Chapter 15: Gabby

GABBY

"Ihope this goes better than the last time," I said to Byte when he parked at the hospital.

"You barely have a cough. I'd be shocked if they don't give you clearance," he said.

"Me, too," I said and gave him a quick kiss before I got out of the truck.

I only had to wait a few minutes before they called me back to a room. The nurse asked me a few questions, one of which was if I still had a cough.

"Nope. No cough. No fever. No aches and pains," I said and immediately clamped my mouth shut. I didn't want her to suspect me of lying because I was too insistent about my lack of symptoms.

"Great. We just need to collect a urine sample from you, and you should be good to go."

"A urine sample?" I questioned.

"Yes. It's hospital policy to perform a urine drug screen on all employees who have been out of work for over seven days," she explained.

"Okay, show me where to go."

"Follow me," she said and led me to a bathroom down the hall. "Once you're finished, return to the room, and I'll be in shortly with your paperwork."

I did my business, returned to the room, and waited. After twenty minutes passed, I started to wonder if they had forgotten about me. I was considering stepping out into the hall and flagging down someone when the nurse entered the room.

"Sorry for the wait," she said and handed me a stack of papers. "You'll need to take these over to Human Resources so they can complete the process."

"Thank you."

When I arrived at Human Resources, I gave my paperwork to the receptionist. "Have a seat. Someone will be with you shortly."

While I was waiting, I sent a text to Byte to let him know what was going on and that I wouldn't be much longer.

"Gabriella Marks," a lady called. "Come with me."

I followed the woman back to a small conference room and was surprised to see my manager and a man I didn't recognize sitting at the table. "What's going on?" I asked. Suddenly, I had a bad feeling, but I had no idea why.

"Have a seat," the unfamiliar man said.

"Seriously. What is going on?" I asked again as I took a seat.

"Gabby," my manager started, "your drug screen came back positive for THC. Your termination is effective immediately."

"What?" I demanded. "There's no way that's possible."

She pulled out a sheet of paper and placed it in front of me. "See for yourself."

Even though the results were right in front of me, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. "This isn't right. I don't smoke weed," I insisted.

"Your test results say otherwise."

"I don't care what that paper says. It's wrong!"

"Let's not make this any harder than it needs to be," my manager said.

"Oh, my apologies. Let me quietly cooperate and make things easier for you while you're trying to ruin my life!" I yelled. "Why are you doing this? I've been an excellent employee. I don't deserve this!"

"Miss Marks, please calm down so we can continue," the man said.

"I'm not going to calm down. You're firing me for something I didn't do!"

"If you don't get yourself under control, we're going to call security to remove you."

"There's no need for that. I'll happily remove myself," I said and got to my feet.

"We need you to sign a few papers, and then you can leave," my manager said.

I glared at her. "I'm not signing shit."

"If you leave now, there's nothing I can do," she said.

"And if I sign whatever that is," I said and pointed to the papers in front of her, "there'll be nothing I can do."

With that, I stormed out of Human Resources in a state of disbelief. I managed to hold it together until I made it back to Byte's truck.

"What happened?" he demanded.

I held up one finger and tried to compose myself. My heart was pounding, and my mind was racing. I inhaled deeply and uttered the words I never thought I'd say. "They fired me."

"What? Why?"

I nodded and swallowed thickly. "They asked me to provide a urine specimen for a drug screen, and I tested positive for THC."

"Do you smoke weed?" he asked.

"No!"

He held his hands up in mock surrender. "I'm not passing judgment. I'm just trying to understand what happened."

"Yeah, me, too. There's no way that test should've been positive."

"Do you think they made a mistake?"

"That's the only explanation I can come up with. You've been around me for the last two weeks. When have you seen me do anything that would make me test positive for THC?"

"Do you use any CBD products? I've heard those can sometimes trigger a positive test," he said.

I was already shaking my head before he finished. "No. I've heard the same thing and didn't want to take the risk. What in the hell am I going to do?"

"If you think the test was wrong, there's an easy way to prove that."

"What? How?"

"Take a test at home. If the results are different, you'll know they made a mistake," he explained.

"What do you mean ‘if'?" I asked defensively.

"Poor choice of words," he said. "I'm not questioning you. If you say the test should've been negative, I believe you."

"I'm sorry. I just can't believe this is happening."

He took my hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Let's go get some drug tests."

"Why are you taking one?" I asked when Byte headed toward the bathroom with a urine cup in his hand.

He shrugged. "Why not?"

Before I could respond, he stepped inside and closed the door.

When he returned, he placed his cup on the counter beside mine. "How long do we have to wait?"

"The instructions said five minutes."

"What do you want to do for the next five minutes?"

"Stare at the cup and make myself crazy," I said flatly.

"Let's take Shadow out. By the time he's finished, the tests will be done," he suggested.

Even though the entire estate was surrounded by a fence, I didn't want to let Shadow run free for his bathroom breaks, so we'd been taking him out on a leash. I tried not to continuously check the time as we walked from tree to tree, but it was a struggle.

"It's time!" I announced and almost ran for the door.

My jaw dropped open when I picked up my test and read the results. Everything was negative, except for THC. "What the hell?" I whispered in disbelief.

Byte was staring at his specimen with an equal look of disbelief on his face. "Mine's positive, too."

"And it shouldn't be?" I guessed.

"No, it shouldn't be. I haven't smoked weed or used anything with THC in well over a year," he explained.

"Then how in the hell are both of us testing positive?" I asked, as my eyes landed on the brownies Lauren had sent home with me. I gasped and pointed at the container. I felt bad for even thinking it, and could barely bring myself to even make the suggestion. "Do you think it could've been the brownies?"

Byte glanced at the container and back to me. "At this point, I'd say anything's possible."

"How can we find out?"

"There are kits to test food for different substances. They can be ordered, but let me see if Patch can help us get our hands on one today."

"Wait," I started.

"He won't say anything," Byte assured me before I could even ask.

"I'm not going to keep this from Keegan, but I don't want her to hear about it from anyone other than me," I explained.

"I know, and Patch will, too."

I couldn't sit still while he was on the phone with Patch. I had so many thoughts and questions running through my mind. First and foremost was whether or not Lauren intentionally gave me brownies laced with THC. I really didn't see how it could have been an accident, but I also couldn't think of a reason why she'd do something like that.

"All right, he said they have them at the hospital. He's going to go by the ER and get some," Byte said and paused. "Since you don't have to be in Cedar Valley until Tuesday, do you want to spend the weekend in Croftridge? It's totally up to you."

"Yeah, I think I'd like that. This place is nice, but I kind of feel like I'm under a microscope when we're here," I admitted.

"I know what you mean. Gather up what you need, and we'll leave when you're ready."

"How did you meet Lauren?" Byte asked once we were on our way back to Croftridge.

"I met her at school. We were both in the library between classes. She asked me to help her with something she didn't understand. We continued to run into each other at the library and started studying together. She's a semester behind me in the program, but I still found the study sessions to be helpful."

"When did you start studying at your house instead of the library?"

"At the beginning of this semester. The last semester is basically all clinical hours, so I don't have a need to be on campus," I explained.

"Have you ever been to her place?"

"No. With the exception of this past Wednesday, we've always studied at my house."

"And does she always bring you something she baked?"

I slapped my hand over my mouth as realization dawned. "Yes! She's been doing that for months. She told me she loves to bake but can't eat everything she makes, so she gives it away. Do you think she's been drugging me the whole time?"

"We'll know for sure soon," he said and turned into Patch's neighborhood.

Instead of us getting out and going inside like I expected, Patch came out to the truck when we pulled into the driveway.

"Thanks, brother," Byte said.

"Yes, thank you!" I added.

"No problem," he said and focused his attention on me. "If you need my help with anything, let me know. I'll be happy to help in any way I can. In the meantime, be sure to document everything and get in touch with the club's lawyer sooner rather than later."

"Thanks, Patch. I really appreciate it," I said sincerely.

"I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but you'll get through this. Try to think of it as nothing more than an inconvenience. It might take some time to get it sorted out, but don't get discouraged."

"I'll do my best," I said.

"All right, Patch. We've got some brownies to test."

"Good luck," he said and waved goodbye.

"Do we have to wait until we get to your house?" I asked excitedly.

Byte chuckled. "Yes, we do. And not because drug testing a potential pot brownie in a moving vehicle is a bad idea."

"Okay, then why?"

"Because I put the brownies in the toolbox in the bed of my truck."

"Fine, I'll read the instructions so I don't have to do it when we get there," I said and picked up one of the test kits.

"Well, that's incredibly simple," I sighed and dropped the test into my lap. "Swab the sample, then rub the swab on the test card in the designated area. If the sample turns red within ten seconds, the result is positive."

"On the bright side, ten seconds is a lot faster than five minutes," Byte pointed out.

"I don't know why I'm being so impatient. It doesn't matter how long the test takes. I'm not going to be able to do anything about it until Monday anyway."

"True," he agreed. "But at least you'll know."

"How could I not know? I mean, shouldn't I have felt different?"

"Not necessarily. If she used one of the other cannabis compounds like delta-eight, you likely wouldn't have noticed any impairment. Now that I'm thinking about it, that would also explain why the baked goods didn't have an unusual taste or smell," he explained.

"You seem to know a lot about this."

"When the bill was passed that made a lot of hemp-derived products legal, Ember asked me to do some research to see if growing the legal plants would be lucrative for the farm."

"Was it?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, and no. While it definitely would have turned a nice profit, there was still a lot of uncertainty with the legalities on a state level. Since our state isn't known for being progressive where marijuana is concerned, she decided against it."

He pulled into his driveway a few minutes later and put the truck in park. "You ready for round two of testing?"

"Yes!" I said excitedly. "But it's round three for me."

"I didn't know you guys were coming back tonight," Flint said from the front porch. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything is so far from okay it's not even funny," I said and let Shadow out of the truck. He jumped down and ran straight for Flint.

Flint leaned down to pet him. "So, what's going on?"

"In a nutshell, I got fired today because I tested positive for THC on a urine drug screen. We think my so-called friend from school has been feeding me homemade edibles without my knowledge."

"Are you serious?"

"Yep," I nodded. "No one besides Patch knows about this, so please keep it to yourself for the time being."

"Of course," he promised. "So, what are you going to do?"

"I still have some of the brownies she gave me on Wednesday. We're going to use the kits Patch gave us to test them for THC."

"Then what?"

"Either way, I need to contact a lawyer. I don't so much care about getting my job back, but I don't want my nursing license to be affected by something I didn't do."

"What about school?" Byte asked.

"I honestly don't know what to do about school. If I tell them, I'll definitely be kicked out of the program. If I don't tell them, I might be able to finish the program and graduate before anything comes up with the Board of Nursing. I won't be able to take the practitioner boards if my nursing license isn't in good standing, but at least I'll have my degree."

"Do you want to do the honors?" Byte asked and placed the container of brownies on his kitchen table.

"Sure," I said and picked up a test kit.

I rubbed the swab on the brownie as instructed and then rubbed it on the test panel. It turned red almost immediately. I stared at the result and tried to process my feelings. Part of me was happy to know why I tested positive, while another part of me was livid that Lauren had drugged me. And I wanted to know why.

"You okay?" Byte asked.

"Yes. No. I don't know," I said. "I want to know why she did this, but it's not like I can ask her."

"No, you definitely can't ask her. In fact, I don't think you should have any contact with her at all."

"That shouldn't be hard. I only saw her every other Wednesday to study."

"When do you want to tell Keegan?" Byte asked.

"I'll call her now," I said and headed for the stairs.