Officer Scott

Chapter 21

So... this update is three days late. I know- I'm the worst!

Anyways, I've been loving your comments. Thank you for being such supportive readers!

Chapter 21

It was silent in the car.

Terrifyingly silent.

Until my mother spoke finally. Her manicured nails gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, and I saw her glance at me in the corner of her eye. I swallowed the bile of nervousness that rose in my throat. I always felt anxious whenever she looked at me. I wanted as little attention from her as possible.

"So what are you going to tell them?" She asked me. I was in pretty serious pain, but her voice was calm. She didn't seem worried about me.

"That I fell down the stairs." I responded quickly. My head was pounding and I was worried that I wouldn't say the right thing and she'd fly off the handle again.

"Good. I mean, it's not a lie. You did fall down the stairs. It was your own fault really." She shrugged her shoulders. She didn't see the big deal. She didn't see the lie.

"Yeah, I know." I said softly.

She didn't speak to me for the rest of the car ride. And when we pulled up to the hospital, she helped me out of the car, touching me in probably the gentlest way she had ever touched me in my life. I held the rag to my forehead tightly as she helped me through the front doors of the hospital.

And then she changed.

As we stepped into the fluorescent light, she immediately started calling for help frantically. She looked nervous, and afraid. In the car a few moments earlier, she didn't look that way. She had been cool and calculating.

"Someone please help me! My daughter is hurt!" She cried out. A nurse rushed up to us immediately and began to fuss over me. I felt my mother's hands disappear from my skin, replaced by the nurse who helped me onto a stretcher.

"Is my baby ok?" My mother begged her.

"We're going to stitch up that wound so she doesn't lose any more blood ma'am." The nurse informed her. She applied antiseptic to my forehead, which stung, and then some cream that numbed the area. I watched her with crossed eyes as she stitched me up.

"Alright, we're going to take her back for an x-ray and MRI to make sure there was no internal damage. You need to stay here for that, ma'am." The nurse said to my mother.

"No I need to come with her. I'm so worried about my baby."

"Ma'am, you need to stay here. She'll be ok for a few minutes without you." The nurse repeated. My mother's eyes flashed quickly and she looked down at me. I think she realized she wouldn't get her way.

"Ok baby, I'll be right here waiting for you," she said to me as she leaned in to give me a gentle hug. "Don't mess this up." She hissed in my ear so that the nurse couldn't hear.

As soon as we were down the hall and in the MRI room, the nurse seemed to relax.

"So, honey, what happened to you?" She asked me as we went into a room with a huge machine.

"I fell down the stairs." I responded carefully.

"By yourself or did someone push you?"

Someone pushed me. I wanted to say.

"By myself. I was wearing slippery socks and the stairs are hardwood." I continued with the script my mother had prepped me with.