“Well, I heard a big majority of their fight this morning. I was in the bathroom when they started fighting and felt awkward interrupting,” she said sheepishly. “Anyway, not that I’m on her side, Maddon, I’m just saying, I see her side of it too, and I know the whole situation must be tearing her up inside. It’s her family, you know?” she asked, looking at me earnestly. “We know your family life sucked major ass before this, but can you see her side a little bit?”
I digested her words for a minute.
“You need another beer to throw?” Drake joked, making me smile for the first time in days. Carrie let out a giggle, eyeing the beer-drenched mess behind her.
“If you throw another drink, can it be a root beer, because seriously, beer smells like pee,” she said, wrinkling up her nose.
“Smell a lot of pee, do ya, Slim Jim?” Drake teased.
I tuned out their joking as I thought about Kassandra and the hurt expression on her face before I had stomped away.
I had lied about one thing. I had promised myself I would never hurt her.
Mom and Megan were waiting for me in the kitchen when I got home from school. Mom was busy dicing tomatoes on the cutting board while Megan colored at the island. “Hey, sweetie, how did it go? Did you see Maddon?”
“Yeah, I saw him,” I said, draping my hoodie over the back of the barstool next to where Megan was coloring. “Hey, Peanut, how was school?” I asked, ruffling her hair.
She answered with a smile.
“How did it go?” Mom asked, scooping up the discarded tomato ends to drop in the disposal.
I grabbed the last remaining few and added them to the ones already in the drain. I left the water running while I turned to my mom. “It was awful, but I’m going to fix the situation tomorrow,” I said, meeting her eyes.
“What do you mean awful, and what are you going to fix?”
“I’m going to fix the hurt I caused him. I took things for face value without going to the source first,” I said.
“Oh, come on, sweetie, he’s just feeding you more lies,” she said, looking concerned.
“No Mom, Maddon doesn’t lie,” I said, louder than I intended. “If anyone lies, it’s me. I lied to Daddy about my car running bad, and he died because of it. I lied to Maddon because I told him I trusted him and yet, I turned on him the first chance I got,” I said, angrily swiping at a tear that escaped my eye.
“Oh, honey,” Mom said, approaching me.
I turned my back on her and blindly switched on the disposal as more tears leaked from my eyes. A strange grinding noise came from the disposal and I stuck my hand in without thinking. My hand was barely inside the disposal when a weird pressure spiraled around my palm. Confused, I pulled my hand out as blood poured from my palm, flowing to white ceramic tile at my feet.
“Oh my God,” Mom said, scooping a hand towel off the counter as blood dripped down my arm onto my clothes. Mom wrapped the towel around my hand and shut off the disposal. “We need to get to the hospital,” Mom said as my blood soaked through the towel.
I turned to face Megan and saw her staring at the bloody towel and the blood on my shirt. She opened her mouth and for the first time in months she started screaming.
I turned to Mom bewildered as I began to feel dizzy. “Mom, I don’t feel very good,” I said as darkness closed in on me.
I woke a few minutes later on the floor of the kitchen with my mom beside me, holding my injured hand up over my heart. Megan was still screaming like a banshee and in my foggy brain I couldn’t understand why my mom didn’t make her stop.
“The ambulance is on its way,” Mom
said, when she saw my eyes open.
I nodded, cutting my eyes at Megan and back at Mom who was watching Megan helplessly. “I’m okay Mom. Help her,” I said as my brain began to clear a little.
“I have to hold your hand up,” she said, never taking her eyes off of Megan.
“What in the blazes is all the ruckus in here?” Mrs. Miller asked, coming in the backdoor without knocking.
“Kass cut her hand and Megan needs me,” Mom said tersely.
“Well, honey child, what are you waiting for? I got Kass here. You go attend your baby,” she said, taking my injured arm in her spry hands and holding it up.
“They said to hold it up over her heart,” Mom said, getting up to kneel in front of Megan who was now making a loud moaning noise.