Title: Lean
On Me
Author: Candy
Crum
Genre: YA
Romance
Expected Release Date: March 16, 2014
Book Description:
Sixteen year old Bri comes from a wealthy family, allowing
her an expensive pass into the popular crowd, though it never much mattered to
her. She's on the basketball team and track and is the top in both.
Bri has everything a girl could want, but she
longs for a traditional family that loves one another deeply and would do
anything for one another instead of the one she was gifted - cold and very
distant. Growing up this way has left Bri alone and forced to raise herself.
Bri's parents pressure her to be the best at
everything instead of just being the best that she can be. As a result of
trying for the perfect life for her parents, hoping that it will one day
impress them, Bri finds herself in an abusive relationship for title rather
than love with the high school football star and pressured into doing what a
lot of teenagers are pressured into doing.
When Bri becomes pregnant, her entire world is
turned upside down and she has no idea who she can trust anymore. Bri struggles
to find a place in this world for herself and for her baby - the baby that she
is desperate to have and watch grow. Along the way, Bri is given an opportunity
to completely change her life and the life of her child - but it may hinder the
life of someone incredibly important to her ... binding him to a future he was
never meant to have, just for her. Bri is forced to grow and grow stronger as
she fights for her baby and learns how to be a good mother.
Facebook Release Party: https://www.facebook.com/events/281081868715512/
~Chapter Reveal~
Chapter
4
Bri struggled to breathe as the
wind hissed from her lungs with the awkward landing. Her vision was blurry and
her head throbbed. She wanted to scream, but was silenced with something being
strapped across her mouth – duct tape. Her attacker grabbed her by the hair and
dragged her backward, behind the store. She screamed from behind the tape and
kicked her legs, struggling to get free.
Tears streamed down her face as
she immediately worried for the condition of her baby. She’d landed hard on her
belly. She had no idea what it would take to end a pregnancy by blunt force.
The attacker used her hair to pull her up to her feet before slamming her hard
into a wall. As soon as her vision cleared, fear coursed through her,
adrenaline threatening to make her pass out.
Before, she’d worried that her
attacker may hurt her baby (even by accident, not knowing she was with child)
in the process of robbing her. Now, she knew the object of this attack was solely for the purpose of harming her
baby. She stared into Mike’s cold, hard eyes. She heard the chuckles of four of
his friends surrounding him.
“Your mom called,” Mike said,
gently running his fingertips down the side of her face. “She said that she was
sorry her daughter was so confused. She begged me to take you back. Even told
me where you’d be so I could come and talk to you. That was nice of her, wasn’t
it?”
Bri sobbed as she tried to push
him away, knowing that even if she managed to fight him off, there were four
more to subdue her.
“I know we had our little chat
just today, but I got to thinking about it and it’s been quite a long time
since you and I fooled around. You know what that means? Docs around here won’t
do an abortion without parental consent because of the increased risks.”
Bri felt disgusted that he stated
that so casually. He was a stupid boy. He didn’t know a lot about anything that
wasn’t sports related. She imagined that he’d learned it from other experiences
like this, either his own or his friends.
“But you won’t talk to your
parents, will you, Bri?” he asked, pushing himself closer. She was terrified,
too terrified to move. She wished that she could get to her phone. She wished
that she could call for Matt’s help. “I didn’t think so.”
She realized then that she’d been
too scared to answer, too scared to lie her way out of it – even from behind
tape. Bri was about to answer by way of nodding when the first blow to her face
came. She was hit hard, several smaller bones in her face crushing under the
blow. She landed hard on the ground, blackness seeping in as she felt the first
painful kick to her abdomen. Please, God,
was the last thing to enter her mind as she lost consciousness.
“Her pulse is weak,” she heard a
man say from above her. She looked up to see an attractive young man hovering above
her. “My name is Gerome and I’m the EMT that responded to the call. You were
attacked, ma’am. We are about halfway to the hospital. Do you have any
allergies?”
Bri shook her head, but
remembered that she had one. “Ery… Ery…” As hard as she tried the name wouldn’t
come.
“Erythromycin?” he asked.
She nodded. “That’s it.” Her eyes
bolted open as she tried to sit up, but she was strapped down. “My baby!”
“Your baby? Are you pregnant,
ma’am?”
“Yes! Almost four months. They
were kicking me in the stomach! Is the baby still alive? Can you tell?” She was
frantic as tears started rolling down her face. She could feel the scrapes on
her face as the salty tears stung them on the way down her cheeks.
“Jo!” he called to the front of
the ambulance. “Is the fetal Doppler working yet?”
It was a woman that called back.
“Oh, God. She’s pregnant? They took it out. It was smashed after the rookie
dropped it and stepped on it. They’re supposed to be replacing it tomorrow.”
“What’s a fetal Doppler?” Bri
asked.
“It’s a wand that I could place
against your lower abdomen and listen for the heartbeat. Unfortunately, we
don’t have one.”
“That’s the only way that you can
check on her?”
“I’m sorry. That’s the only way
that I can tell in here. A stethoscope can’t really pick anything up through
the uterine wall. Not in here for sure, though in a quiet room it’s probably
possible. You’re having a little girl?” he asked, a sad smile breaking through
as he worried for both of them.
“It’s just a hunch,” she said.
Her entire body was shaking from shock and fear. Her eyes were growing heavy
again, but she wanted to stay awake. She needed to know everything that was
going on. “Do you think she will be okay?”
Gerome sighed and placed his hand
over hers. “Bad things happen to good people every day. I know. I see a lot of
it around here. But one thing I know for sure is that as bad as some of those
things are, I have seen some of the most miraculous recoveries. People that
never should have lived that were able to go home to their families and live
their lives. People think that babies are fragile, and they are, but not nearly
as fragile as we assume. That baby wasn’t outside exposed to the attack. She
was cradled inside your body. You’re alive. So it’s okay to hold out hope that
she is too. But…”
“But it’s best to know that I’m
young and this is still really early in the pregnancy,” she said, interrupting
him.
He nodded. “That’s right. Listen,
you’re not looking too good yourself. Worrying and stressing puts you both in
danger. Your vitals are slow, so you need to relax and let me worry about both
of you. We will be at the hospital in about five minutes. Focus on staying
alive. If you go, so does she. She’s too young to survive outside the womb.”
His words hit
her hard. She forced a nod and relaxed. Her ribs ached with every breath, but
she forced herself to steady her breathing and try to will the pain away. When
she was twelve, she’d fallen during a gymnastics practice and broke her ankle.
She’d begged her mother for a week to take her to the hospital, but she
wouldn’t, saying that Bri had only twisted her ankle and to stop worrying over
nothing. It was finally her father that took her, learning that she’d broken it
quite badly and would require surgery.
For that
incredibly painful week before seeking treatment, Bri had to learn how to will
the pain away. She practiced breathing techniques and focused on something in
whatever room she was in as she imagined “pushing” the pain away from herself.
She later learned that was a legitimate meditation technique and even taught to
some pregnant women to use during labor.
Bri now called
on her past experience to help her through the excruciating pain. Being unable
to take deep breaths made her work difficult, but she was able to relax as she
closed her eyes and focused on what it would be like to be a mother. She
imagined herself holding her baby for the first time and being surrounded by
the people that she loved. Soon, her mind completely overtook her as she
disappeared into unconsciousness once again with only dreams of her baby to
sooth her.
Bri’s eyes slowly fluttered open,
well – one of Bri’s eyes fluttered
open. The other was completely swollen shut. As she realized she now only had
use of one of her eyes, she began to panic. She tried to move, but her hands
were bound, as were her feet. She tried to scream for help, but her throat was
too sore to make such a loud noise.
The sound of frantic beeping
entered her ears just before she heard multiple footsteps stampeding into the
room. She began to come around as she realized that she was in a hospital. A
doctor came into view, a face that was familiar to her. He was her childhood
doctor. Another familiar face stepped into view; she was Matt’s mother’s
OB/GYN, Maree Metcalf. She’d met her once when she accompanied them to a
well-mother prenatal appointment.
“Briana,” Doctor Conway, her
pediatrician spoke. “Try to calm down. You’re safe and in the hospital. You
were brutally attacked. You can speak, but try to keep quiet. It appears that
you were choked. There was some damage done to the trachea, but nothing
permanent or needing surgery. It should heal on its own as long as you’re
gentle with it.”
She nodded. “Bri.” Another
familiar voice. She looked off to the right to see her parents sitting there,
holding her hand.
They
weren’t there a moment ago, she thought. They
must have come in with the doctors.
“How are you feeling?” her father
asked.
Bri began to speak a couple of
times, only managing a cough as she tried to clear her throat. “Like I was just
beaten half to death by Michael Rhodes and his minions.”
Her mother sighed, her eyes
closing as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Briana Grace. He would never do
such a thing. It was he that called us and called 911! Why would he do that if
he was the one that hurt you? You owe him an apology.”
Bri laughed again, painfully,
just as she had before. That was the final straw. She realized then that her
parents didn’t love her. If they did, they did a terrible job showing it. They
only loved the idea of having the perfect offspring, the daughter that excelled
at everything, and she refused to be that anymore. She was a woman now, a woman
that had just been attacked for the purpose of killing her unborn child.
She turned to Doctor Metcalf, now
understanding why she’d been there with her. “How am I?” she asked, hoping the
doctor would get her meaning.
“You will be just fine. You have
a few broken bones in your face, a broken finger, two broken ribs, swollen but
otherwise healthy ankle, damage to your trachea, and lots of bumps, bruises,
and cuts. But you’ll be just fine.” She smiled softly, reaching out and placing
her hand on Bri’s leg. “And the baby is just fine as well. We were fully
prepared not to find a heartbeat. Most of the attack was directed at your abdomen.
But we did. Your baby is just fine, for now. We will need to keep you for a few
days to monitor you both.”
“Wait a minute,” Bri’s father
said. “Baby?”
For a moment, Bri thought she saw
something that momentarily looked like a very faint, almost too-terrified-to-come-out-of-hiding
smile cross her father’s face, but that was over and gone as soon as her mother
opened her mouth. She briefly wondered, before her mother started in, how he
could have been so disgusted with a co-worker’s daughter being with child, but
be momentarily happy with his own. Or had she only imagined the smile?
“You’re pregnant? That’s why you’ve been acting so strangely?” She stood
and began pacing back and forth from the head of the bed to the foot and back
again. “This is terrible. How could you do such a stupid thing? Is it Mike’s?
He just didn’t seem like that kind of boy!”
Bri focused her rage, trying not
to have an outburst, knowing that it will hurt her far more than it would her
parents. “This stupid thing was because I had an abusive boyfriend that
I was petrified of. No one believed me when I said that I was scared of him.
Not even you! Everyone said that I was being foolish. That he was a great guy.
That I was reading things wrong. Then one night he pressured me into having sex
with him. Mom, the way he grabbed me, I knew that if I didn’t, he’d hurt me.
One time – that’s all I’ve done it, and I didn’t even want to then. This is not my fault. I was trying to find a way
out of the relationship, away from him to prevent being pressured into anything
or being physically injured.”
“Well it seems to me that you
moved a little slow. This is just awful. What will everyone say? Oh dear, is
that why you quit the team? This is awful. Just awful.”
Her mother was a mess, just
pacing and rambling.
“Mom, it’s going to be fine. Why
should we care what anyone else thinks? I’m finishing school. I’m excited to
show this baby exactly what you can do – no matter how hard the circumstances
are – and still succeed. I’m going to go to college. I’m still going to do
everything that I wanted to before, minus trying for a sports scholarship. That
was more your dream than mine. I just love the game.”
Tears ran down her mother’s
cheeks as their eyes locked. “Briana, you can’t have this baby. Please, you’re
too young. You’ll regret it the rest of your life.”
Bri shook her head and smiled.
“No, Mom. If I give up this baby – by any means – I’ll regret that for the rest of my life. Even if I
hated and had no desire to take part in the circumstances that led up to this
baby, he or she is still all of the best parts of me. How can I abandon that?
Don’t make me do this. I’ll never forgive you and I’ll never forgive myself.
I’ll always wonder what could have been and it will destroy me.”
“I just don’t think you
understand just how hard your life is about to become if you keep that baby,”
her mother said, voice quivering a little as she spoke. Something about the way
Ellen chose her words sent chills down Bri’s spine. She wasn’t exactly sure
what to make of them.
Shaking it off, Bri smiled again.
“Yes I do, and that’s okay. I don’t care if the world hates me. It’s not their
life. It’s mine. Everything will be just fine.”
Her mother squeezed her hand
once. “You should rest. You’ve been through a lot today. We are going to go get
some coffee and think about everything.”
Bri nodded, the motion
immediately regrettable. Her throat was beginning to feel a little better,
though she was incredibly thirsty. Talking so much had both helped and hurt.
“Can I get these off now?” Bri asked, referring to her restraints.
“Yes. Sorry about that,” Doctor
Conway said. “You pulled out three IVs and punched two of the nurses. We had no
choice. Sedation wasn’t a great option because of the baby’s slowed heart rate
and you were already unconscious anyway.”
“I am – so – sorry,” Bri said. She felt terrible for having hurt the people
that had only tried to help her.
“It’s quite normal in victims of
violent crimes.” Doctor Conway released her of the restraints. “I’d like for
you to get some more rest. I’m going to give you a pain medication that will
help prevent breakthrough pain as well as allow you to sleep. Until the baby’s
heart rate comes back up, we will have to be pickier than normal with your pain
meds.”
Bri nodded. She didn’t like the
idea of being loaded up on drugs, especially while pregnant, but she didn’t
want to feel the pain of all of her broken bones and she trusted the doctors to
care for both of them. The words of the paramedic came back to her. That
fighting and straining could hurt her and hurt the baby. Rest seemed best for
now. “Thank you, Doctor.”
Hours passed before Bri woke
again. Her sleep was dreamless, and for that she was grateful. Her ribs
screamed at her when she tried to sit. She needed to go to the bathroom, but
knew it was impossible to go alone. Within moments, the nurse was in her room,
responding to her call. By the time the nurse helped her out, Matt was sitting
in a bedside chair, smiling at her.
“Aren’t you just so cute in your
ball gown,” he said, giving her a wink. He stood and came to her unoccupied
side to help the nurse get her back into bed. Bri slowly sat on the edge of the
bed, taking a moment to adjust to the pain. Matt placed his hands on her
shoulders to stabilize and support her. “I’ve got her from here,” he said
softly to the nurse.
“Okay,” the nurse responded,
smiling. “If you need anything else, call me. I’m going to change your trash
while I’m in here.” She walked across the room and began the task of switching
bags.
“You don’t have help me, ya
know,” Bri told Matt, still sitting upright. “I really hoped you wouldn’t find
out. I didn’t want you to see me like this.”
Matt moved his hands from her
shoulders to gently hold her face. He tilted her head upward and he looked into
the eye that was open. “I don’t care how bruised, how broken, or how immobile
you are now or will ever be in the future. You’re beautiful. Don’t let that
asshole tear you down from the pedestal you belong on.” He placed a soft kiss
on her forehead.
Out of her periphery, Bri saw the
nurse stop at his words, placing a hand over her chest as a smile crossed her
face. She was clearly moved by his words, as was Bri. No one had ever spoken to
her like that, though he was always sweet and gentle with her.
“Well, that was awfully sweet for
a barbarian like yourself,” Bri joked.
Matt shrugged. “I have my
moments. Actually I wanted to get you in a headlock and screw up your hair –
though I don’t think it’s possible to get it more amazing than it is right now.
But – I figured there’d be some rule against abusing the patients.” He
winked and helped her lie down before taking the seat next to her bed that he’d
previously been occupying. Bri raised the head of her bed so she could sit at a
wide angle, allowing her to sit and speak comfortably, but not so tightly as to
squeeze her broken ribs.
“Can I get anything else for
you?” the nurse asked, still smiling.
“Some ice chips maybe?” Bri said.
“My throat is still a little sore.”
The nurse nodded. “Not a
problem.”
Matt stood as the nurse made her
way out the door. “I’ll go grab them from her so she doesn’t have to come back
in.”
“Thank you,” Bri said. “I hate
asking them for anything. I know they’ve got other patients who need more than
I do.”
Matt laughed. “Wow. Woman, do you
realize you’re more than likely one of the more serious patients on the floor?
Most of these people probably have shortness of breath or respiratory
infections of some kind.”
Bri shrugged, immediately
regretting the action. “Still, I feel bad.” Matt shook his head at his friend
and smiled before turning to leave the room. “Oh! Sorry, but could you see how
my parents are doing? They were out there getting coffee somewhere.”
“Sure, no problem.”
Bri slowly reached for the call
light/TV remote control and turned on the flat screen hanging from her wall.
She began flipping through channels until she found something that made her
happy. It was a rerun of The Vampire Diaries. She nestled in as comfortably as
she could before placing the remote at her side and watching.
Twenty minutes or so passed
before Matt came back. “Did you have to wait for the ice to freeze?” Bri asked,
forcing a pained half-smile. Her face felt more swollen all the time, though
she imagined if it actually was, the nurses would have noticed. She imagined it
was just her pain tolerance lowering, possibly the pain medication wearing off.
Matt didn’t smile as he walked
over to the bed, handing her a small Styrofoam cup with a plastic spoon. He
looked behind him to the large closet in the room with double doors meant for
patients to store their personal items. He opened it and his eyes momentarily
closed before he reached inside.
“What? What’s wrong?” Bri asked.
She watched as he pulled an envelope from the closet. He brought it over and
sat it next to her on the bed. “What’s wrong? It’s just an envelope.”
He sighed. “It’s not just an
envelope. It’s your envelope.”
“Why was it in the closet?”
Matt lightly shook his head as he
tore it open, studying the contents. Bri’s heart began to speed up as she saw a
flash of color of what was inside. Money.
“That’s for ordering food while
I’m stuck in here. They work all the time and know hospital food sucks,” she
said, trying to stop the tears from escaping her eyes. Even saying it, she
didn’t believe it. “Where’s my phone?” she asked, wanting to call her parents.
Matt sighed again as he pulled
her phone from his pocket. “The nurses had it in a bag of your belongings that
you came in with. It survived the attack, thanks to the case. But you’re
wasting your time, Bri. I tried to make a call from it. It’s been
disconnected.”
Her jaw dropped open as a harsh
breath escaped her. “What? What’s going on?”
Matt quickly put the money back
in the envelope, having counted one hundred dollars, and sat it on the bedside
table. He took a seat at Bri’s side and gently held her injured hand. “When I
asked the nurses where I could possibly find your parents, the charge nurse
stepped forward. I knew right then when they turned to her to answer my
questions that it wasn’t good. She said that she overheard them discussing what
to do. That your mom was insistent that she wouldn’t raise another baby and
that you needed to learn your lesson. She told me your parents slipped the
money into the cabinet and told the charge nurse to inform me if I came in.
They knew I would.”
Bri shook her head, ignoring the
physical pain for her emotional pain and confusion. “What are you saying,
Matt?”
His eyes momentarily closed again
as he searched for the words. “They gave you that money to give you a start on
your own. They’ve kicked you out of the house, Bri. They shut off your phone,
too. I called my sister and she drove by and saw a couple of boxes sat out on
the curb. She recognized a few of your things piled on top. I’m so sorry. I’m
honestly shocked. I knew they were cold, but this…”
“That’s what she meant by saying that I had no idea how hard that my
life was about to become if I decided to have this baby. Oh my God, Matt. What
am I going to do?” she asked, staring off at nothing in particular. She began
rubbing her sore abdomen, not caring about the pain, just wanting to feel close
to her baby. She was in shock. She thought her parents would hate her, punish
her, ban her from anything remotely pleasurable, but she never imagined this.
“You’re going to focus on getting
better. When you get out, you can come stay a few days with me, longer if you
need.”
“Matt – I can’t stay with you. If
your mother finds out that I’m pregnant she will think it’s yours. She’ll kill
you.”
He shrugged. “Maybe not. My mom
loves you. She loves me, too. The real kind, not that fake crap your parents
tried to push off to their friends to look like great parents.”
Bri was silent for a few minutes
as so many thoughts flooded her mind that she found herself not thinking about
anything at all. Her pain was back tenfold and she knew it was partly because
she’d lost concentration on it with the news and partly because she’d been
sitting a long while and now her body was tense with stress. Not to mention the
meds had more than likely worn off.
“I need to sleep. I can’t handle
this right now. My body is starting to hurt again and my head feels like it’s
going to explode.”
Matt reached for the call light
and pushed it. “She’s in a lot of pain. Is it time for her to have meds yet?”
he asked when they answered.
“Of course, we will be right in,”
she answered.
“I’ll leave so you can get some
rest,” Matt said, gently stroking the back of her hand.
“No
– please. I hate to ask, but I just can’t bear being alone right now.”
He
gave a soft smile and nodded, pulling the padded chair next to her bed closer.
Matt sat down next to her and held her hand. He leaned over to kiss the
sensitive back, just along her knuckles. “I’m not going anywhere, babe.”
Author
Bio:
Candy Crum
lives in Indiana and is the Author of “The Eternal Series” and other short
stories. She
published her first novel, The Eternal Gift, in May of 2011 and has been
publishing ever since. Candy is an avid lover of the paranormal genre, stemming
from years of reading the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice when she was a
teenager. Later, she developed a deep love of the Vampire Academy Series by
Richelle Mead and the House of Night Series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast,
furthering her love of the genre and pushing her to really push to finish and
publish her novel.
Since then,
Candy has released three other books in The Eternal Series and will release
another later in 2014. Now, Candy is trying her hand at more contemporary
pieces of work, like that of Lean on Me and other books she will release in
2014.
Some of
Candy’s interests include the usual reading and writing, music (of most types),
movies (action and comedy or any combination of the two), cartoons (she loves
to say that her children watch cartoons because she does), and drawing. She
loves talking with her fans and loves reading the reviews that her fans are
kind enough to leave for her. Always feel free to find Candy on Facebook and
send her a message!
Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheEternalGift
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/candycrumauthor
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