"Please . . . don't cry. You had to have known I'd do this at some point."
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Parker Sims is the class clown but that doesn't mean he's easy to fool. And that's just what Nola B. is good at - fooling people. She's got the whole school believing th...
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ChapterSixty-Eight:
"Hello?"
Nola pressed the phone to her ear because the voice on the other line, at first, sounded as they were in the distance. "Hey, Mom? It's Nola."
Katherine smiled, glad to finally hear her daughter's voice. It had been the first time in a long while that Nola called her directly. Normally, Nola called her father's phone and refused to talk to Katherine. "Oh, hey, Hun. Have you spoken to the doctors today? When are they releasing you?"
"They already have," Nola replied, not surprised that her mother did not know because Nola had not spoken with her parents since they talked the day before yesterday. Nola appreciated how they gave her space, she needed it. It was Parker, however, who argued that her parents should have been up at the hospital, per Nola's wishes or not. But, Parker didn't know everything and Nola felt no animosity towards her parents.
"They did?! We can be up there in ten minutes, to get you," Katherine spoke as she got up and went to grab her keys. She was about to shout for her husband to come out of his home office when Nola spoke up.
"No need," Nola exclaimed, "Parker has taken me back to his house. I decided to stay here."
Katherine halted her actions and froze in place, "Oh. . ."
"Don't take it personally. I just feel safe here," was Nola's only explanation. Her eyes scanned around Parker's living room, taking in every inch. "It's becoming," Nola wanted to say home but the sentence fell short. "It's becoming a safe haven and I would like to stay."
"You do what you need to do, Nola. I'm just here for you."
Nola was scared that her mother would take what she was about to say next the wrong way. "I think it would be best if you go with Dad, out of the country."
"Where is this coming from?"
"You can't stand being in this town, you said it yourself the other day. This place is not your safe haven."
"I don't want to leave you, Nola . . . Why don't you come with us?"
Nola shook her head but then realized that her mother could not see her. "I just took a psych evaluation, today, and got my testimonies put back into Mitch's trail."
"Oh, that's wonderful news!"
"Yeah . . . I wanna be here for Mitch's trial, in two weeks. To add, I have school, with graduation in four weeks. I can't miss that."
"We plan to be there for that," Katherine was quick to say.
Nola knew that they would, "I know - just don't stay here and be miserable. I plan to stay at Parker's and not leave, except for school."
