The officer looks me up and down. “ID, please.”
I place my driving license on the counter and slide it under the glass partition. She picks it up and inspects it. I know I don’t look eighteen. It’s fine. When she’s satisfied, she passes it back. She puts a card machine onto the countertop and informs me that the bail charge will appear on the screen, I can accept and then pay, or I can decline. Cam’s voice echoes in my head.
I don’thaveto do this.
But, I still do. I don’t even look at the amount. I just press accept, input my PIN then take my card and put it away. Just like groceries.
“There’s some paperwork to fill out.” The officer says. “She’ll be brought out in a few minutes.”
“Thank you.” I say, taking the paperwork and the pen. I take a seat and rest the flimsy clipboard on my knees as I fill out the information they want.
When they bring my mom out she’s sober and sulking.
“Hey, mom.”
She sort of grunts at me. The smell of cheap drink is strong on her clothes. I don’t want to know what else I can smell. I take her arm from the officer and lead her to the car. I’ve already laid a blanket across the backseat, just in case. I bundle her in and we drive to my old home in silence.
I try not to look at the ruin of the house when I take her through to her bedroom and get her into bed. I don’t let my eyes wander over the mess, the empty bottles, the scraps of tinfoil, all the remnants of what goes on now that I’m not here. I’m sort of surprised that the house was even empty.
I don’t cry on my way back to my new home. My place with Cam and the guys. I don’t cry because I don’t think I have any tears left for my mother, or even for myself and the life I could have had if her vices hadn’t ruined both of us.
I pull up outside the single storey, homey little building that has quickly become my home. I get out and go to the back, where I bundle up the plastic-backed picnic blanket that I’d put down and shove it in the trunk. Naturally it’ll need to be washed but tonight isn’t the night. I gently close the trunk of the bug and look up at the house for the first time.
Asher is standing in the doorway.
