Free When You Come to Me by Jade Alyse Page B

that I should go to grad school here…”
    “That’s your decision, isn’t it?” Natalie asked, looking over at him for the first time. “Last time I checked, you didn’t have a ring on your finger…”
    “Exactly! U—U—UGA has an awesome business school…I could go for marketing, get my masters and get a great job…”
    “That’s a decision you need to make soon, right?”
    He nodded. “Exactly. I could keep paying rent on the house and just go to school here. My folks are okay with it, why she isn’t, I’ll never understand…”
    “Well, where does she want you to go to school?”
    “That’s just the thing, Natalie Chandler,” he sang funnily. “She doesn’t want me to go to grad school at all…”
    “It’s your decision, Brandon…”
    “Tell me what I should do, Natalie,” he whispered. “If you tell me to go, then I’ll go…”
    “Brandon, I can’t make a decision like that for you,” she told him.
    “Yes you can,” he said. “I trust all of your decisions…if you tell me that grad school is right for me, then grad school I’ll go…”
    “Brandon, you’re drunk,” she sighed, gripping her wheel tightly. “You shouldn’t make such drastic decisions when you’re like this.”
    “What?” he said. “I’m fine, damn it…I could go another round…”
    “Well, throwing up like that suggests that you can’t…”
    “I can hold my liquor, girl,” he laughed haughtily. “When you drink then you’ll know…”
    “I don’t think that day will ever come…”
    “Yes, it will,” he told her, poking her arm. “And I’ll get you there…we can get drunk together…”
    “I think you should cool it for a little while…”
    “Nat, if it weren’t for my drunkenness, we would have never met…”
    “And just think of how perfect my life would have been…”
    “I don’t take your sarcasm personally,” he said, reclining in his seat. “I take it in stride. Meeting me was the best thing that ever happened to you…”
    “That’s arguable…”
    “Decision time, Natalie…grad school or no?”
    “Brandon, I’m not making that decision for you.”
    “I give you permission…”
    “And I don’t take it,” she said. “If you and Sophia have a future together then you need to tell her what you want…and if she loves you, then she’ll agree…”
    “Fuck that,” he said with a wave of his hand. “You’re making the decision…”
    “Fine, fine,” she sighed. “You probably won’t remember this in the morning anyway…go to grad school here, Brandon…”
    “That’s what I thought,” he said. “Besides, if I left…I’m almost certain that you’d miss me…”

    Natalie Chandler was a natural caretaker. She could easily recall all of the times that she was there for her sisters when they got sick, or when they got stuck, when she was there for her grandmother, her mama, her aunts, her cousins.
    So it was no surprise that Brandon ended up sleeping on his own hardwood floor, while she fell asleep in his bed. She found herself rolling over every once in awhile just to check on him. This moment followed a couple of hours in his black-tiled bathroom, slouched on the cold floor. She caressed the back of her Caucasian friend while she heard him retch, emptying the contents of his poisoned stomach into the toilet. She then glanced up at a small-framed picture of him and Sophia on the top of the toilet.
    Where was she? Why wasn’t his beloved Sophia on the floor with him? What sort of purpose did she serve if she wasn’t there for him? The smell was almost unbearable, but she loved being there for him then.
    “I’m sorry, Nat,” he muttered into her neck as he rested his groggy head on her shoulder once he’d finished.
    “Shhh,” she’d instructed, smoothing down his messy black hair. “It’s alright, you silly thing…”
    Natalie wrapped her arms around him tightly, rubbing his forehead till he passed out to soft snores.
    Yes, she’d sat right