Hello my beautiful readers! I am soooooooo sorry that I haven't updated in what, two months? Wow, that's horrible. I made this chapter long so that it *possibly* make up for the long absence. So, without further ado, chapter 3! :)
Once the cab stops, I quickly pull on the handle of the door and hop out. Peeta follows behind me and once he shuts the cab door, the cab sails away. The last ten minutes has felt more like eternity, but at least we are finally here. It seems more like an ordinary suburban countryside than the outskirts of New York City. The sky is a light shade of blue, with puffy little clouds dotting it and the sun shining down as bright as ever. It's hard to remember that it's October, considering that in a normal October month, the sky would be overcast and it would be darker than normal. Oh well. The sound of loud talking and slight hissing makes both Peeta and I turn around, and when I see the scene, I almost hyperventilate. A big oak tree is now in the middle of the hood of my mom's black SUV, and there is my mom, lying on the ground next to it.
"Oh, thank God you got here!" a voice calls, and a guy comes from behind the car and starts running towards me. The first thing that I notice about him is his crystal blue eyes. Oh wow, those eyes are probably the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Immediately, I start to find him a little attractive. Then, his golden blond hair and how tall he is adds onto it. "I was starting to think that you weren't going to come." He smiles a little at me, laughing with relief. Right now, I have to focus on how my mother is. I can't think about how attractive he is.
"I have to get to my mom." I state as I run past him and across the dying grass towards my mother's unconscious body on the ground. "Mom!"
"Huh?" I hear my mom sigh. I kneel on the ground next to her, and her eyes open. Suddenly, I notice the deep gash in her head and the blood running down the side of her face. "Oh, hello Albany. How was school?"
"Why did you go out without me?" I shriek.
"Why did I what?" she asks. How did she not hear me?
"Why were you trying to get to the therapist's office without me? You know that you can't drive with you being in the position you're in." I say, trying to keep myself calm. At least nothing worse happened.
"Oh, well, they called and said that I had to come in earlier than usual, so I tried to get there myself. You were still in school, and I didn't want to pull you out."
"Mom, you HAVE to pull me out of school if something like that happens! You cannot just go by yourself! You could have gotten hurt worse than this." I tell her, extremely annoyed. She can't just drive herself to the therapist's office! What was she thinking? Inwardly groaning, I turn around and find the guy that called me here behind me. "Are the paramedics coming, or do I have to drive her to the hospital?"
"I called a few minutes ago. They should be getting here any minute." He informs me, and I nod. Peeta walks over and pulls me into a hug, and I sigh into his shirt.
"Don't worry, your mom is going to be fine. I'll help. She likes me, doesn't she?" Peeta murmurs, and I nod again.
"I know, Peeta, I know. That's not the only thing that I have to worry about. My dad is going to come home tomorrow, and if she is in the hospital when he gets there, I'll go deaf from all of his ranting and screaming. Plus, there are the medical bills that I have to pay, and I don't know if I'll have enough money to pay." I explain, on the verge of crying. I just don't know what I am going to do. How will I be able to pay my mom's medical bills? Right now, I can barely pay the therapist to give her 30-minute sessions, and the money my dad earns either goes to pay the water and electric bills, or he is out spending it on endless shots of booze. Everything is just so confusing, and I don't know how my dad will react if my mom is in the hospital when he gets home. I hear sirens in the distance, and finally, when Peeta lets go of me, an ambulance pulls up alongside the scene of the accident. All of the events afterwards come in a blur. The guy who called me helps Peeta and I get my mom into the back of the ambulance, and then the ambulance speeds away. All three of us get into the guy's car and follow the ambulance to the hospital. All of us introduce ourselves to each other, and I find out that the guy's name is Cato. We wait a little in the waiting room until the gray-haired doctor helping my mom comes out to where we are all sitting, and he motions for me to walk over to him.
"Are you family to Mrs. Odair?" his squeaky voice asks.
"Yes, I'm her daughter Albany." I reply, looking down at him. He is a little shorter than I am.
"Well, Albany, your mother is going to be fine." He tells me, and I breathe out a sigh of relief. "Also, though, we discovered that your mother has had more medical problems before the accident."
"What do you mean?" I ask him, becoming a little more worried. Is he talking about my mom's craziness? I just always thought that it was just something that she could get over.
"Your mother has adjustment disorder." He sighs. I just stare at him, telling him to go on.
"What is adjustment disorder?"
"Adjustment disorder is when an individual has had a traumatic event or accidents happen in their life, and they develop emotional and behavioral problems in effect to that. Have you noticed emotional and behavioral problems in your mother?" the doctor matter-of-factly continues. I… I don't know how to respond to this. My mother actually has something wrong with her? I just thought it was something that would go away. It's probably my dad who caused this. He is the one who caused her to become crazy in the first place. Overwhelming anger starts coursing through my veins. He did this! The famous 'war hero' is the one who made my mother become crazy! I just… I just… don't know anymore.
"Um… yeah." I say, actually quite stunned.
"For how long?"
"Maybe… I don't know, maybe about a year. My father is in the military, and he went to a war. He came back about five months ago for a week, but my mom was acting weird even then." I informed him. I notice that his eyes widen a little, but he conceals his surprise and nods.
"Miss Odair, your mother shouldn't have had it for longer than six months. Are there any traumatic events that are linked to your father going to war?" I have to think about that for a minute. Has my mom done anything so horrible in the last few months that made her whole personality change? I don't think so.
"I'm pretty sure there wasn't anything." I respond. He unsurely nods.
"Okay. Well, for the total medical bill, it will probably be about $750.43." he nonchalantly replies. I can't pay that! I don't even have a job yet! I've been trying to get one, but I just never have enough time that I can actually put into the job. Now I have to pay over $750.
"Is there any way that I can reduce it?" I hopefully ask, even though I know the answer. The doctor simply shakes his head. Groaning, I run my hand through my hair. "I'm not sure how I am going to pay that."
"Well, you are going to have to figure out something. We have to get $750.43." he replies, turning around and walking back through the doors that he came from. It all finally hits me. My mother actually has a real disorder, my father will be home tomorrow, and I have to pay a lot of money just for some little stitches. Well, I don't know if they are little. I haven't seen them yet. Slowly, I turn around and walk back over to Cato and Peeta. Peeta immediately stands up when I come over.
"Is your mom okay?" he asks.
"She has an actual disorder. It's not just something that will go away." I tell him. His eyes widen.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Well, how much do you have to pay?"
"$750.43." I sigh. "Peeta, I don't know how I'm going to pay."
"We'll figure something out, okay?" he whispers, looking into my eyes. I nod, and he sadly smiles at me. Suddenly, Cato pipes up.
"You need help paying the bill?" Both Peeta and I look over at him, and I can tell that Cato isn't joking. He actually wants to help me pay for my mom.
"Would you be able to?" I squeak, and he nods.
"Yeah, sure." He smiles, standing up. "Now, what was your mom's name again?"
"Annie Odair."
"Okay." With that, Peeta and I watch as he walks over to the front desk and talks to the person working. After a minute, he pulls out his wallet and counts through all of the money inside. Once he seems to have found a money amount, he gets the money out and places it on the counter. The person working takes it and nods to dismiss Cato. Wait, why in the world would he do that?
So, what do you think? Good? Bad? 'meh'? Tell me what you think! :) Sorry if it's not too good, I wrote this when I was about half asleep (because it seems like that's my main kind of consciousness now), but hopefully it's okay! :)
RANDOM WORDS OF THE DAY:
"I may not be much, but I'll always be here."
-SopranoGhostWriter :)
