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Was it all theirs?
“When did this happen?” Mom asked voicing the same thoughts that were going through my head.
“I don’t know but we need to fix it,” Dad declared.
Nothing else was said because the doctor walked through the door looking at an iPad while reading my chart.
“Abby Gardener. Your chin has a hairline fracture and needs stitches and your ankle is sprained and bruised. We’ll put you in a boot for a few weeks to stabilize it.”
“Shit,” I said without thinking.
He chuckled at me. Mom scolded me for cursing. Dad just squeezed my hand.
**
I went home two hours later starving like a rabid dog. A white gauze bandage covering the eight stitches on my chin. I rode with Mom because she asked me to, so Tyson rode with Dad. Not that he couldn’t have ridden with us.
Dad and Ty were picking up dinner on the way home. Mom helped me up the stairs to my room. She laid my backpack on the bed and sat down. I thought she might leave but she didn’t. I grabbed some pajamas out of the drawer and went to my closet to get changed.
Then, I walked out of the closet. Mom was still there. Contemplating. I knew that face. I knew she was thinking about something. I sat on the bed beside her. The boot heavy on my foot. I propped it out in front of me and let it flop, back and forth waiting on her to say something.
“I’m sorry,” Mom finally said. I glanced at her and she picked up the end of my ponytail and tugged on it. Then she smiled at me sadly. “Has Tyson been treating you badly?” She asked.
I shrugged.
“Abby, talk to me.”
“Not badly.” I sniffed. “Just not treating me at all if that makes sense.”
“What do you mean?”
I shrugged. I wanted to tell her that we finished seventh grade, and something happened to him. It was like I no longer existed to him. “I don’t know. I don’t really want to talk about it.”
Mom put her arm around my shoulders. “Abby, please talk to me,” she pled with me.
I sniffed again. She was interested. Her voice soft and cajoling me like when I was a little girl and needed her. Did I need her now or was it too late?
Three years this had been going on. For those years, she and my dad had been wrapped up in the All-American, Tyson Gardener. Great things are going to happen to Tyson. He was going places while I stayed in the shadows needing something but unsure of how to voice what I needed.
“What do you want me to say?”
Mom sighed at me. “Abby, I’m sorry I missed this thing between you and Tyson. I got caught up in his success in sports and forgot you needed me too. You’re so quiet.” She kissed my temple.
I wanted to snap at her, of course I needed you too. I didn’t though. I did what I usually did which is why they didn’t see it. I closed myself off. I stayed quiet. I stared at the carpet on my floor and let Mom make herself feel better by holding me.
“We’re back,” Dad yelled from the bottom of the stairs.
Mom got up and started for the door. She realized I wasn’t following. She looked back at me. “Aren’t you coming?”
Suddenly, I wasn’t so hungry. The pains in my stomach were replaced by the pain in my chin, my foot and my heart.
“I think I’ll just rest.”
“Okay,” Mom replied. “Dad or I will bring you up something later.”
“Thanks Mom.”
She went to the door and opened it, before she stepped into the hallway Mom turned around and looked at me. “Abby, I love you and I’m just as proud of you. You just didn’t seem to need us as much reassurance as Tyson did. You’re more confident than him.”
