Chapter 109 Chapter One Hundred And Nine
About thirty minutes later, I heard a voice echoing loudly down the hallway.
“Please, you have to let my daughter out! Please!”
Mom!
I jumped up from the bench where I’d been sitting with my head in my hands, running to the bars to crane my neck towards the hallway. “Mom, I’m here! I’m over here!”
“She’s a good girl, she wouldn’t hurt a fly!” My mom’s voice was getting louder, growing closer and closer to me. “Can’t you see this is all some terrible mistake?”
The officer’s response was too quiet for me to hear, but the tone was dismissive.
“I don’t care what your records say!” Mom yelled. “I know my daughter!”
In a matter of seconds, Lena heard the sound of footsteps approaching, and the same officer from before appeared again, looking tired and annoyed.
“Looks like you won’t be staying till morning after all,” he said, pulling out his keys. “Your mother’s here to bail you out.”
The lock clicked open and I practically ran out of that cell, happy to never look at its four walls ever again.
Mom was standing in the lobby, her hair a mess, still wearing her cleaning uniform from work. She must have come straight from her night shift.
“Mom—”
She crushed me in a hug so tight I could barely breathe.
“Thank God,” she whispered into my hair. “Lena. Thank God you’re okay.”
Relief flooded through me and I hugged her back, rocking side to side with her as she held me. “Mom, I’m so glad you came—”
She pulled back to study my face, and suddenly her expression switched from relief to fury so fast I barely had time to register it.
“Ow!” Her hand clamped down painfully on my ear, yanking me toward the door. “Ow, ow, ow, Mom!”
“Thank you, officers!” she called over her shoulder, her voice bright and cheerful even as she dragged me by the ear like a misbehaving child. “I promise this is the last you’ll see of her!”
“Mom, please—”
“Of all the things to have done, Lena!” She pulled me through the parking lot, still gripping my ear. “Getting arrested! Really? ARRESTED!”
“I can explain…”
“And look at what you’re wearing!” She yanked harder, making me stumble in the stupid heels. “I know I didn’t buy you that dress. No ma’am, wasn’t me. That thing barely covers your—”
“Mom, if you’d just listen—”
She released my ear only to yank open the driver’s side door and slide in, slamming it so hard the whole car shook.
Then she just sat there, hands gripping the steering wheel, staring straight ahead while I stood outside in the cold, nervously wringing my hands.
Her thumbs tapped an impatient rhythm on the wheel.
Message received.
I walked around to the passenger side and got in, closing the door as quietly as possible, holding my breath in fear of my mother.
The second my seatbelt clicked, she started.
“Ever since you started getting tangled up with that Jake and the other girl Nicole and what’s-his-name…”
“Um… Noah?”
“Noah!” She threw her hands up. “I thought he was such a nice boy! Coming around the house, helping me make spaghetti, being so polite. But clearly, clearly, I was wrong. He’s a bad influence on you!”
“Mom, I’m sorry, but it’s really not the way you’re thinking…”
She started the car, pulling out of the parking lot with more force than necessary, the tyres screeching loudly while I held on for dear life.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving the house to go to a party?” Her voice cracked. I saw her wipe angry tears from her cheeks. “You should have said something. You should have told me.”
Guilt twisted in my stomach and I looked out the window, unable to meet her eyes. “I know, Mom. I’m sorry.”
“You’ve changed, Lena.” She accelerated through a yellow light. “You’ve changed so much since you started this job. First, the thing with Mrs. Dawson almost firing you—”
“That wasn’t my fault—”
“Don’t interrupt me, young lady.” Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel. “I wasn’t going to mention this before, I thought I would just leave you to figure it out, but now I will!”
My mom swerved down one corner, cutting off another car. He honked loudly and ran out of his car, shaking a fist at us, “Slow the fuck down!”
But my mom ignored him to face me instead, “I just got a call from your teachers right before spring break. They told me your grades are slipping! They said even your English teacher gave you a second chance to turn in a failed report, but you never did it.”
My stomach sank. I’d completely forgotten about that.
“This new life you’re living,” Mom continued, her voice shaking. “Sneaking out, this new obsession with cheerleading instead of studying. Changing your entire look, running around town with different boys—”
“What boys?” I gasped. “I’m not…”
“Yes, I saw that photo of you on that blog!” She turned to glare at me before looking back at the road. “I went to the grocery store to get ingredients for dinner tonight and what do I see? The teenager at the register laughing at her phone. And what’s on that phone? A picture of YOU, kissing some boy! Can you imagine? My daughter's face pasted all over the internet like some…”
“Okay, okay!” I folded my arms, staring stubbornly out the window, starting to get a little frustrated with all her complaining. “I get it. You’re mad at me. Can you please just drop it now?”
“So you still have the guts to talk back to me after everything?” Her voice went dangerously quiet. “You know what? You’re grounded!”
“What? But Mom…” I whined.
“Grounded for one month!”
“I can’t believe you would just jump to conclusions instead of hearing my side of the story first!” The words exploded out of me.
I turned to face her, trying to make her understand. “You know I would never do something like this on purpose. Okay, yes, I shouldn’t have gone to that party without telling you. But I was framed! Someone told the cops I was the one who threw the party, which is ridiculous because, first of all, we’re poor. We could never afford to live in that kind of mansion, let alone throw a party there!”
Mom took offence at that. “There’s nothing wrong with our house…”
“And secondly,” I continued, too angry to stop now, “I only have three friends in the whole world! Two of which have completely cut me off because they think I’m a cheater. So how exactly would I have invited all those drugged-out teenagers to my imaginary mansion?”
Mom’s head whipped toward me so fast I thought she might crash the car.
“There were DRUGS at this party?”
“Yes! Huh? Wait no—I didn’t—”
“Two months grounded!”
“Mom!”
We pulled up to the Dawson house, Mom still had to finish her shift, apparently, arrest or no arrest.
The second the car stopped, I unbuckled and bolted, yanking open the door and practically jumping out of the car.
“Lena Hartwell, you get back here right now! I’m not finished talking to you!”
But I was already running off, my heels clicking on the driveway as I sprinted to the door, then up the stairs that led to my room.
I took the stairs two at a time, my breath coming in ragged gasps as I ran. “I can’t believe this! It’s not fair!”
Finally, I reached my bedroom door, threw it open, and—
Stopped myself from slamming it just in time, because that would only make things worse.
I closed it quietly instead, leaning against it, and let out every curse word I knew.
“Fuck. Shit. Goddammit. Son of a bitch. Mother—” I clapped both hands over my mouth, shocked at myself.
When had I started swearing like that?
“Wow.”
I spun around so fast I nearly fell over in the stupid heels.
Noah was sitting on my bed, one eye almost swollen shut, with an open scratch on his cheekbone. He looked like he’d been through hell.
“I take it your mother wasn’t too happy about us getting arrested?” he said.
My heart was pounding so hard I thought it might break through my ribs.
“What… how did you… when did you…”
Noah stood up slowly, wincing slightly as he moved. “We need to talk, Lena.”
His voice was calm, much too calm considering the situation, and the look in his one good eye made my blood run cold.
I swallowed and braced myself, trying to prepare for what was coming.