When I'm With You (Little Hollow Series, #2)(16)
Tests show my mom’s an alcoholic, go figure. She has a concussion and they’ve said she needs to go to rehab, like I didn’t know that already! Anyway, they’re going to start waking her up soon so I’m going to get some fresh air before that happens. S
I roll my eyes at her first sentence and text back saying I’ll get a shower and head there with ‘provisions’, meaning coffee, clothes and a toothbrush. I’m not letting her walk around talking to people with poop breath.
I stretch and get a shower, dressing in a tank and jeans when I’m finished. I stare at my cell as I dry my hair, wondering if I should just text him? It doesn’t mean anything other than he’d asked me to, right?
I tut at myself, grow a pair Kee!
I pick up my cell and click on Lewis’s contact name to send him a text telling him I’m headed to the hospital.
Arriving at the hospital a half hour later, I knock on the room Cindy is in and hear Sam’s tired voice telling me to come in. Seeing Cindy all hooked up to the tubes and wires makes my stomach roll but I shake my head and ask Sam how she is.
“Still under, they said they’d bring her around forty minutes ago, but I guess they’re busy. So I’ve just been sat with her since.”
She shrugs as if it’s a normal thing to be talking about her mom being brought out of a coma. I admire her ability to hide her emotions, I always wear mine on my sleeve, well, my fake ones anyway. She looks into the bag I’ve brought her, pulling out her toothbrush.
“Thanks for this, Kee, my teeth were starting to feel furry.”
I chuckle and follow her out toward the bathroom, jumping to sit on the counter beside the wash basin as she changes in the cubicle and comes out to brush her teeth.
“I met someone this morning,” she says all of a sudden, looking into the mirror in front of her and my head spins toward her.
“What?” I ask, completely confused.
When I’d left the hospital last night, I was sure she wanted Connor to come back.
Seeing the look on my face she scoffs. “Not like that. I meant that I talked to someone this morning that made a lot of sense, and I feel like I’m ready to forgive Connor.”
I raise my brows and a smile picks up the corner of my mouth. “Yeah, I thought as much. You may not have known it, but I knew last night.”
It’s her turn to raise a brow. “Well that doesn’t surprise me, you always do have a kind of sixth sense when it comes to me.” She laughs and throws the bag over her shoulder. “I guess I should get back to my mom.”
My throat constricts, not ready to go back into that room with the beeping machines, and I point in the opposite direction. “I’m just going to go grab something to eat. I didn’t have breakfast.”
She nods. “You know where I’ll be.”
I force out a quick smile that I hope looks comforting, and walk toward the cafeteria. I don’t want to alert Sam that I have all these emotions going through my head, I feel like I’m not fully present with her. She’s my best friend and I’ve never had that before with a girl. Sure, I’ve had girls that I would consider my friends, but never one I would call a best friend.
Every friend I’d had in school stopped hanging around with me after their parents found out who my dad was, like it was somehow my fault that he’d chose to be in a motorcycle club. When the only kids left to hang out with came from broken homes or were biker brats themselves, I quickly fell into the wrong crowd. None of them cared about me, and I’m glad I saw that before I got into too much trouble.
“Freddie, I want you to take me home… now.”
Sat in the passenger seat of his classic mustang, I grip the leather as he careens around another corner, shifting the gears on the stick shift.
“But I thought we were having so much fun, baby girl,” he sneers beside me, clearly aware of how scared I am.
I hate when he drives like this. We’ve been dating for the past four months and the novelty of him being three years older than me has wore off. When he first asked me out, I thought I was the luckiest girl in school. Freddie Ryan never dated younger girls, I was the first he’d shown interest in so it made me feel special. He told me he loved me after just two weeks, and coming from a home with so little love, I put my all into him. But I’m starting to see the kind of guy he really is and I have the feeling he’s only putting up with me so I’ll put in a good word with my dad when he wants to patch into the club in two months.
I straighten up to face him as he pushes on faster through the streets of downtown. “I said I want to go home, Freddie! If you won’t take me, just stop and let me out here!”
He slams his foot down on the brakes with such force, my body strains against the belt and my head jolts forward. He swings around in his seat and grabs my jaw, his bloodshot eyes showing evidence of the fact he’s been using today.
“What have I told you about raising your voice to me, baby girl?” He grinds out through gritted teeth.
I try to pull my head away but his fingers holding my jaw tighten. “Get off, Freddie, you’re hurting me.”
“In case you’ve fuckin’ fforgot, you don’t talk back to me! Fuck! I thought going out with a biker brat would be more fun than this, but you ain’t anythin’ more than a kid!”
He throws my head back and it cracks off the window. I may only be fifteen, but I’m no push around. I unclip my belt and reach into my purse, spraying my pepper spray in his face as I sit up.