looked broken and defeated.
I wasn’t fucking equipped to deal with this shit. Another reason to be pissed at my parents. I’d tried calling multiple times, I’d left a barrage of messages, and yet they still weren’t here.
“Hey, Tams,” I said, holding her hand in both of my own. She looked up at me, forcing a small smile through her dry lips.
“I really stepped in it this time, didn’t I, Ky?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it; you have a big brother that is an utter disappointment. This is nothing,” I joked.
“Is Maddy ok?” she asked, her voice strained and low, almost a whisper. My thinly held rage at her condition was rising, making me feel like the frustrated and helpless monster inside was about to explode.
“What happened, Tammy?” I asked, my voice straining to control the volume.
“I was drinking, a lot. Then I went into a room to lay down and the next thing I knew I woke up here. I didn’t drink that much though, Kyler, I swear. No more than I usually do. I really don’t know what happened.”
“Miss Sinclair?” the doctor said, walking into the room. “Hello, I’m Dr. Abbott; I just wanted to talk to you about what happened tonight. Your blood work came back and it looks like there were traces of Rohypnol in your system. Do you know how that could have happened?”
My vision bled red. Some fucker was trying to rape my sister. I was going to go back to that party and beat the living fuck out of every single guy I saw until I had the truth.
“Mother fuckers.” I paced the room. Pacing was something I could do, it was something I had control of when everything else around me felt like it was on its axis, tilting and on the verge of losing complete control.
“I was drinking, talking to a few football players… It was a party. I could swear I had my drink with me the whole time. I have no idea how anyone would have the opportunity.”
“I gotta go,” I spat.
“Kyler, don’t. Don’t do anything stupid,” Tammy called after me, but I’d already decided what needed to happen. I headed back to the waiting room. I was an asshole but not so big an asshole that I would leave Maddy waiting on me for God knows how long.
“I have to go back to the house.” I popped my head into the waiting room and then walked on purposeful strides towards the entrance.
“Kyler, wait up,” Maddy said, running after me. “I’m coming with you.” She stopped me in my tracks, steel in her spine, trying to make herself look bigger than she was.
“Whatever. Just stay the fuck out of my way.”
“So we’re back to this again?” she asked, stopping just outside the doors again.
“Look, mouse, we had a moment. That’s all it was, a fucking moment. I don’t have time to deal with your hurt fucking feelings. I have shit to do.”
She looked at me with those soulful, warm eyes. Those goddamn eyes. Things would be a lot easier if she didn’t have the most beautiful fucking eyes I’d ever seen.
I sighed, turning to her. “Some fucker gave my sister the date rape drug. I’m going to go back there and kick the shit out of every low life scumbag until I get some fucking answers. Those motherfuckers messed with the wrong girl. Give me the keys.”
“No.” Her voice shook, but determination shaded her gaze. “I’m not letting you go half-cocked to make things worse than they already are.”
I couldn’t believe that she actually thought she now had the right to tell me what to do. Nobody told me what to do. I walked up to her, inserting myself right in her face.
“You are nothing. You don’t matter. Now give me the fucking keys.” I went in my pocket and took out a crumpled fifty and threw it by her feet. “Call a cab and keep the change.”
I held my hand out, waiting.
“Fuck you.” She snatched the keys out of her pocket and held them in the air. I was a little shocked at the vulgarity coming out of her mouth. “If you’re going, I’ll drive you. Someone has to be there so your poor mother doesn’t have to shuffle between the hospital and a prison cell. Now let’s go.”
“Whatever, mouse.”
13
“Before him he saw two roads, both equally straight; but he did see two; and that terrified him--he who had never in his life known anything but one straight line. And,