Love Me | Series Book #1

FORTY

It should have been no surprise that my mother showed up alone, but somehow, it was. She stood out in the corner of my vision. Her sharp pale bob catching my attention like a flash of light, standing in the entryway of the room.

"Mom," I said, and her eyes landed on me. An, unreadable look permeated across her face.

"Where's dad?" I asked. It was a question that already had an answer, sunk beneath the surface of her solemn expression. I tried to picture him and Aaron sitting in the car with the engine humming. Waiting to know if I were okay. But, if he were here he'd be standing right next to Mom. And he wasn't.

He was still in Houston. The tournament was ranked top on his priorities of places to be, and I hadn't even made the list.

"Jesus Kaya. What happened?" she asked, stepping inside of the room.

My mom could never answer a question without countering with one of her own. If she looked hard enough she wouldn't even need to ask. If she wanted to see, she would. It was right there in front of her. Every single day.

"Mom, I want to go home. Just take me home, please."

The best thing she could do in this moment was fill out the necessary paperwork to discharge me. I didn't need her to pretend to care. Pretending is what got us here in the first place. That was the difference between her and dad. I could depend on him for one thing. He never tried to act. What I got, I could take at face value.

I was never surprised.

"Mrs. Fischer, correct?"

My doctor had fulfilled his promise to return after equipping me with a pain reliever a couple hours ago. He stood at the foot of my bed, monitoring my current state, now that effects were starting to fade.

"Yes," my mother answered him as he stepped forward to extend his hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Doctor Ansari, and I've been the one taking care of your daughter this evening. She's been holding up quite well given the nature of her injury."

"I'm sorry," my mother's eyes fluttered as she blinked back and forth. "I'm still just trying to wrap my head around how this  happened in the first place. How did she get here?"

"I was told that it was young man who man the call. Presumably her boyfriend, it seems. They found her on the park path behind the neighborhood. According to the call,  he says she fell. It appears that she sustained a minor head injury as well, so we've been keeping a close eye on her to ensure that she's alert."

I could feel the burn of her stare on me, but I refused to meet her eye.

"Can I go home now?" I asked, although I had already  sat forward and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. At this point the Days of Our Lives theme song would be on replay in my sleep, the lift of the violin symphony, parading through my mind. 

"Shortly," Dr. Ansari said. "Just give us a moment as I go over proper rehabilitation methods, and we'll get you all set."

I didn't think I needed to be in the room for a recount of the same information I'd been given earlier: elevate the arm, no more than two pain killers every 6 hours, and ice every fifteen to twenty minutes.

There was nothing more to be said. All I wanted was to lie in my bed, and stare up the stars. They were sure to be there every night, although some were fading. Their edges peeling from the ceiling as the adhesive wore thin.

But, under those stars was the safest place I could be.

After Dr. Ansari discharged me with a prescription and a doctor's note, I took the key and wrapped it around my finger, crossing through the automatic doors. The moment the air hit me, it were as though the slumbering nerves in my arm sprung back to life. Like a needle injecting the feelings back into me that I was previously numb to. I spotted the car, sandwiched between a pickup truck and a minivan. If my arm were working, I would key the ignition and take off without a map in my mind to follow. Directionless with a low rate of surviving.