Spirit of Sisterhood

By Jennifer Yoder

Tavery Miller is a successful businesswoman whose life is turned upside by a phone call. Forced to relive her childhood experiences she remembers the friends who stood by her side through good times and bad, proving that friendship can overcome anything. After drifting apart, the girls reunite to help each other overcome the worst tragedy they have ever faced.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jennifer Yoder
• Release date: Jul 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476023830

Jennifer Yoder

Jennifer Yoder grew up in Central Pennsylvania where she continues to reside with her husband and two young daughters. Jennifer graduated with a BS in Criminal Justice from Penn State University and an MBA from Walden University. Jennifer is very passionate about writing, and is currently working on her second novel.

Book preview

Prologue

There are many ideas of what friendship is; and many types of friendships that we acquire throughout a lifetime. We have acquaintances that we may enjoy spending time with, but no strong emotional bonds are established. We have casual friends, who may come and go throughout our lifetime. We may feel an emotional tie towards them, but as the relationship fades so do those ties. The lack of time spent together begins to dissolve the friendship. Throughout one’s life, many acquaintances and casual friends will come and go; some will last longer than others and some will be stronger than others.

The strongest of all friendships is the true eternal friendship. This type of friendship is rare; and only a few people who ever enter our lives will hold this title. True friends are those who are there forever. We don’t need to see them often; we don’t even need to speak with them often. The bonds of the relationship are so strong, that this friendship will survive anything and last a lifetime. A true friendship among a group of girls is often referred to as a sisterhood. This is the story of one such group and the amazing trials and tribulations of life that they experienced together and apart; yet no matter what, those bonds never weakened. Life brings us closer and life brings us apart; true friends however, are always together no matter what, even if it’s only within our hearts.

Chapter 1

Thursday, August 12, 2010 began like any normal day. I dropped the girls off at my parents before heading into work. I arrived at the office about five minutes late, as usual. For someone with OCD, I’m not much of a stickler for arriving on time for my job. Maybe that’s part of the ritual; I can’t show up on time for work or I’ll obsess about it. What do I know, after all these years since my diagnosis, I still haven’t figured out how my screwed up mind works.

August 12 wasn’t just any normal day, however. I knew from the beginning I was getting myself in over my head. It was going to be somewhat of a crazy day; I was venturing into unchartered territory later that night. Little did I know of the complete emotional beating I was going to undertake on that day.

My phone rang around nine o’clock. Of course it was my mom. She often called before she was ready to go to sleep in the morning and turn the babysitting over to my dad. Still funny to think that my dad watches three young children on a daily basis. He’s great at it though; I think my daughters Grace and Jordin like him more than they like me sometimes and my nephew James adores him.

Hey mom I answered.

Just wanted to check in and see what your plans are for tonight Tavery honey.

We had already gone over this a million times, but my mother loves to go for a million and one when it comes to anything.

I’m coming over at around seven thirty to pick up Mariah and we are going to dinner with her friends and then probably some bars downtown. I’ll be dropping the girls off then. Why my mom hadn’t already discussed this with my sister I will never know; Mariah still lived at home and was probably sitting awake in her bedroom as we spoke.

Okay, just wanted to make sure. And your dad said that if you drink too much tonight and need him to come pick you all up, just call. We don’t want you drinking and driving tonight. You are still staying over here tonight, right?

It had been over ten years since I had moved out of my parents place. In fact I had never even lived at the house they resided in now. Tonight, though, since I planned on being out late with Mariah and her friends, I decided to leave Grace and Jordin there to spend the night and I would just sleep on the couch. It would make it easier to just get up there in the morning and head to work.

Yes mom, I’m just gonna sleep on the couch when we get in. You can keep the girls in bed with you or something. I’ll make sure Grace gets to school in the morning so you can just sleep in until Jordin wakes up.

Okay, sounds good my mom said. I’ll see you later on. Love you.

Love you too mom. Ever since my mom’s sister passed away several years ago, my sister had enacted an unwritten rule that none of us are allowed to end a phone call or say goodbye in anyway, without first saying I love you. I always acted like it annoyed me; deep down though, I enjoyed it. You can never tell someone how you feel enough times in your life. I was soon going to find that out the hard way.

The rest of the day went on like a normal work day. It was Mariah’s twenty-first birthday and I had promised that I would go out with her and her friends. Being that I am two months shy of my thirty-first birthday, I knew it was going to be a little strange hanging with this crowd tonight. Anything for my baby sister though. Although our parents had us almost ten years apart, we are very close and I would do anything for her. Sometimes I think I do too much and probably hinder her maturity a little; but she often surprises me and I realize I underestimate her a lot. Tonight I was looking forward to just spending some sisterly time with her and being part of her passage into adulthood drinking. Okay, I confess, I also wanted to make sure she made it home in once piece and without any alcohol poisoning.

Four o’clock came and it was soon time to head home. I knew I had to get out of the office quickly and pick up the kids to get them fed before taking them back to my parents. My husband works nights and has to leave the house at nine to get to work; therefore he wasn’t going to be of much help in getting everything together for tonight.

My phone buzzed showing that I had missed a text message. I was trying to finish up for the evening as I don’t like to leave things undone before heading out, so I initially ignored the buzz. A few seconds later, it began ringing. I looked at the screen, figuring it must be important if someone was repeatedly calling. I never anticipated this was about to be a phone call that would affect me forever.

A familiar name showed up on the screen, so I hit the talk button to answer.

Hey what’s up I said.

Oh my God, Tavery, I am so glad you answered. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you. I immediately realized there was some panic in the voice, but wasn’t too alarmed as any little thing can be misconstrued as drama.

What’s going on?

As I listened to the words that were floating in my head, I began to phase out. I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing; and I’m sure I missed some key information. One word stuck in my head; one word that ping-ponged through my brain over and over: Coma. Coma. Coma. Nothing else really registered at that point.

As I came to grips with what I was hearing, I immediately interjected. What happened? How did it happen?

The response was of no help. No details yet; everything else unknown.

Just that one word: Coma.

Chapter 2

I can’t remember exactly when, but I know it all started sometime in eighth grade. That would probably have been the fall of 1993. Junior high is an awful time for everyone; those in between years where you want to be a grown up, but you are too young to really do anything. That’s a lot like how my life was at that point. I had friends; school friends and out of school friends. I had turned fourteen in October and was beginning to hang out with people a little older than myself.

As I said, I had my in school friends and my out of school friends. At that time, I spent most of my out of school time with my friend Tori. Tori was a senior in high school, but for some reason she liked hanging out with me. I was always mature for my age, and most people found it hard to believe I wasn’t older than I was. Tori was dating a guy named Matt around that time. Matt had graduated from school the previous year; but he didn’t go to college and was still living at home with his mom at the time. He was working at a movie theater; talk about a great catch. There was one good thing about Matt though; he had his own car.

I often hung around Tori and Matt and would go places with them. A few times they had tried to set me up with one of Matt’s friends, but it always ended the same; once the guy found out I was only fourteen he lost all interest. Back then I would get mad; but thinking about it now I completely understand why. I still to this day don’t understand why Tori and Matt wanted me to tag along so much; they were older, practically adults even. Here I was just this inexperienced fourteen year old kid. I don’t think Tori particularly had a lot of friends though; she was in the band which wasn’t exactly a popular place to be in high school. Tori was a sweet girl though; she genuinely seemed to like me. She was smart too. She had short blond hair, and pretty big boobs. Tori had been raised by her mother and stepdad; I don’t believe she had ever met her father before.

In my opinion, Matt wasn’t an attractive guy; he was a little overweight and had some acne on his face. His hair left a bit to be desired; it was short and brown, but he did like this slick back thing with it. He dressed like a bum all the time too; his pants were always sagging halfway down his butt. They actually made a good couple though and I did enjoy being with them. I always felt like they both genuinely cared for me.

Eventually in November of that year, Matt decided to get his own place. He had gathered some friends to help him move out of his parents and get his new place together. That was the first time I met Kris. Kris Graner was a good friend of Matt’s who had graduated from high school with Matt. Kris also happened to be nineteen and in a relationship with one of Tori’s friends. I don’t know what it was about him; but I instantly became infatuated with Kris. He was hot, plain and simple. He had short jet black hair with striking crystal clear blue eyes. He was on the short side, which was something I didn’t tend to like in guys; but really it didn’t matter. He was sweet as could be and I got butterflies every time I looked at him. There was no denying I had an instant attraction with him.

At the time Kris showed no interest; he was in a new relationship with Tori’s friend and appeared to be genuinely happy. I knew her; she was sweet enough, but not overly attractive. Blonde curly hair, crooked nose, freckled face; I knew I could compete. It was wrong, I know, but I couldn’t help myself. I found Kris to be intensely attractive with his short black hair, bright blue eyes and strong square jaw. On top of that, to this day I still think Kris is one of the nicest guys I have ever met. At that point, Kris’s girlfriend Kelly had no bearing on me whatsoever; I knew what I wanted and didn’t care about what I had to do to get him.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a beauty queen. Let me take a second here to share a little about myself. I’m Tavery Miller. I’m average height, cute in the face but slightly overweight, but I have a genius IQ and I do think a bit highly of myself at times. I can admit it. Not in the looks department, but I think I have a charming personality, great sense of humor and brains on top of it. And while I know there are a lot of girls out there that I can’t compete with; this was one that I knew for a fact I could. That was part of my problem; always thinking about the benefit to me and not the repercussions of my actions.

So that brings things back to Kris. Every chance I could get to be around Kris, I seized the opportunity. He was a tennis player; I bought a racquet and asked him to give me lessons. Kris enjoyed shooting pool; I invited him to the pool hall any chance I could get. No matter how hard I tried though, I was unable to put any kind of dent in Kris’s relationship with Tori’s friend. Tori knew my intentions; but instead of discouraging me she would find ways to get Kris to join us whenever his girl wasn’t around. Kris’s girlfriend had strict parents. They were very religious and didn’t approve of her being in a serious relationship at the time. I knew that I would be able to use this to my advantage.

Finally, my great opportunity came knocking. Kris and I had already become friends since there were many times that Tori, Matt and Kris and I hung out when the girlfriend was on parental lockdown. Still, this wasn’t enough for me. I wanted it all and knew I had to seize my chance when it came. In December, Kris’s girlfriend took a one week family vacation to Disney. I got Tori to get me Kris’s phone number and I called him. I asked him to hang out with me because I was bored. We ended up going to dinner that night; but still it was just as friends. Even so that was the start of an awesome week. I took full advantage of his girlfriend being over a thousand miles away. Out of sight, out of mind; at least that was my motto at the time. Each day while she was gone, Kris and I spent every moment together, and when he dropped me off at night, we would spend hours on the phone. I could feel the connection between us growing and I knew my chance was about to arrive.

Just before Kris’s girlfriend was about to come home from vacation, Kris and I headed over to Matt’s new place for the evening. Matt’s apartment was a small one bedroom that was in the basement of a house. That meant pretty much no light and grey concrete walls. Not exactly the homey feeling, but a place to live nonetheless. That night, Tori and Matt intentionally left Kris and me alone in Matt’s apartment. For the most part, Kris and I just lay there, talking and sharing stories while in each other’s arms. Finally I decided I was through with the games; I rolled over and kissed him square on the lips. He kissed me back and I knew he was into it too. This lasted for a while, but I could tell Kris wasn’t completely comfortable and we never went further than first base. Finally Matt and Tori came in and I could tell that Kris was embarrassed they had seen us. It wasn’t because of me; I knew that. It was that Kris was feeling guilty for his betrayal of his girlfriend. I knew he was too good of a guy to do something like this and be okay with it. Yet I really didn’t care. I had gotten what I wanted and was feeling quite satisfied. I felt not guilt; just triumph.

Success!

The next day Kris’s girlfriend returned home. I was so confident that I thought for sure this was the end of their relationship. Victory was mine. I knew I was more attractive, more fun and definitely more adventurous. A few days went by and I heard nothing from him. I passed it off as him just