Something Wiki by Suzanne Sutherland Page B

Did your doctor tell you anything like that?”
    â€œNo,” I said, trying to remember Dr. Mueller’s exact words. It was all a mush-mouth blur.
    â€œI don’t want to scare you,” she said, “and you’re probably on a really low dosage anyway, but it’s something you should know about. I wish someone had told me; I thought I was going crazy.”
    â€œSo the Pill made you crazy?”
    â€œHa, no, I wish it were that simple. There’s, uh, a whole lot of mental illness in my family. I guess I’m just more, you know, susceptible to depression because of that. I’ve got to be pretty careful. Take good care of myself, you know?”
    â€œOh,” I said, “wow.” Had J just admitted she was actually crazy? She was so calm and matter-of-fact about it, like it was normal. Wow.
    â€œSorry, Jo, am I freaking you out? I know I can go a bit overboard sometimes. I just wish someone had cared enough to tell me the truth about my body from the beginning, you know?”
    â€œNo, no, I get it. I think.”
    â€œCool. I’m sure the Pill will be fine for you. But you can ask me anything if you ever start feeling weird, okay? Even if you don’t.”
    â€œAnything?”
    â€œAnything.”
    â€œWhy’d you get pregnant?” I asked, completely without thinking. I clamped my hand over my mouth and slowly shook my head. What a dumb thing to say.
    â€œI didn’t plan to. But I’m guessing you already figured that out.”
    â€œSorry I —”
    â€œNaw, don’t be sorry. There’ve been too many secrets around here already. My dad wasn’t cool the way your parents are.”
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œSeriously, letting Zim and me live here? My dad would never.”
    â€œWhat about your mom?”
    â€œShe took off when I was little. Really little, I barely remember her.”
    â€œOh. So what about your dad?”
    â€œMy dad had, has, a lot of problems. His whole family does. It’s kind of a mess. I’ve been living on my own for a while. I moved out when I was seventeen.”
    â€œBut how could you afford to, you know, live?”
    â€œI didn’t finish high school. I started working as soon as I could to pay my rent. I lived in some really awful places when I was younger.”
    â€œWorse than Zim’s old apartment?”
    â€œOh my god, that place was like a palace compared to where I was living.”
    â€œWow.”
    â€œYeah. It was bad. So when I met your brother, I just fell for him right away. He was so different from every other guy I’d known. He’s a keeper, your big bro. He’s — well, he’s a pretty amazing guy.”
    â€œMost of the time.”
    â€œYeah.” She smiled. “Most of the time.”
    â€œAnyway, it made me tough, going through all that,” she said. “I may not make all the right decisions.… I mean, I know I’ve made some bad ones. Tons of them. But somewhere along the way I decided that things, my life, everything, would always work out for the best. I had to, it was all that kept me going. So I figured that if whatever was going on wasn’t that great yet, it just meant that I hadn’t worked it out. The story wasn’t over, you know?”
    â€œEverything always works out for the best?”
    â€œI’m telling you, it helps.”
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œJust think about it. Hey, I never told you how much I like your new haircut, did I?” she said.
    â€œReally?”
    â€œYeah, it definitely suits you.”
    â€œSeriously?”
    â€œYou bet. But, hey, you still want to help me with my hair?” J pointed to her shaggy bangs, now completely grey.
    â€œYeah, let’s do it.”
    We went into the bathroom — our poor, overused, non-spider-ridden bathroom — and J got out Z’s electric razor. It was just like the one that Marco had used on the back of my neck at