To Throw It All Away

Chapter Nine: Overwhelmed

"Mackenzie!" Dad shouted and rushed towards me as others gathered around me as I curled up in the fetal position on the ice. He pushed through the crowd and knelt down beside me. "What is it, baby? What hurts?" My attempt at being tough failed and I started to cry as soon as I heard his voice. 

"I twisted my ankle! I can't move it! I can't move it!" I shrieked. He petted my hair gently in attempts to calm me down.

"It's okay, Mackenzie. It's going to be okay."

"We've called for an ambulance." I heard an employee tell my dad. I immediately started panicking even more. I'd never been in an ambulance before and the thought terrified me. Dad took my hand and tried to reassure me even more but it didn't help. I was overwhelmed and I started to regret my decision to rebel against Abby and come ice skating.

Dancer or not, I didn't want to have a broken ankle.

The ambulance showed up and they took me to the emergency room. I cried the whole way there as Dad sat beside me and tried to calm me down. Abby would've told me to suck it up and save my tears for the pillow, but I didn't care. I was so overwhelmed and my ankle was in excruciating pain.

At the hospital, they x-rayed my foot. It wasn't broken, but it was sprained pretty badly. They put me in a boot, gave me some painkillers and sent me home. Though things could have been much worse, the whole ordeal had traumatized me quite a bit. Dad took me back to his house and I sat on the couch with my foot propped up as he tried to get a hold of my mom.

I understood that she was mad at us, but I felt it was rude of her to ignore our calls. I was hurt and I really wanted to speak to her. I was over everything that had happened before. I just wanted my mom.

"She's going to kill me." Dad vented after his first dozen calls went unanswered. "I have you for one day and I let you get injured. She's going to be furious."

"I'm so sorry, Dad."

"Honey, it's not your fault. Accidents happen. It doesn't matter what she thinks. All that matters is that you're okay."

"She's going to hate us even more."

"She doesn't hate you. I'm going to try and call Maddie and see if she'll pick up." He had no such luck. They were both avoiding us.

Eventually he gave up and turned on the Sandlot so we could finish where we'd left off the other day. Watching TV took my mind off of both my estranged mother and sister and my throbbing ankle. As if on cue, he got a phone call as soon as the credits started rolling. According to the caller ID, it was the person we'd been trying to talk to all day, my mom.