CHAPTER 2.3: Tissues and Issues

After his fight with Bobby, Blake felt so guilty.  Marissa had broken up with his brother just hours after she had kissed him and now Bobby had been driven into the arms of Cassandra.


However, once Audra sat him down and told him that he wasn't to blame for the row she had with Bobby, Blake confessed everything to her.


His feelings for Marissa and the kiss they had shared.


"Go to her." Audra had said.

When Blake arrived at Marissa's apartment he couldn't believe his eyes.  The place looked amazing! 


Swelled with a confidence he never knew he possessed he pulled Marissa into an embrace and whispered in her ear "I knew you could do it."

"So how would you feel about having a room mate?"  He asked, but Marissa was silent.


Blake gulped his mouth became dry and his palms started to sweat, had he rushed things?

"I thought you'd never ask!" Marissa smiled and threw her arms around him.



As Blake kissed Marissa he felt all his commitment issues fade to nothing, he knew this would be forever regardless of Bobby.


Bobby had neither seen nor spoken to any of his family since the day he left home.  He had set up home with Cassandra and never looked back.


Audra had to move on, she had the younger twins Casper and Caleb to concentrate on.  They were both still in school and in need of a role model to look up to.


Casper had started dating Elena after their chance meeting at the lake, though things had been far from smooth sailing for them.

Casper's team mates and their girlfriends had been less than helpful, when they first heard that he was dating Elena they had thought it was a joke. 

"You can't be serious about her dude!"  Evan had exclaimed, "I mean come on she's just so..."


"I dare you to finish that sentence." Casper had threatened, "I'm with Elena OK?  Just deal with it." 

Elena had tried her hardest to get on with Casper's friends, despite every fibre of her being telling her not to bother.

But Kelley and Brooke had not made it easy for her, taking every opportunity to pick fun at Elena's clothes and her music taste.

One day as Elena had been watching Casper at the training ground he overheard Kelley make a snide comment and decided enough was enough.


He confronted her but she just brushed him off.


"Just because you're head cheerleader doesn't mean you have to be such a cliche." Casper said.

He figured Kelley wouldn't even know what a cliche was but apparently she wasn't such a dumb blonde after all and she instantly jumped down his throat.

Hearing the fuss Kelley was causing her boyfriend, Evan, had waded into the argument.


"You better back off man." Evan threatened.


"Just leave it Cass, it's not worth it."  Elena had pleaded.


"No way!" Casper had exclaimed, "You better take back what you said, all of you."

"Whatcha gonna do about it?" Evan had sneered.


This set Casper off, he saw red and launched himself at his team mate, punching and scratching him relentlessly.

Evan had been thoroughly beaten by Casper, he limped off wounded.


Casper looked around but Elena was no where to be seen, but he knew where she had ran to.

And there he found her, on the sidelines of the football field where they had first met.


"Why do you always come here?" He asked, "I thought you hated sport and jocks."


"I do." She replied, "At least until I met you."  She kissed him and he held her tight.


"I never wanted to come between you and your friends." Elena said shamefully.

Casper pulled her into an embrace.


"You didn't come between us, they did.  They were never real friends, you are the only one I care about.  I love you Elena." 


"I love you too Cass."  She smiled and kissed him again.

After the day of the fight Casper and Elena's relationship had moved quickly to the next level and soon..........................

But the repercussions of that day had not ended there.  When Evan had showed up for practice bruised and battered the coach had demanded to know what had happened.


Casper was marched into the coach's office and promptly kicked off the team. 

He was devastated, being on the team had meant he could win an athletic scholarship which would have almost certainly led to a career in professional sports, now he didn't know what the future held for him.


Meanwhile poor Caleb had been completely ignored, it always seemed that the rest of the families issues took over. 

Because he was a shy Sim Caleb often stayed in the background but no one had noticed that he had been dealing with a pretty big issue of his own.

He had been dating Amber for a while now, even though she had graduated high school the year before.  Caleb had tried to keep up with her, but all she seemed to want to do was drink at the towns many bars and hook up.

Caleb soon lost interest and wasted no time in breaking up with her.  He wasn't sure why he had ever asked her out, if it hadn't been for Bobby introducing them on his first day of school he would never of hung around with Amber and her friends, they were so vapid and shallow.

Since his older friends had graduated he had made a new friend in Callum.


Callum just seemed to get Caleb, they had clicked instantly and spent most of their time holed up in Caleb's bedroom listening to music and talking for hours.


Lately Caleb had started to feel more than just friendship for Callum, whenever they were together he felt that he could be himself 100%. 

He was no longer in the background, Callum made him feel centre stage.

Caleb had no clue if the feelings he was having were normal or not, the more he thought about it the more awkward he began to act around Callum.


"What's up Caleb?"  Callum asked one night, "You seem a million miles away, have I done something wrong?"


Caleb's face ran bright red, his shyness usually was a none issue around Callum but he couldn't find the words to express his true feelings so he decided to squash them.


"No of course not, I'm just tired."  He had lied.


Callum seemed to buy it, at least for now.

Audra hadn't called by Dr Parsons office for a few days, she had wanted to give her time to analyse the results of the scan, so when she received a call asking her to meet at the lab the next morning she could barely sleep for excitement.

Dr Parsons greeted her with a big smile the next morning.

"Is it good news?"  Audra asked, wringing her hands nervously.

"It's promising." Dr Parsons replied cautiously, "The scan results pointed me in a direction i had never even considered.  The way the virus has attached itself to your DNA is remarkable."

"No offense Dr Parsons but how is any of this helping us to find a cure?" Audra asked rolling her eyes.

"Well now that know how the virus works I should be able to start experimenting with an anti virus." She answered, "I will need to take a blood sample."

Audra rolled up her sleeve instantly and once the blood sample was collected she asked, "How long before you have an anti virus for me to test?"

"Audra we need to be careful.  I can't use you like a guinea pig, I need to be confident in what I've created before you try it, you may have to be patient."

Audra left the lab more frustrated than ever, she had stayed awake all night hoping that today would finally be the day she would hear some good news, but it was clear to her that Dr Parsons research was going to be anything but quick.

She started her shift feeling deflated.

Her first patient was a young girl who had been brought in feeling sick and faint.  Her name was Elena Goode.

Audra examined her, she had a hunch she knew what the cause of her illness was but she needed to ask a few questions first.

"Elena, are you sexually active?"  The girl's cheeks flushed, she was clearly embarrassed.

"It's OK, whatever you tell me is confidential.  That means I can't tell anyone else what you say to me."  Audra explained.

Elena had nodded.

"Elena I think it's possible that you are pregnant."  Audra advised the girl, "I'm going to run some tests though to be certain OK?"

Elena nodded again but this time her eyes filled with tears.

Audra put her arm around the girl to comfort her, "It's OK honey." She soothed, "Is there someone here with you?  They can come and wait with you while i run the test if you like?"

"Yes, my boyfriend is here."  Elena replied.

Audra gave Elena a cup to collect her sample while she headed out to the waiting room to look for her boyfriend.

But she was not prepared for who she found waiting out there!

Chapter2.2

Chapter2.4