Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 61867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
If my parents were still alive…
Seeing her upset like that really threw me for a loop, and not just because I can’t figure out what I did wrong, but because I hate it whenever things don’t go right for Iris. I guess I’m a little overprotective like that, but that goes back to our relationship and how I stepped in for her after her dad walked out on her.
Maybe I should have worded things more delicately. Maybe I shouldn’t have come on so strong about not caring if I got her pregnant. But I thought she would have understood by my actions in the last couple of days just how devoted I am to her. As far as I’m concerned, nothing has changed in the last three years to make me feel any differently about her, and I need her to know that. I just need to sit down and talk to her about it and I’m sure I’ll be able to make her see that we just got our signals crossed here.
I’m just about to finally pull away when I see the door to Iris’s house open. Her mom, clearly drunk, leans against the doorframe and takes a deep breath of air. For a moment, it looks like she’s about to simply turn around and go back inside, but then I see she actually has car keys in her hands.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
She reaches down and slings her purse over her shoulder, then takes the first step and shuts the door behind her.
Nope, she’s not kidding. Iris’s mom is actually about to get in her car to go to the convenience store, undoubtedly to stock up on liquor with money that Iris earned, while moving around like it’s taking every bit of effort she has just to stay on her feet.
I sigh, push my door open, and get out. “Mrs. Turner! Can I give you a ride somewhere?”
She looks over, and her eyes nearly bug out of her skull when she sees me walking up the lawn toward her. She may be drunk, but she’s aware enough to recognize me, and she looks at me like she’s just seen a ghost.
“Jameson? Is that you?”
She reaches out as though I’m close enough to touch and she’s trying to pat me on the face, and at the same time, trips and stumbles.
I leap into action instantly, sprinting ahead like there’s two seconds left on the clock and I have to make a touchdown or we’re going to lose the game.
I catch Mrs. Turner just before she faceplants in the gravel at the foot of her steps. She groans and swings an arm like she’s trying to get me off her, but then a sickening sound rises up from her throat.
I know what that means, and I quickly roll her over. And it’s just in time too.
She vomits everywhere, then collapses into my arms.
“Shit,” I curse as I lift her. She’s not even trying to walk. If I was getting any kind of response from her, I would take her back inside, but with this kind of state she’s in, she needs to be taken to the hospital—even the terrible hospital we have here. With the condition she’s in, they’ll see her. And if she has alcohol poisoning, she needs to be seen by someone.
I doubt that she can hear me, but as I slide her into the passenger seat of my car, I call out, “Mrs. Turner, do you have Iris’s phone number?”
Sure enough, she doesn’t respond. I climb in the driver’s seat and pull away, then start to rummage through her purse, searching for her phone. Of course she doesn’t seem to have brought it with her. Just her wallet, keys, and a bunch of random crap that won’t be of any help. And I sure as hell am not going to head back to her house just to waste time searching for her phone. She needs to get to the hospital now.
So I tighten my grip on the steering wheel and step on the gas. Iris’s mom is not going to drink herself to death on my watch. I know what it’s like to lose a parent, and I’ll be damned if Iris ever has to go through that pain. Not if I can help it.
Chapter 14
Iris
It’s only been a few hours that I’ve been sitting in Eliza’s room, waiting for her to finish up her shift at Jaguars, but it feels like days.
Her roommate, Jen, is a really nice girl and invited me to join her and her friends in the living room to drink and play charades, but I declined the offer. I don’t really know any of them that way, but more than that, I’m really just not in the mood.
I’m stuck in my own thoughts right now. Whatever went on between Jameson and me has been eating at me like a piece of dirt or lint that gets stuck in your eye and you just can’t get rid of it. I’ve been questioning myself, and it’s got me in this state of anxiety bordering on sadness, and I don’t really know how I’m going to get myself out of it.