When Our Worlds Collide (Our Worlds #1)(13)

My mom makes her way over to the hospital bed and sits down on the side being careful not to pull or tug at any of the wires that are hooked into me. “There’s a detective that’s here to talk to you,” she explains in her calming voice. I can recognize it from a mile away. She only uses it in desperate times. There is a knock on the door and she shouts that it was okay to come in. A tall man in a police uniform enters. He has dark buzzed cut hair and friendly brown eyes that scan the room. He is obviously assessing who is present.

“Kennedy Conrad, I’m Detective Johnson. I’m the one that’s on your case. Can I ask you a few questions about your accident?” He’s standing in the doorway waiting to hear my answer. Nurse Brenda leaves quickly to give us our privacy. I’m not ready to talk to anyone about what happened. You’d think they would give me some time, but apparently not.

“Sure,” I force a smile. I know why he is here, what he is looking for. He is going to be disappointed. I have nothing to tell him.

“Do you remember what happened late Saturday night?” Detective Johnson asks sitting down on the stool next to my bed.

“A little bit. I left my house through my window. I didn’t want to hear my parents arguing anymore.” I flash a sympathetic smile to my mom then turn back towards the detective. “And I went for a walk. I was just right down the road from our neighborhood. It was dark, so I didn’t see the car coming until it was too late. It happened right where that small hill blocks your view from seeing any traffic coming.”

“Do you remember anything about the car? Perhaps if it was a male or female driver, color or make and model of the car. Anything would be helpful at this point.” He eggs on pulling at straws. My mom looks to me with a pained expression. I know that look she is wearing. She can’t comprehend how this happened to her baby girl.

“I’m sorry. I don’t remember anything,” I lie threw my teeth. My mom holds onto my hand trying to be supportive. I have no intentions of telling them everything I know.

“Honey, you don’t remember anything?” my mother’s voice is full of worry. She stands up pacing the length of the room a few times.

“Not really,” I lie again. I am starting to feel exhausted and she notices my uneasiness. She kindly asks Detective Johnson to leave and that we will be in contact with him if I remember anything. He assures my mom that they will do everything that they can to find the person who is responsible for my accident.

My mind wanders to Graham as my mom flips through a Home & Garden magazine while I sit in silence. Accident is the word that sticks out to me. That’s what they are calling it. It was just that, an accident. No one else sees it that way though. Being hit by a car is an accident, but the person behind the wheel who left me in that position is not an accident to them. They assume that the person was negligent, but in reality he wasn’t. Even though he had been drinking, I was the one that pushed him to leave me there alone. I practically begged him.

Why wouldn’t he listen to me? I gave him a get out of jail free card and he gladly ran with it. Who wouldn’t have?





Chapter Eight



-Graham-



It has been four days.

Motherfucking four days.

Four of the longest days of my god damn life.

They dragged on as I watched the hands on the clocks seem to barely move. I know it’s only going to get worse. Leaving the house is becoming a guilty chore. Every time I go to leave I only feel more shame that sends me straight back to the seclusion of my room. I shouldn’t be able to walk out my front door as if nothing ever happened, as if life was just as we had left it. Kennedy was lying in a hospital bed…broken.

When I got to school on Monday everyone is busy talking about what had happened. It is the only thing they all have to talk about. Groups of girls are standing in the hallway near my locker and I overhear their conversation. I cringe at what they are all saying.

“Can you believe what happened to Kennedy?” one of them whispers to the other. I contemplate banging my head against the metal of the locker.

“I know, right? They drove off without even helping her. What kind of asshole does something like that?” the other one says. I can’t listen anymore. I ditch my things in my locker and make my way to my first class. That doesn’t help either. Everyone including Mark is busy talking about her.

I should have stayed home. I’m regretting dragging my ass out of bed this morning. If it wasn’t for baseball, I would be anywhere else but here.

“Where were you Sunday? Craig had poker. I finally won all that money back I lost two weeks ago,” Mark asks slamming into the seat next to me abandoning the conversation he is having with a few sophomore girls. They have that dreamy look in their eyes that you can’t quite decipher as endearing or needy. The short blonde waves over to me with sex filled eyes. Christ.

“Just hung around the house, I had to help my mom with a few things,” I lie turning my attention on the overzealous blonde. I grin at her because why the hell not. I might as well play. Mark didn’t seem to notice my lying or he didn’t really care either way.

The rest of the school day went just like that. Everyone talks about how some asshole ran Kennedy over and then left her on the dirt road. The stories vary, some of them are extreme. Someone even said that Kennedy jumped out in front of the car to attempt to commit suicide. It is getting to be too much to listen to. All of the gossip only added to my regret. I’m not used to this feeling. I’ve never had to apologize for anything, ever.