Room For More(70)

“I just… I wish he would talk to me.” Tears stung my eyes as I searched my mom’s face for answers. “I haven’t spoken to him in days. How can he just turn it off like that?”

Mom bit her lip as her eyes danced nervously around the room like a couple of jumping beans.

“Mom?”

She closed her eyes and let out a big sigh. “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but I can’t let you sit there and think he’s just forgotten all about you. He texted me… this morning.”

Every nerve ending in my body tingled with a combination of fear and excitement. “What? When?”

“Earlier this morning. They got back into town late last night. It was brief and we didn’t get into anything about Zach, but he desperately wanted to know how you were and said he missed the girls.”

For the first time in nearly a week, my heart was filled with hope instead of utter soul-crushing sadness.

He texted. It wasn’t to me, but he texted. That must mean he still cares, right?

“What did you say?” I fought hard to swallow the huge lump in my throat.

“I said that you were miserable but hanging in there. I said that you were incredibly sorry, and I said that the girls missed their Brody, all three of you.” She reached over and squeezed my hand.

My heart raced so fast that I had to remind myself to slow down and take deep breaths. “Did he respond?”

“He just said he missed you guys too. I didn’t want to ask him a lot of questions or push him, so I left it at that.”

I took a full shaky breath. “Thank you,” I whispered to my mom, “for telling me. I know you weren’t supposed to, but I’m so glad you did. I might actually be able to sleep tonight for the first time in days.”

I kissed her on the cheek and hurried off to my room.

I threw myself on my bed and grabbed my cell phone.

Okay, Kacie. Calm down.

Brody texted my mom under the assumption that she would be discreet and not tell me. I couldn’t reward her for telling me by ratting her out, so I had to think really hard about what to say to him. I considered leaving it as is and going to bed, but given what I saw at his game and what he was probably going through right that second, I needed to reach out.



HEY. SAW YOUR GAME TONIGHT. I HOPE YOU’RE OKAY. PLEASE CALL ME. WE DON’T HAVE TO TALK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED. I JUST NEED TO KNOW YOU’RE OKAY. I LOVE YOU.



I knew he wouldn’t respond; his game wasn’t over yet. Even if it was, I wasn’t confident that he would, but knowing that the game was still going on gave me an excuse to cling to. I curled up in bed and turned the light off.





My eyes snapped open to nothing but darkness. Everything was black, but I know I’d heard my phone beep. Squinting in the dark at the bright screen, I blinked several times, waiting for the text to come into focus. It was from an unknown number.



UNKNOWN: KACIE, IT’S VIPER. CALL ME ASAP. BRODY GOT ARRESTED.



My eyes still weren’t completely focused when I read his next text with the number. I dialed, pretty sure I got it right. It started ringing and I glanced at the clock on my nightstand. Just after three o’clock in the morning.

“Hello?” A gruff voice answered.

“Viper? It’s Kacie. What the hell is going on?”

“Dude. I don’t know.” He sounded out of breath. “He played like complete shit tonight, so I figured he’d want to go straight home and sleep it off, right? Well after the game, he tells me he wants to go blow off some steam at the bar. Fine. We’re sitting there having a drink; everything is great. I go to the bathroom, come back, and he’s in some fucking barroom brawl with like four guys. Next thing I know, the cops were there and he got cuffed.”

“Oh my God.”

“You have to come, Kacie. He’s fucking spiraling. I don’t know how to get through to him.”

“Text me the address of the station. I’m on my way.”

I threw a hoodie over my head, put my flip-flops on, and wrote my mom a quick note in case I wasn’t back in time to put the girls on the bus.





An hour and a half later, my hands were shaking as I circled the same city block for the eighth time, trying to find a parking space.

I finally found one and parallel parked like a pro for the first time in my entire life. I grabbed my phone from my purse and texted Viper.



I’M HERE. WHERE ARE YOU?



A loud knock on my driver’s side window nearly made me scream out loud.

“Jesus!” I yelled, glaring at Viper’s grinning face, which was pressed up against the glass. “You scared the shit out of me.”

He laughed. “I was sitting on the stairs. I watched you circle the block a million times, thought maybe Stevie Wonder was driving the car.”