Page 83 of Busted Dreams

Reaching over, I snagged it from the coffee table to see Thatcher calling. Fumbling, I dropped it to the floor and scrambled to pick it up again.

“Hey,” I panted.

“Astrid. Fuck. I-I need you to come down here right now before I do something that’s going to get me in serious trouble.” Thatcher’s voice trembled.

Something like crinkled paper came down the line.

“Fuck you, you motherfucking bastard! You’re lucky I met you here! Do you know what you’ve done? I’ll fucking kill you!” Thatcher screamed. He must have taken his phone away from his ear, because he sounded far away.

“Sir. You need to sit down.” An authoritative voice commanded.

More static. Mumbling voices.

“Please. Just get here. I’m at Mercy Hospital down off 470.”

Then he hung up.

“Oh God.” It took about two seconds before I jumped up and ran around the living room, tugging my shoes on, grabbing my keys. “Thatcher’s at the hospital.”

“What?” Jonah yelled.

“Come on, we need to go!” It didn’t even occur to me he might not want to go. Within three minutes of the call, we were racing down the residential streets. We cut off ten minutes of the drive, and I sent a silent thanks to the heavens we hadn’t been pulled over.

“Is Thatcher hurt?” Jonah panted as he hurried through the hospital doors.

“I don’t think so.”

“But you’re not sure?”

“No.” I bit my lip, reading the signs and having no freaking idea of where to go.

I rang Thatcher back. He picked up on the second ring. “Where are you?” His voice was gruff. Thick with emotion.

“We just entered the lobby. Where are you?”

“ER. You’ll see me. I’m outside my sister’s door, close to the big double doors. I’ll see you in a minute.” Click.

“ER,” I relayed to Jonah, then dashed down the corridor for the Emergency Room. We couldn’t run, but we damn sure speed walked.

Jonah pushed the button to open the double doors, and they slowly opened, giving me time to process how bright the lights were. How bleach overpowered every other smell.

Just like he said, Thatcher was standing by a few chairs placed outside of a room. Was this worse? Weren’t ER rooms sectioned off with curtains instead of walls? I had no idea. I’d never been to this hospital before. The one I went to after Trey went crazy was in the opposite direction on the highway.

“Holy shit, I need you here.” Thatcher walked over to me at a brisk pace and gave me a hug so tight, I lost the ability to breath.

“What’s going on?” I croaked as Jonah stayed a few feet behind me.

“My fucking sister. I don’t know what I’m going to do with her. I swear I don’t. I want to help her, but I’m so afraid I’m going to go crazy trying.”

“I can’t breathe,” I gasped. When he loosened up enough that air filled my lungs, I took several deep breaths. “Okay. Start from the beginning. What happened?”

Please don’t let it be something permanent. Or something traumatic, I whispered to myself over and over again.

“She was with some girl. A girl who tried to pick up drugs from her room before. They got into a car wreck. Not a bad one. But enough that she had to come here to get checked out.”

“That’s not so bad,” I said, and rubbed a soothing hand down his back.

“Oh, but that isn’t the bad part. She was driving, and the driver of the other vehicle is here too. With much worse injuries, I just don’t know the extent of them yet. And they found a fuck ton of drugs in the car. So you see that nice police officer over there by the nurses’ station?” He let go of me with one arm to motion to a cop talking quietly with two nurses. “He’s here to arrest her as soon as she’s released.”

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