"Mom?" Oh my gosh. This is not happening. "Shit." I run over to her. She's on the ground with blood coming from her side. What the hell happened? I take my cell out of my pocket and call 911.

"911 operator. What's your emergency?"

"My mom she uh she's on the ground. There's blood. I don't know what happened. I just got home."

"Okay can you tell me your address?"

"Yeah it's 4582 Juniper Street"

"Okay. We'll send an ambulance right away." I hung up. I am literally freaking out. I'm running around the room not sure what to do. This is like a bad dream.

About 15 minutes later the ambulance came. I had already bandaged her side but it was bleeding a lot. I think she was stabbed.

"Are you coming Miss?" The EMT asked me. I stepped into the ambulance and rode on to the hospital. I had called Kyla on the way and she was already there.

"Ashley!" she says running over to me. "What happened?" she says with tears in her eyes.

"I-I don't know. I got home and she was bleeding on the floor. Ky………I think she was stabbed." She stared at me and I thought she was going to lash out. But she hugged me tight. I held her there for 10 minutes and then we went to sit down. We waited for an hour and she was still in surgery. I was getting tired so I decided to call Spencer.

"Hello?"

"Spence? Can you come get me?"

"Sure where are you?"

"The hospital" I say quietly. There was a pause.

"I'm on my way." I hear a click.

"Ky why don't you go home."

"Ash I can't"

"She'll be fine……I promise." I shouldn't have said that.

"Okay well are you coming?"

"No I think I'm spending the night at Spencer's. Do you want me to stay with you?"

"No it's okay. I'll see you tomorrow." She turned to walk away.

"Wait Ky?"

"Yeah?"

"It'll be okay. And I just want you to know that……I love you."

"I love you too Ash" she said hugging me.

"Be safe." I said and walked outside to wait for Spencer. About ten minutes later she arrived and I got in the car.

We sat in silence the whole way back to her house. We got inside and I noticed no one was there. Then we went up to her room. She changed into pajamas and gave me a white wife beater and sweats to change into. I sat against her headboard while she sat in front of me. We said nothing to each other.

"What happened?" she asked quietly. I sighed.

"I got home and found her on the floor and she was bleeding. I called 911 and then bandaged a cut on her side. The cut was pretty big, Spence. I think she got stabbed. But how? I mean we have an alarm system………" I freeze. Oh no.

"Ash? You okay?" I slowly turn to her. My eyes are huge.

"I forgot to set the alarm. Mom stayed home today and she told me to turn the alarm on on the way out. Spencer…….I didn't do it. I never turned the alarm on." We sat in silence.

"Ash don't worry about it okay? She'll be fine."

"Y-yea. Yea she'll be fine."

"Let's get some sleep." I nodded. I layed facing her and snuggled into her chest and she wrapped her arms around me. Laying there I couldn't help but think that…………..this is all my fault.

I woke up at around 12 the next morning. Wait. It's Monday! Shit!

"Spence wake up! We're late for school!" She sits up groggily.

"Ughh Ash we have today off remember?" Oh yea. Teacher workday. Ha they deserve more work.

"Oh yea sorry" I say shyly.

"You're cute you know that?"

"Really? I am?" I say with a smirk.

"Yeah you are." She says looking into my eyes. She pulls me to her and kisses my eyebrow softly. Then my cheek and forehead. She runs her fingers through my hair while I sit in her arms. She turns on the TV and I sit between her legs with my head on her chest.

"Hey Spence? I just wanted to say thanks for being here for me. It means a lot."

"I'll always be there for you." I smile contently as she begins to rub my stomach. About 5 minutes later my phone rings.

"Hello?"

"Ash? The hospital called. We need to get there now."

"Okay be right there." I hang up and turn to Spencer.

"That was Kyla and she says we need to get to the hospital. Can you give me a ride?"

"Sure lets go"

When we got to the hospital I ran inside to find Kyla talking to a doctor.

"There she is" Kyla says "Come on Ash" she says grabbing my hand. "Okay so how's our mom?" She says turning to the doctor.

He sighs. No. No,no,no,no,no. "We…..we tried really hard but we couldn't help her. The laceration was very deep and she had a lot of internal bleeding and we just couldn't fix the damages. I'm so sorry girls." He walks away. Spencer is standing next to me and turns to look at me. Kyla is hugging me and crying. I'm just standing there frozen.

"Ash?"

"Yeah Ky?"

"I'm going to go home. Can you come with me?"

"Sure Ky." I turn to Spencer. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah sure baby. I known this is a stupid question but…..are you okay?"

"Yeah……just fine." I lie. I'm nowhere near ok.

Kyla and I get home and we go up to her room. I hold her while she cries and eventually she falls asleep. I just lay there with her sleeping on my chest and stare at the ceiling fan. I look at the clock and it says 4 AM. Well I think it's safe to say I don't have to go to school today. Good thing Spring break starts tomorrow. On a Wednesday….which is stupid. I slip out of the bed and go downstairs.

I walk into the dining room and find the liquor cabinet. I open it and pull out some vodka. I know I'm going to regret this. I drink about half of it before throwing it against the wall. I am so angry…..and I don't know why. Yes I do. My mom is dead because I was too stupid to set the alarm. Even though she treated me badly I still did love her deep down.

I don't know why but suddenly I lost it. I threw all the vases against the wall and threw all the china on the ground. I punched the wall with everything I was feeling at that moment. I stood there and breathed heavily my hand throbbing, but I didn't care. Kyla ran downstairs hearing the noise.

"Ash what the hell happened?" I just stared at her. I couldn't speak I was so angry.

"I'm going to call Spencer." She says. She walks away. I lean back against the wall and slide down to sit, and I just stare at the wall.

About 10 minutes later I hear a car pull up outside, but my gaze doesn't move from the wall. The doorbell rings and Kyla answers it and Spencer walks in and hugs her. Kyla points in my direction and Spencer walks in. Her facial expression changes dramatically when she sees the room.

"Ash what happened?"

I look up at her and say nothing. How can I? I killed my mother.