Page 35 of Need for Speed

“Sadie?” Jagger asks.

“Yeah, is everything okay?” I ask but I already know it’s not. I feel it in the pit of my stomach, that old friend of mine called dread.

Jagger clears his throat. “Well, actually no. Axell’s in the hospital in ICU.”

“What?” I screech out probably waking the whole damn house.

I hear Jagger sigh. “I’m sorry I didn’t want to tell you this way. There was a wreck.”

“Why? Where was he going?” I manage to ask.

“I don’t know for sure but from what we can piece together to you. He had booked a flight about a couple of hours before. He was speeding but I think it was just to make it on time for the flight,” Jagger explains.

Tears stream down my face like a damn breaking that holds back the river. My heart is dying slowly but surely and all I can think about in this moment is Axell. Drake is standing in my doorway with a look of confusion. Somewhere in my mind I know I should try to keep it together for him, but I just can’t. It’s funny how I was just thinking about the changes in his life a few hours ago and now it’s my life that has just been turned upside down.

The next morning, I wake up to the sound of the doorbell ringing. I guess at some point I managed to cry myself to sleep. Looking over my shoulder I see that all three of us, my mother, Drake, and I, are all in her bed. The doorbell rings again and I get up to answer the door when the world tilts. My head is pounding and my stomach beings to roll. I rush toward the bathroom. Drake rushes past the bathroom door on his way to answer the front door. With my head in the toilet the events of last night start to come back to me. My heart beats erratically at the thought of Axell in ICU. It just seems so unreal. I want to go to him but at the same time I can’t leave my mother and Drake.

Just like some unanswered prayer I see a familiar face appear in the doorway of the bathroom out of the corner of my eye. As soon as he realizes how sick I am he rushes to my side. “Sade, are you okay?”

Seth’s voice creates a calm in me. Once I’m finished, I flush the toilet and collapse against the wall behind me. “What are you doing here?” I ask him, my voice weak and hoarse from the all the crying and vomiting.

Seth stands up and grabs the cup sitting on the bathroom counter. Filling it with water he hands it to me. Seth shrugs“I heard about Axell and I knew you would want to be there but wouldn’t want to leave Shelly and Drake here alone with everything. I knew you’d have to pick.”

“So?”

Seth scoffs. “So, I didn’t want you to have to pick. We all know that my relationship with Shelly is not good and that I don’t really want to be here but my relationship with you is a different story. You’re my little sister and I love you. I want to be here for you and if that means I have to set my differences aside for the time being to help you then I will. You need to go home and be with your husband. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on things. I’ll help Drake out when he needs it.”

Tears form in my eyes, but I manage to keep them at bay. “Are you sure?”

He nods and gives me a sad smile. “Yes, I’m sure. Life is throwing everything at you at one time. It’s okay to let someone help you out here and there and even let them take care of you from time to time. Can you fly though?”

I nod. “Yes, I’m just sick from all the stress of everything I think.”

Seth nods then moves to help me off the floor. “Go pack up and I’ll start breakfast for everyone.”

I’m in my room packing when Drake knocks lightly on the door, clearly unsure of what to do. I try to smile at him, but it feels forced. “So, Seth’s my uncle?”

I nod. “Yeah, he’s great. You’ll love him once you get to know him. Shelly and him have a very strained relationship, and for good reason, so there might be some tension at first but it has nothing to do with you I promise.”

Drake nods and walks farther into the room. “I’m sorry about your husband.”

“Thank you.”

He sighs. “You know when she first told me you were coming, I didn’t know what to think. Then I got mad because I felt like we had been doing this on our own this long, so we didn’t need you now. Then you got here, and you didn’t try to force a relationship on me and I started to appreciate that. The next thing I knew it was normal to come home and see you here, comforting even. It’s harder than I thought to see you leaving again.”

His words hit me like a wrecking ball. I sit on the bed and pat the seat next to me. “It’s only temporary. A part of me wishes I didn’t have to go but Axell needs me too. It’s so hard to balance it all.”

“I get that. I’m not mad that you’re leaving. I understand why you are. I also know that if Seth hadn’t come here that you wouldn’t have left. You would have stayed here and worried constantly,” Drake tells me and he’s right. I would have.

“Axell and I didn’t leave things on a good note when I left L.A. My fault not his, but we were just starting to figure things out and planning for the future again. A future that involved you. He was on his way here.”

“Here? As in Aynor?” Drake asks.

I nod. “Yeah, his brother Jagger said that from what they can gather he booked a flight to South Carolina a couple of hours before the accident. I’m guessing he rushed home to pack some stuff then was rushing to the airport when it happened.” My voice breaks and a few stray tears escape.

Drake wraps his arms around my shoulders and pulls me into him. “It’ll be okay…mom.” His words threaten to make me cry more but we are interrupted by Seth hollering at us for breakfast. I never thought I’d see the day when I heard Drake call me mom. My heart should be overjoyed but it’s weighted down, sinking like ship.

After breakfast Seth goes into Shelly’s room, I guess he figures if he’s going to have to be in here with her then he should get the tough conversation over. I still can’t believe he came all this way for me. He’s going to stay and help Drake with our mother, for me. He’s the best brother ever. Drake grabs my bag and takes it to the car. Seth had booked me a flight back to L.A. when he booked his to come to South Carolina. I was thankful he thought ahead like that.

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