I reached down and saw it was an Odessa number I didn’t recognize. I thought about answering it, almost did, and decided at the last second not to. If it was important, they would leave a voicemail and I could figure out what I needed to do from there.
“Who the hell is calling you?” Hailey said. “Some…”
Her voice trailed off, and she didn’t say anything else. Probably was about to make a joke before she thought better of it.
“Probably some spam caller that doesn’t realize what time it is,” I said. “I—”
But then it rang again, and now I started to get a sinking feeling. Someone really wanted to get a hold of me, and no one called this late at night if something good was happening.
“Melissa?”
I ignored Hailey and held the phone up to my ear after hitting answer.
“Hello?”
A pause came as some background noise filled the air.
“Yes, hello, is this Melissa Cook?”
I didn’t recognize the voice on the end of the line. It had an air of professionalism to it that made me very uncomfortable. This was not a spam call. This was the call of someone who needed to deliver some official news.Something happened to Mom and Dad. Oh, shit.
“Yes, who’s calling?” I said, sounding a bit abrasive so I would get the caller to stop joking around if they weren’t being serious.
“My name is Officer Dillerson with the Odessa Police Department.”
I gulped. His tone shifted to more compassionate. Something had…something had happened…
“I’m sorry to call you so late, but there was an accident. Your parents were driving home from the grocery store when a drunk driver hit them. Miss Cook, I’m sorry, but they didn’t make it.”
Didn’t make it…
What?
What was going on?
Was this seriously real?
“We tried to reach you at your apartment, but—”
The police officer’s voice faded into the background. I could hear the distant sound of Hailey’s cell phone also ringing, but everything just sounded so…far. Like I was caught in a world I was trying to process but I wasn’t equipped to. What…
Seriously?
We were…
We were on our own?
“Miss Cook, can I answer any questions?”
No. No. I had so many questions I didn’t want to…I didn’t want to ask…
“I…really?”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
I started to sniffle. This wasn’t…
Hailey was the only family I had left…
This was, sadly, happening.
The first sob came loudly. And then the rest poured out quietly. I felt Hailey come to my side a few moments later. The two of us held each other.
We were all that we had left. Now, more than ever, we had to depend on each other.
Now, more than ever, we’d have to be honest with ourselves and each other.
