Wrecked (Clayton Falls) - By Alyssa Rose Ivy Page 0,6

know they’ll want to see you.”

I let out a deep breath. “I might as well get this over with.”

“Don’t you want to see them?”

“Yes. Well, my parents. Probably not Molly and Ben, but I’ll have to face them eventually.” I hadn’t meant to say the Molly and Ben part out loud. Lucky for me, she didn’t comment on it.

“I’m going to go ahead and call them.”

I watched her retreating figure and decided she looked just as good from behind.

***

“Oh my god, Jake.” Mom nearly choked me in her excitement.

I decided complaining was a pretty bad idea, and let her attack—I mean hug me. “Hi, Mom.”

She was tired. It looked like she hadn’t slept in days—she probably hadn’t and it was my fault. “I’m so glad you’re awake.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You should be. What were you thinking?”

“He wasn’t thinking. That’s the problem.” Dad tried to sound hard, but I could see the emotion in his eyes. By the looks of him, he hadn’t slept any more than Mom.

Mom didn’t take her eyes off me. “I know you’re probably not ready to talk much yet, but at some point you’re going to tell us what happened.”

“You probably know more than I do.” I struggled to remember what happened, but I kept coming up against a wall once I got to the part with my Jeep flipping.

Mom took a seat beside me. “The police called to tell us they found your car flipped over and that you were already on your way over here. I know something happened between you and Ben, but he won’t tell me anything.”

“You don’t want to know.”

“You two hardly ever fight anymore. I don’t see how it could have been bad enough to cause this.” She gestured to me lying in a hospital bed.

“It wasn’t his fault.” I wasn’t going to let Mom blame Ben. This was my fault.

“I never said it was his fault. I just want to know what happened.”

Why the hell not? I figured I’d rather give my version instead of letting Ben tell it. “Daniela decided to tell the world about how we tried to break Molly and Ben up in high school.”

“You did what?” A look of horror crossed Mom’s face. She’d always loved Molly and wanted her around. “Wait, how’d you try to break them up?”

I swallowed. I didn’t want to admit this part. “Daniela tried to get him to cheat on Molly with her when we knew he was plastered.”

“But he didn’t, did he?” Mom didn’t seem as confident as I expected. Maybe she wasn’t as blinded by Ben’s perfectness as I thought.

“No. He wanted nothing to do with Daniela.”

Dad nodded. “Of course not. Ben had a one-track mind when it came to girls. You saw that and wanted to feel that way too.”

Mom looked at me. “That’s why you did it, isn’t it? You were jealous.”

“Yeah, and I liked her.”

Dad half laughed. “Liked her? Maybe you had a crush, but do you really think that’s what it was about?”

“It doesn’t matter. I was stupid, and I realized it pretty quickly afterward.” I think Dad was right. I was jealous. I’m pretty sure I liked Molly because she was the girl I couldn’t have.

Mom patted my leg through the blanket. “It was stupid, but Ben couldn’t have been that angry about it. It was years ago.”

“He’s angry. You should have seen the way he looked at me. And Molly—” I didn’t even want to think about what she thought of me now. We fought all the time, but she never actually hated me. “There’s more. I also sent a stupid picture that was pretty much the reason Molly decided to go to B.U.” I’d given Molly such a hard time about hurting Ben, but really I was the one who started the whole mess.

Mom smoothed out my blanket. “Molly wanted to try something new. If it wasn’t college, she would have done it later on, or worse, would have regretted her decision not to.” I wasn’t sure whether Mom was just trying to make me feel better or if she really believed it.

“I still messed things up for them.”

Mom rested her hand on the bed next to me. “That doesn’t explain how you ended up flipped over in a ditch.”

“It doesn’t? I was upset. I drank a little more than I should have.”

“A little more?” Dad shook his head. “How much did you drink, Jake?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“This has to stop. If it wasn’t your fight with Ben it would have happened