Read Online Love You Hate You Miss You by Elizabeth Scott - Free Book Online

So many girls do that, you know? They hook up with someone a few times and drop everything because they think they’re in love. Julia was like that, actually, always thinking she was in love, but no matter what, she never blew me off for someone else.”
    “Even for Kevin?”
    Fucking Laurie. “Even with him.”
    “Do you think—?”
    I cut her off before she could finish whatever stupid thing she was going to say. “When I ended up in the hospital six weeks before she…before she died, Julia was the first person I saw when I opened my eyes. She’d stayed with me the whole time, told everyone there she was my sister.”
    And when I’d woken up, and she’d told me that, she’d rested her head on my shoulder and said, “And really, you know, you are.”
    “You haven’t ever said—” Laurie cleared her throat. “What about your parents? Were they there?”
    “As much as they’re ever anywhere,” I said. “But Julia totally took care of them. They were all, ‘Whathappened?’ and when I reminded them that they could have taken three seconds to talk to the doctor, she said, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Richards, let me tell you what really happened,’ and when she was done with her story my mother was talking about some campus party she’d heard about, where this girl who drank a lot of what she thought was punch, but was actually mostly vodka, had to have her stomach pumped.”
    “Did she say anything else?”
    “She told me she was glad I hadn’t gotten as sick as that girl and to be more careful about taking drinks from strangers. And just so you won’t ask, Dad nodded along with everything Mom said and asked me to promise that I’d be more aware.”
    Laurie scribbled stuff down, and I thought about how Julia had grinned at me after they left, walking off hand in hand like always to get coffee while they waited for me to be discharged, and said, “You know, they were really worried.”
    When I rolled my eyes she sat down next to me and said, “Really,” and then we’d laughed over the story she’d told.
    She’d said, “God, they’re so much easier than my mom!” and she was right. Julia’s mother would have cried and screamed and started in on J the second she wokeup. She didn’t trust Julia one bit, always wanted to know where she was going and who she’d be with. She’d question her over and over till Julia would yell, “Fine, whatever, I’m going,” and leave.
    “What happened after that?” Laurie said.
    “Julia told the doctor she wasn’t going anywhere when he came in to check on me and asked why she was still there. She scrounged up some old magazines and read the articles in funny voices. She bought me a candy bar when I said I wanted something to eat and the nurse I asked said, ‘Honey, you’ll just throw it up.’ The nurse was right, but it didn’t matter. Julia at least listened to me. No one else did. And when I was able to leave, she walked with me out to my parents’ car, gave me a hug, and whispered, ‘I’m going to call Kevin the second I get home and tell him we’re never ever hanging out with that guy again. I really thought he was topping off your bottle but then, when you got so sick—I was scared, A.’ My parents were there, sure. But Julia was really there. She always was.”
    And after all that, after I told Laurie about how Julia and I met and how amazing she was, this is what she said. This is what she wanted to know.
    “How did you end up in the hospital?”
    I stared at her. She’d said we were going to talk about Julia, and I had. And that was what she had tosay? That? Hadn’t she heard a word I said, hadn’t she gotten how amazing Julia was?
    She’s such a crappy shrink.
    “How did you end up in the hospital?” she asked again.
    I sighed. “Drank too much. Remember, the thing you usually make me talk about?”
    “I know,” she said, and clicked her pen twice. “You said Julia told your parents what happened, that when she was done with her story