No matter how much I wanted to see Lucas again, my future depended on staying on track, and guys weren’t part of my road map, especially in light of what I was about to walk into.
6
Mazzie
I ran through the emergency room double doors, only to be stopped by a security guard. Like at an airport, patients and guests had to have their bags cleared before they could go any farther.
I dumped my bag on the conveyor belt and went through the scanner.
The young security guard checked inside my bag. “ID, please,” he said, handing me my purse. “Who are you here to see?”
I gave him my driver’s license that I had taken out of my wallet before Bailey dropped me at the ER entrance. “Amy and Kaylee Meyers. My mom and sister were brought in from a car accident.”
While I waited for him to check their names, I rubbed my hands then picked at a nail, sweeping my gaze around the waiting room.
“Go through the doors on the far side.” He pointed behind me. “Make a right, and you’ll see another set of doors. They’re in room four.”
I held on to the strap of my cross-body bag and fast walked, following his directions.
Keep your cool, Mazzie. Don’t lay into your mother and make a scene.
I couldn’t promise that voice in my head anything. The anger and anxiety coursing through me was about to detonate.
As I entered the hub of the emergency area, I was met with beeping sounds humming, a nurse and doctor running down a hall, and two paramedics wheeling a bloody patient to a room. For the briefest of moments, excitement stirred at the notion that one day I would be a doctor tending to patients in the ER. My goal was emergency medicine, but that road might be a dead end, depending on the circumstances before me.
I blew into room four like an unexpected tornado, and before I could get my bearings, Kaylee threw herself at me.
“Maze,” my sister cried.
“You must be Mazzie Meyers,” an imposing cop by the name of Officer Morrical said, tucking his small notebook in the chest pocket of his uniform as he stood at the bottom of the bed.
“That’s my daughter, Officer.” My mom, who didn’t look beat up, bloodied, or bruised, gave me one of her “I’m sorry” looks.
I pursed my lips at her before I examined my sister. “Are you okay?”
Her eyes were red, but she had no cuts or bruises. I pushed her long brown hair from her face. She was the spitting image of our mother with her big brown eyes, button nose, and high cheekbones. The only attribute I had gotten from my mother was heart-shaped lips. I resembled my dad—black hair, green or blue eyes, depending on what I was wearing, and height. I wasn’t six feet like him but stood at five feet eight.
“Is my mom being charged?” I asked Officer Morrical.
“I wasn’t drunk.” Mom’s tone bordered on panic.
“That’s not what the breathalyzer indicated,” Officer Morrical confirmed. “We’ll see what the blood tests come back with. Not to mention, you had a minor in the car. That right there constitutes child endangerment.”
The room blurred. “Is CPS going to take my sister?”
My mind was mapping out a plan—find a second job, maybe quit school to work full-time. I wanted to strangle my mother. But this was partly my fault. I’d left my phone in Lucas’s living room while we screwed each other’s brains out. A scream tore through my head. One freaking night off from my problems, and my world blows to hell. I should’ve been available for Kaylee. Tears were burning my eyes, but I couldn’t break down in front of my sister. She needed me to be strong.
“Officer, please don’t arrest me,” my mom pleaded.
Officer Morrical regarded my mom with a soft expression. “Ma’am, the last thing I want to do is that. But the law dictates what happens next.”
Kaylee hugged me tightly. “Don’t let them take me.”
My heart broke in two. But I would die before I let that happen. Bailey’s offer to stay with her parents was looking better and better.
“No, they’re not,” my mother cried.
“By law, I’m obligated to bring CPS into the fold.” Officer Morrical’s statement felt like a bomb exploding in my head, despite knowing that already.
