I have to call her.
I can’t wait to suffer through that conversation.Hey baby, it’s me. Yeah, you know, your deadbeat boyfriend. The one who took your virginity last night and is now locked up behind bars.
I inwardly groan. My stomach is rolling.I think I need some Tums.
“Pierce,” I hear someone call my name. I look up and see Officer Valentine standing there with my mother beside him. “Visitor.”
I look between them anxiously and wonder where Sean is. Officer Valentine leaves as my mother walks up and stands in front of me.
“Where’s Sean? Is he fixing this shit?” I spew.
My mother doesn’t answer right away, which makes my anxiety level skyrocket through the roof.
“Well?” I urge, grabbing tighter onto the bars.
She’s fidgety as hell, looking everywhere but at me.
“Mom.What’s going on?”
“Ryan, Sean needs you!” she blurts out.
“What?”
“He’s sick.”
“I know he’s sick. You don’t have to tell me. I’m the one who takes care of him!”
“He can’t go to jail.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ryan, please.”
“Please what?” I stare at her dumbfounded.
She’s quiet, but her eyes are pleading. A stretch of jagged-edged silence passes between us.
“What are you asking me?” The question dangles dangerously in the air.
“Ryan, please,” she repeats pathetically.
I realize then. It hits me like a battering ram right in the chest.
I start to pace furiously.Why does this not surprise me?I’ll tell you why. Sean and my mother have always had a different kind of relationship. A relationship I’ve never been a part of because they share one very big similarity. Addiction.
“You know he’ll never survive in that environment.”
“Oh yeah?” I seethe. “And I will?”
“You’re stronger than him. You always have been.”
I’m not so sure that’s true.
“What happens the next time he falls off the deep end, and I’m not there, huh?” I argue heatedly.
“I’ll take care of him.”
“How?”I snap. “You fall apart the minute he does!”