19: Up and Down

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Alison had to go to therapy today. While Brady got home visits from Dr. Potter, Alison was forced to meet him at his office. Apparently, it would be good for Alison to leave her house once and awhile, according to her dad.

Dr. Potter seemed fine, but Alison was not interested. She sat down in his office and stared at the ground for the first few minutes.

"I understand you've been through quite a lot, Alison. Therapy isn't a punishment."

"I didn't say it was," she mumbled.

Dr. Potter studied her for a moment.

"I've heard you have trouble sleeping," he said.

Alison stared at the ground again.

Dr. Potter seemed to change gears as Alison's eyes shifted to the puzzles in the corner of the room.

"Do you like puzzles?" he asked. "You can work on one if you'd like."

Alison looked up at him to see if he was being serious. She thought about it for a moment before going over and taking a puzzle. She laid out the pieces on the ground in front of her and began making it.

Dr. Potter observed her for a while.

"Can I ask you something?" he questioned after letting her make it halfway through the puzzle in silence.

Alison gave him a tiny nod.

"What's been the hardest part of returning home?"

"Feeling like I'm frozen in the past and everyone else is in the present."

Dr. Potter wrote something down.

"Your father says that your mother is not in the picture, does that upset you?"

"I don't care," Alison muttered as she fit the last piece of the puzzle into place.

"What's your relationship with your father like?" he asked her.

"I passively tolerate."

Dr. Potter asked her more questions as Alison began a new puzzle. After an hour, finally Alison was allowed to leave.

"I'll see you next week, okay?"

Alison only nodded.

Later, back in the guest house with Kate, Alison got high. It felt like the most stereotypical summer day as she and Kate made their way to the skatepark while they were stoned. Alison still hadn't gotten her old belongings from Max's so she had to borrow a board from Kate. Alison was not happy about that.

"Where is everyone?" Alison asked Kate.

She shrugged. "Most people skate at the park over on Mayfield now."

"Damn," Alison murmured. "Why?"

Kate shrugged. "Are you skating or not?"

She positioned herself to drop into the skate pool.

"Is this your first time skateboarding since..." Kate's question trailed off awkwardly. She knew better than to talk about it by now.

Alison was too high to care though. "Yeah, it is," she said.

"Well, here's to your first," she said as she placed a pill on her tongue.

Alison chuckled as Kate took out her phone to record her friend. Alison prepared herself before finally stomping in and doing trick after trick. The adrenaline did not quite stop until she finally got off the board and grinned at Kate who cheered for her.

"You should try a new trick," Kate encouraged. "What was that one you were trying to get before? Hardflip?"

Alison chuckled. "Maybe I should attempt that when I'm not so high."

Kate laughed and stood up. "Come on, just try it."

Alison felt a little nervous, but then again, when was she to back down from another challenge? She found a good place to practice and started with a couple easy flips. She eyed Kate recording again but ignored it. She focused on the trick.

The first attempt did not go well, still Alison managed to catch herself when she couldn't land it. Kate laughed. Alison glared at her. She tried again. This time her footing was off and the board went out from under her. She slipped and scraped her hands and knees. Kate chuckled at first but it died in her throat when she saw how badly scraped her knees were.

"All right, let's call it a day," Kate said nervously.

"No, I got this," Alison said assuredly.

She tried once more, this time the board flipped how she needed it to, but the way she landed wasn't right, she flew off without being able to catch herself. She face-planted into the ground.

"Oh shit!" Kate yelled as she scrambled over to her friend. "You okay?"

Alison got up and tasted blood, that wasn't a good sign. At first, she didn't really feel much of the injuries, but then they hit her like a truck. She could barely stand. Kate slipped her arm around her waist and steadied her.

"Come on, let's get you to the hospital," she said as they walked.

Alison felt dizzy. "Is it that bad?" she asked.

Kate helped her into the car and grimaced. "Sweetie, you're already bleeding onto my seat."

Alison felt like throwing up as Kate drove. Not only was Kate a bad driver but she felt a head wound when she grazed her hand over her forehead.

They arrived at the hospital and Kate started screaming for some help. A nurse helped Alison in and all Alison remembered was the fluorescent lights above her before she promptly passed out.

***

She woke up to what sounded like a screaming match.

"Get the hell out of here!" she heard someone yell.

"Make me," the other voice challenged.

Alison felt groggy and weak but the voices felt familiar. As her eyes adjusted, she made out the familiar fluorescent lights and remembered what happened. The failed attempts at landing the hardflip, Kate's terrible driving, she was in the hospital.

The lights were beginning to hurt her eyes. The continuous yelling did not help.

Alison groaned.

The yelling subsided as the people in the room realized she was awake.

"Alison? How are you feeling?" a third voice asked.

Alison tried to focus on the voice. She mumbled something incoherent at first. What was wrong with her?

"You're on some pain medication," the voice explained.

She felt someone take her hand, Alison still couldn't recognize the voice. It was definitely female. She could make out two other blurry people standing behind the voice closest to her. Who was this woman who was holding her hand?

Alison squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them again when she felt a little better. When her eyes met the woman holding her hand, the blood in her veins turned to ice. She yanked her hand back and glared at the woman. It was her stepmother: Gabriella.

Alison tried to move away but a shot of pain went up her body.

"Ali stop, you're hurt," someone else said, a male voice: Max.

"Get away from me," she said angrily to Gabriella.

Her stepmother backed up and Alison didn't quite care for the hurt look on her face.

Max was standing opposite the room from Kate and Alison realized they were the two who were fighting. He came over to her side.

"Relax, Ali. You're going to hurt yourself even more," he said.

Alison continued to glare at her stepmother until she finally muttered something about getting a doctor and left.

"What happened?" Alison asked.

At once Kate came over and she looked on edge. After sending Max an irritated look she whispered something in Alison's ear. "We have to get our stories straight."

Alison looked at Kate with a confused look.

Max looked between them.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Max, can you give us a minute?" Alison asked.

Max looked at her with an incredulous expression on his face.

"Please, five minutes," Alison pleaded.

Max just shook his head and let out an exasperated breath. He left the room and Kate shut the door behind him.

"Listen, Alison. I lied to the doctors so they wouldn't call the police," she said at once.

"What did you say?" Alison asked.

"I told them you were skateboarding by yourself and you got hurt by accident. You called me and I came and picked you up. I didn't tell them I was there the whole time or that we were high."

"Why not?" Alison asked as her head began to spin again.

"Because..." Kate sighed. "All right, the truth is the reason no one really goes to the skatepark anymore is because I got busted selling there. My parents paid everything off but if the cops find out that I was high at the park with a minor again...well it won't look good for me."

Alison pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to keep the room from spinning.

"All right, I'll just tell them I was by myself and did a trick above my skill level, that's at least close enough to the truth," Alison decided.

"Thanks, Ali!" Kate said gratefully.

Alison managed a small smile.

"All right, get better, we'll talk soon. I have to go see Oliver."

Kate kissed Alison on the cheek and then left. As soon as she was gone, Max came straight in.

"What the hell did she tell you?" he demanded.

"Nothing, Max," Alison sighed.

"Ali," Max said in a warning tone.

"Just drop it!" she demanded angrily.

Max glared at her. "I saw Kate's videos of you skateboarding at the park on Instagram. Then I hear from Liam that his dad was treating you after a nasty fall off your board. I go and check Instagram again and the videos are gone. What are you protecting her for?"

Alison glared right back at Max. "What are you doing hanging out with guys like Liam?" she argued back. "He and his buddies are just as bad as Kate."

"Liam and his friends didn't sell Oxy to a bunch of teenagers last year to pay off their debt to a drug dealer," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but they bought it from her, didn't they? All they do is get wasted and treat girls like trash."

Max looked disgusted with Alison. "What does Kate have over you?" he asked.

Alison stared at him blankly. "Nothing," she muttered. "What are you implying?"

Thankfully, a doctor came in with Gabriella, interrupting the tension between the two former flames.

"I think you should go home, Max," Gabriella said to him. "I'm going to take Alison home too."

"Where's my dad?" Alison asked as the doctor checked her over.

"He's at work," Gabriella explained.

Alison sighed and Max stared at her for a moment longer before leaving. The doctor looked her over once Max left.

"All right, Alison. These scrapes on your knees and palms don't look too bad, we cleaned them up. What I'm more worried about is your head. You have a pretty nasty laceration on your forehead, we stitched it up. Thankfully the head CT is all clear so it must not have been that hard of a fall. I'm prescribing some pain medication and you can follow up next week, alright?"

Alison nodded. Soon, she was discharged and allowed to leave. The drive home was silent. Alison didn't want to talk to her stepmother anyway.

When she arrived home, Alison slammed the door behind her as she made her way into the guesthouse.

She was not in a good mood.

Her mood only further fouled when her father walked into the guest room with Alison's step-sister, Briana. Up until then, Alison had interacted once with Briana. She was playing outside and had asked Alison to join her, but she declined as politely as she could manage. Even if Alison was against being mean to kids, Briana was pushing it. The girl was no sister to Alison, even though her step mother would not want anything more.

"Alison," he father said with a breath of relief when he saw her. "You scared me. I got stuck in this meeting when I got the call from the hospital, I tried to come. I sent Gabby."

"Yeah, I know," Alison said coldly as she went into the kitchen to get some ice.

"Well, I don't want you alone, the doctor may have cleared you but I want to make sure you're okay."

"Too bad," Alison murmured. "I'm fine, just leave me alone."

Her father frowned and Briana took the gap in conversation to speak up.

"We can have a sleepover!" she said excitedly. "You'll love my bedroom, I have stars on my ceiling. We can stay up all night watching movies and eating ice-cream."

Alison glared at the child. Clearly Briana did not know that the room that Alison 'would love' was the bedroom that had been hers for her entire life and that Max had been the one to put those stars up for her.

"I'd rather be locked up in that basement again than spend a night with you," she said to her step-sister in a tone as cold as the ice pack on her head.

Briana looked visibly upset and her father looked angry.

"Don't be like this, Alison," he said in a warning tone. "You're on my last nerve."

He picked up Briana who had begun to tear up and sent Alison a nasty look before walking out of the guesthouse with her.

Alison just rolled her eyes. She made her way into bed and ignored the ringing of her cell phone. She had left it downstairs and it was too much effort to go down again. Whoever it was would have to wait. 


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