My legs nearly fell out from underneath me, and I was forced to grab the edge of the counter. "Are you sure it's Max Guevara?" I asked, my tongue thick and heavy inside my dry mouth. "It could be somebody else."
The receptionist looked from me to the pages of notes she held in her hand and started flipping through them. Finally, she stopped and read off the list. "A white female, approximate age of forty, brown hair, brown eyes, an interesting barcode tattoo on the back of her neck. Plus, she had I.D. on her, which clearly stated she was Max Guevara."
At that point, all the emotions I had contained since James' accident came unleashed. All the anger, the sadness, the pain, just everything came flying out. "Where is she?!" I screamed as the tears began to flow down my face, burning my skin. "Where is she? I have to see her! I have to give her…give her blood. I need a phone. Please, I need a phone!"
The ladies had obviously seen someone in hysterics before and handed me a cordless phone. "You can make any phone call you wish, unless it's out of the state."
"Screw you," I hissed. Nobody was going to tell me what to do. Not now with my mom on the verge of death. Either the ladies didn't hear me or didn't care because they continued to chatter pleasantly.
I furiously punched in some numbers and waited as the phone rang once…twice…three times…Finally, on the fourth ring, someone picked up.
"Hello?" The person's voice was clogged and thick, as if they had a cold.
"Brin!?" I nearly screamed into the phone.
"Alanza, is that you?"
"Yes, yes, where's Dad? I have to talk to him. Now," I begged, fighting back tears. My chest was heaving violently, and I was deathly afraid that I was going to go into a seizure right then and there.
"He's right here with Krit, Syl, and Jace," she responded. "What's wrong?"
"I have to talk to him…I can't sit here and wait. I have to talk to him." I was babbling now and we both knew it. Yet, she just told me to wait a minute and she would get Dad.
"Hello?" Dad asked from the other end.
"Dad, it's Alanza."
"Alanza, what's wrong? You sound like you're going into hysterics."
"I'm about ready to!" I snapped. "Sorry…"
"No, no, where are you? We've been worried about you. I mean, it's what? Six in the morning? Max just went out looking for you and-"
"She got into an accident and the doctors don't think she's going to make it and James and I just got into street fight and he's in the hospital right now and the doctors know that Mom has a barcode and I have to give her blood or else she's going to die!" I spat out all in one breath. "Dad, she's going to die!"
"She's not going to die."
"But, your body won't take any other blood except for any other genetic freak's blood."
"Our bodies can handle normal blood, if that's what you want to say. It just won't help us out as much. Eventually our bodies will reject the abnormal cells, but that'll take a couple days to do so."
"They won't let me see her!"
"Look, you wait right there…where are you?"
"Metro Medical."
"Metro Medical," he repeated, and I heard him call in the background at Krit and Syl to start heading over to Metro Medical Hospital. "Look," he said to me, "Krit and Syl are on their way. Jace is going to stay here with Brin, and I'll be over just as soon as I get off of the phone with you."
"But, she could die!" I repeated.
"'Lanza, if I know Max, she won't die without a fight."
"But they said they don't know if she'll make it!"
"They're stupid doctors who don't know anything. When we get down there, I'll ask the staff to have her removed-"
"They won't let you, unless you're family."
"I can lie and say I'm her husband."
At that moment, the fact that he would lie about such a thing struck me as terribly funny and I began to laugh and the tears burned my giggling skin. "She won't be happy about that."
"You want me to have Logan come down?" he asked, saying Logan's name like he'd eaten something he would have rather spit back out.
"I don't know."
"Look, we can get her out and take her back home. We understand more about injuries than those damn doctors."
"But what about her barcode?"
"Look, Alanza, I have to get going so I can get to the hospital. Ok? Krit and Syl should be there at any moment."
"Ok, Dad."
"I'll be there in a bit." I was about to protest, when he hung up on me. I fell back into one of the hospital waiting chairs and cried as I had never remembered. The tears streamed down my face and made darkened spots on my dress. And no matter how hard I tried to convince myself everything was going to be all right, I couldn't believe it.
