with you now.”
I turn my head and stare at the eerie image of my mother. Her tired eyes with their constricted pupils look at me as if I’m a shadow instead of her daughter. Mom squeezes my hand again. For the first time, she’s not rubbing her arm.
Cradling my left arm close to my body, I
grip the table and pull myself to my feet. “You shot up?”
As I stand, Mom drops to the ground. In
shame? In exhaustion? Too high? I don’t know.
Refusing to watch Ryan die, refusing to
make eye contact with me, Mom covers her
head with her arms and rocks over and over again.
Blood pours over my eye and my sight
wavers as my body sways to the side. My
fingers accidently hit Mom’s cordless phone near the edge of the table.
Heroin.
It destroyed me nine years ago and one
phone call cost me my father.
Heroin.
If I call, my mother will go to jail.
Heroin.
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My finger slides against the numbers and
like nine years ago I listen to the phone ring once, twice, a third time. The world turns black, then reappears in a fuzzy tunnel. My knees buckle and I force consciousness for a few more seconds.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
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Ryan
I SET MY CELL to the loudest ringtone and place it on my chest before I rest my head on my pillow. Beth’s supposed to come home from the hospital today and because of that I’ve refused pain medication. I want to hear her voice on the other end of the line and know that she’s only a mile down the road instead of thirty minutes away in Louisville.
Then, for the first time in more than a week, I can sleep deeply.
My body is one slow, throbbing ache. Every pressure point pounds in time with my pulse.
Broken ribs, bruised everything, and cuts. Each and every injury worth the cost of saving Beth.
“Can you tell me why?” My dad’s voice
carries into the room.
My eyes flash open and I turn my head to
see him leaning against the door frame with his HC TITLE-AUTHOR
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gaze pinned to the floor. It’s the first words he’s said to me since I hit him. He’s been around. Present, but not speaking. I don’t feel bad about it, because I haven’t talked to him either…until now. “Why what?”
“Why you risked it all for that girl?”
“Because I love her. And her name’s Beth.”
No response. Sometimes I wonder if Dad
knows what love is.
“Scott called,” he says stiffly. “He wanted to remind you that there are rules now. He’s angry with both of you and he won’t be letting her out of the house anytime soon.”
I return my focus to the ceiling. I can deal with rules as long as I’ve got Beth. Scott’s been a mixture of grateful and pissed. In hindsight, maybe I should have called him when I found Beth’s note, but I don’t think Beth would have listened to him. She needed me.
“I don’t think you should continue to see her,” Dad says.
“Don’t remember asking.”
There’s silence and when I glance out of the corner of my eye, Dad’s gone. Who knows if the two of us can fix what’s been broken.
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My cell buzzes and my stomach
plummets when I notice Beth’s name above the text. She promised she’d call. Friends, right?
I half chuckle. It’s the first text she ever sent me. Always.
The doorbell rings and I rub my eyes. I’m too exhausted for guests, but they keep coming: my friends, the baseball team, my coaches, teachers, my parents’ friends.
Mom and Dad’s slightly raised tones
indicate that they’re disagreeing over
something, and I don’t care enough to figure out the issue. I expect them to continue the argument, but what I don’t expect is Mom’s voice at the door of my room. “Because I said so.”
She throws a glare down the hallway before addressing me. “Ryan, you have a guest.”
Before I can ask who, Beth walks into my
room with her left arm in a sling. The breath slams out of my body. She’s here. Forgetting about my injuries, I rush to sit up—and wince.
The smell of roses overwhelms me and I
glance up to see Beth by my side.
“You look like hell. Have you been resting at all?”
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The right side of my mouth quirks up.
“It’s nice to see you, too.”
“I’m serious.” Beth doesn’t wear worry well and the ache on her face bothers me.
I capture the hand she uses to try to push me back down, bring it to my lips, and kiss her palm. God, I’ve missed her.
A clearing of a throat and I notice Scott standing beside my mother at the door. “A few minutes, Beth, then we’re heading home.”