn't feel it break. She didn't check the brand and expiration date before he sheathed himself. All she was consumed with was him, her, and them.
Stupid Tulip.
A fresh batch of tears warmed her cheeks as she glanced at the time on her dashboard. It was far from ten and quickly ticking towards twelve. Her granny once told her that the only thing that opened around that time of night was legs and the ER. Well, her legs were closed now and she didn't think an emergency room could piece a breaking heart back together. Because even though Jasper told her he wasn't going to leave her...them, again. There was a concrete wall stronger than Jericho preventing her from believing that.
Granted, the love they were making sent cracks through it but once he paused with his erection no longer protected by the thin substance those cracks repaired themselves. Her mind sent her back to that hospital bed where she pushed Sidney out without him by her side. She finally knew what she couldn't do."
"I can't get pregnant." She heaved out. "I can't be pregnant. I fucked up, Eisha. Everything was going so well and I fucked things up. I'm so stupid. If I wasn't such a slut this wouldn't have happened."
"Woah! Woah, baby girl, you're spiraling." Neisha's tone became more urgent and Lachlan asking what was going on in the background could be heard but Tulip didn't pick him up because she was doing exactly what her friend said. Spiraling; unraveling and falling deep in a well of self-deprecating despair.
"You're not a slut, and if you're...." Neisha paused to sniff and clear her throat from the emotions that were taking hold of her. "If you're pregnant then we'll handle it because this isn't the last time. You've got me and I'm not going anywhere, you hear me. You're not alone."
"I'm here, too," Lachlan spoke up in the background.
Neisha proclaimed after him. "See, Tulip...you have a tribe. We got you."
Tulip pressed her foot on the brake eased the vehicle's speed at the stop sign and broke down once more. She leaned forward gripping the steering wheel tightly and sobbed, letting out moans as if her soul was wrecked with laborious pains to shed a layer of itself riddled with scar tissue. She lost all track of time but once she raised her head and sat back upright again tears were free from her eyes; their drying trails were the only lasting evidence of them.
"Okay." Tulip tiredly breathed out. "I'll turn around...and go back."
"Good," Neisha said with a breath that seemed like the first one she had inhaled since accepting the call. "Do you want me to stay on the phone until you get there?"
"Ahh..." She sounded as she pondered feeding the car some gas and gliding into the adjacent road "I'll be..."
Her words ceased as the blinding light of an oncoming vehicle burned her eyes and called her forearm over her face. The speed of the stranger's car didn't swiftly increase even though the squealing of their breaks ripped through the still night only to be outdone by the breaking of glass and bending of metal. However, it was Tulip's head that broke the window in the door on her side of the car and made her lose consciousness. Her car flipped one...two...three times until it settled on its side. The only noises heard through the humid, night was Neisha frantically calling her friend's name and the horn of the stranger's car being held down by their head.
Then, on the road, a couple of feet away from Tulip's car her phone lit up as text messages were received.
Jasper: Call me back. Please.
Jasper: We can fix this.
Jasper: I'll fix this.
Jasper: Just came back.
Jasper: Please come home. I love you.
Tulip would not be able to read his text nor did she know they had been sent. She was limp in the driver's seat, stuck in the car, and out cold with blood trickling down her lip.
What do you think will happen to Tulip? Will she be okay?
How will Sidney react when she learns about her MeMe's accident?
What will Jasper do when he finds out about the accident?
Why do you think Tulip was spiraling and calling herself a 'slut'? Was her breakdown cry a breakthrough?
Hmm, where do you think Neisha is? (And who'd love to have a friend like her? I know I would.)
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