We All Fall Down Chloe
We All Fall Down
Chloe
Seventeen Years Ago
Sometimes, Chloe wondered what life would have been like if she hadn’t fallen in love with Andrew Locke.
The action defined her entire life. Yes, she wanted it that way—who wouldn’t?
He was smart, handsome, and beloved by everyone in town.
He was their hero. Their young leader. He did all the right things, knew all the right people, supported all the right causes.
Even when he left for school, watching him play on Saturdays was remarkable. His athleticism, his grace, his honor.
And he loved her, for some unfathomable reason. Loved the good days and the bad days. It broke him when she was ill.
She’d spent years going to the doctor now.
The latest theory was a mold allergy. Some sort of toxicity that only she was sensitive to.
They never knew what might trigger an episode.
She’d be fine, and then out of the blue, her body would revolt.
She’d cramp up, get dizzy and nauseated.
It would knock her down for a few days, and then she’d start feeling better.
She could go weeks without an incident or have two in a week.
She never knew what to expect, and with the chronic illness becoming a way of life, she treasured the times when she felt well enough to be a participant in society.
That was why she’d insisted on moving to Colorado Springs after graduation to go to college. She wanted the experience. She didn’t take any of her days for granted anymore. And she wanted to be closer to Andrew. He was her hope now.
It was a good decision. Those months were some of the best times of her life. She felt better than she had in years in the cool, crisp mountain air. All of her illnesses seemed to disappear, and they only came back when she went home. It further cemented the doctors’ toxic-mold theory.
The doctors felt the altitude and lack of humidity were conditioning her body differently, too.
She improved rapidly. She was able to get back to running, working out.
She wasn’t ever sick. None of the food she ate bothered her.
Her stamina returned. Her skin glowed. She was able to see Andrew on weekends and once during the week.
They had such good times. She loved her studies, and she loved her boyfriend, and she loved her life.
At the end of her freshman year, Andrew said, “Let’s get married,” and she agreed wholeheartedly.
She just wanted the rest of her life to start.
They didn’t tell anyone, snuck off to the justice of the peace in Colorado Springs, at the courthouse downtown.
Pledged to love, honor, and cherish for as long as they both shall live.
He slipped a ring on her finger, and she put one on his, and that was it.
They were Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Edward Locke III.
They laughed that night in bed, remembering the promises they made the first time they lay together in the back of his truck. They’d come such a long way.
They called their parents the next day. Chloe’s mom was understandably pissed.
She’d wanted to do the whole church thing, with all the town present.
Chloe promised her they’d do a big party when Andrew was home from his first deployment.
Andrew’s parents weren’t thrilled, either, but not because they didn’t love Chloe; they just wanted them both to be clear of encumbrances.
They officially welcomed her to the family, and that was that.
After he graduated, Andrew was sent on his first deployment.
He wouldn’t be back in Colorado for a long time, so Chloe decided to go home, where she had more of a support structure.
She missed her family. She transferred to Georgia Tech, planning to start in the fall, and moved back to Malogen for the summer.
Eden had just graduated as well and was interning with a cryptography lab at Georgia Tech. She’d had job offers from several companies and was going to spend the summer working on her puzzles and numbers and figuring out where to land.
It was strange coming home as a married woman.
Her sister picked her up at the airport and brought her to her apartment near campus so Eden could show her around.
They had fun. They walked all over the area.
They went to a fancy Italian restaurant and a couple of dive bars.
Chloe stayed the night at Eden’s, and they stayed up talking until dawn. It was just like old times.
Eden had grown up so much. She was striking and smart, and Chloe could hardly remember the grumpy sister who’d been so mean when she was younger.
Eden drove them back to Malogen the next day.
Chloe had arranged for a summer job at the library in town, working for Mabel Aikman, the legendary librarian whom all the kids loved.
She was studying library sciences and had decided this would be her path.
She and Andrew would be deployed all over the world, being sent who knew where, and in her reasoning, no matter where they went, there would always be a library that needed help.
She wasn’t home for three days before she started feeling bad. But it cleared up quickly, and she went the rest of the summer without incident.
In the fall, Eden took an accounting job with the airline.
It was a junior position, but there was a lot of travel, so her close-to-campus apartment would be empty half the time.
Chloe moved in. That first week, after Eden took off for a cross-country trip with her boss, Chloe had a terrible flare, bad enough that she went to the emergency room.
It was the first time she’d been to this particular hospital, and as she explained her symptoms, the attending physician, eyebrows hiked, ordered a battery of blood tests.
The results were shocking.
“Are you drinking your vape juice?” the doctor asked.
“What are you talking about? I don’t vape.”
“You have nicotine poisoning.”
“I have an autoimmune disease brought on by a mold allergy.”
“Nope. Your blood shows high concentrations of nicotine. It would take very little exposure to make you this kind of sick. Are you sure you haven’t tried to hurt yourself? You can tell me.”
Chloe shook her head and tried like hell to understand what was happening.
“I didn’t. I swear it.”
“Does anyone around you vape or use e-cigarettes?”
“My sister does.”
“Could your sister have accidentally spilled some vape juice in your food or drink? Even on your skin? Topical exposure can be just as deadly.”
“Deadly?”
“Honey, you’re lucky to be upright. We need to admit you and closely monitor your condition. Nicotine can clear your system in six to twelve hours, but if you’ve been ill like this for years, there may be systemic damage to your heart, your kidneys.”
Chloe burst into tears. “I need to call my parents.”
Chloe’s parents came to Atlanta and stayed with her until Eden returned from her trip. They went through the houses, both of them, pulling Chloe’s favorite foods off the shelves and bringing them in for testing.
Almost everything tested positive for nicotine.
The doctor wanted to report the case to the police as an attempted murder, but Chloe’s parents talked them out of it. They explained it was all a big misunderstanding.
And when Eden came home from her trip, they sat their daughter down and confronted her.
She denied it all. So they explained the reality of life to her.
Either she was going to check herself into the hospital again and come to terms with her issues, or they were going to have the Atlanta police arrest her for trying to kill her sister.
Eden made the only choice she could.
While Eden was in the psychiatric facility, Chloe got a restraining order against her.
She moved home to Malogen. She got a job at the library.
And she waited for Andrew to come home. He had too much to deal with to be worrying about her.
The situation was under control now. She would never let Eden near her again.