Tonight’s his date with Nellie.Ugh!Makes my stomach sick just thinking about it, but then I think about the cash in his wallet, the money in his bank account—our ticket to ride—and I try to push the sickening thoughts away.
We’ll be out of here soon enough.
Earlier tonight, I couldn’t just sit here, stewing, thinking about their date. And I couldn’t stand to be around Mom and Pa for one second longer, so I held out my hand, told Pa to give methe fucking keys.
I’ve got him over a barrel right now—I can’t believe he’s been lying to me my entire life about who my real mother is—so he dug them out of his pocket and slapped them in my hand withouteven asking me where I was headed.
I took off toward the hospital to visit Blair, the first time I’ve gone to see her since the accident. Her family wanted space at first, but now that she’s doing better, waking up, they’re allowing more visitors.
And I just had to see how she’s doing for myself.
But as I stepped into her room, I nearly tripped over my feet when I saw two police officers in there, their notepads open, standing near her bed, asking questions.
Her eyes flitted to me for a sec as I walked in; I waved at her as hot tears sprung to my eyes.
She lookedawful, her head so wrapped in bandages that it looked like she was wearing a towel on her hair, fresh from the shower. Her face is so swollen, her eyes don’t even look like hers.
“Thanks for coming by,” her mom, Mrs. Chambers, said to me, giving me a side hug, rubbing my back like she was consolingme.
“Of course,” I said meekly.
“She’s doing better,” Mrs. Chambers said in a soft voice, “but she’s still unsteady. Cops are here because she woke up again.”
My stomach was clenching like there was a tight fist in the center.
The cops?
“We’re just trying to determine how much you saw. How much you know,” the male cop said to Blair. “You said you saw someone, that someone did this to you—”
The room began to spin.
“Here’s a list of letters. Can you spell the person’s name out?”
I watched as Blair nodded, cast her glance toward me as if asking my permission.
She could barely lift her arm, so the policeman placed the laminated sheet right on the bed to make it easier for her. Blair’s index finger moved across the page at an excruciatingly slow pace.
Then it stopped.
“Jay,” the male cop said, and the female cop jotted that down.
My heart thumped so loudly in my chest, I was worried the whole room could hear it, gonging away.
Blair looked over at me again, and Monica glanced at me suspiciously.
“Okay, this is good, keep going,” the male cop encouraged.
But Blair’s arm sagged, and her eyelids fluttered.
“I think that’s enough,” Mrs. Chambers said, “for now. Jane, you were out there, who else out there has a name that startswithj?”
My face burned as all eyes in the room turned on me. I fumbled through the group of teens, and yep, I’m the only one whose name begins withj. “Welp, just me, I think, but obviously—”
Silence blanketed the room. Blair’s various machines chirped and beeped.
“Like maybe she pointed tojbecause I’m here, because I came to see her, ya know?”
I was reaching, and it seemed like everyone in the room felt the same way.
