Imperial Coffee

Ringing: Part Nineteen

A/N: Sorry this is a day late, please enjoy the longer update. Next is the 20th part! I didn't think I would get this far, thanks so much for coming along~

Iko was back home to sleep for the first time in a week. Visiting hours ended too early for her to sleep at the hospital, but she had been crashing at one of her school friend's house, and the night before she stayed with Cinder and Kai at the hotel.

She'd always hated living in Adri's house since Garan died, but it'd only gotten worse when Cinder left. Suddenly she was doing the chores for both of them, getting the yelling for both of them, and she didn't have Cinder to laugh it off with afterward. Then Peony got sick, and she couldn't even meet Adri's eyes; Adri was looking for someone to blame, and Iko did not want that person to be her.

But she felt like she was intruding too much on her friend, and she was tired, and their apartment was closer anyway. So when the phone rang in their living room and Adri picked up, she heard every word.

Cinder. Hospitalized. Not sick, not like Peony. Injured. Intensive care. Car crash. Cinder.

Iko slammed the door open and stormed into the living room. Adri was snarling into the phone.

"I'm not paying for the girl's hospital bills," Adri said. Her face was spotted red with anger and stress. "I don't care if I'm her mother, she should never have gotten into a car crash to begin with!" Adri hung up and turned around. She froze when she saw Iko.

Iko didn't say anything. Instead she stood there, arms fisted at her sides, jaw set and eyes gleaming.

"Don't you try to make me feel guilty," Adri said. "Wipe that pitiful expression off your face, you know as well as me that I don't have the money. If Cinder wanted to be healthy, she shouldn't have been driving at night. It's just the kind of stupid thing she'd do."

"If it were Peony or Pearl," Iko started, then gulped. She tried to stop her arms from shaking. "If it were Peony or Pearl, it wouldn't matter if you didn't have the money."

She turned her back and ran out of the apartment. She was down the hallway—down the stairs—bursting out the front doors into the night. Her breath fogged out in front of her, picked up by the hollow yellow street lights.

First Peony, now Cinder. Peony seemed to be getting better when Cinder left, but what Iko hadn't told Cinder was that, only an hour later, she'd fallen back into her sick, comatose state.

Iko didn't want to make Cinder worry more, what with all that seemed to be happening to her. She didn't need any more impromptu drives down to LA or to worry about the people left behind—she needed a new life. Even if it tore Iko apart. Even if she wanted to scream, I miss you! Come back!

But now Cinder had gotten into a car crash four hundred miles away, and Iko could do nothing but cry on the front steps of her apartment complex at midnight and pray that the last month had been nothing but a dream.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed Thorne's number. It went straight to voicemail. Iko threw her phone on the ground and sobbed harder into her knees. There was no one. There was no one.

When she'd calmed down more, she picked her phone back up. There was a crack down the screen, but Iko didn't care. She was almost surprised when it turned on.

She dialed Cress' number. It was 12:30 am—she didn't know what she expected. But three rings later, the phone picked up.

"Hello?" Iko heard. The voice was groggy, clearly just asleep. Iko only knew Cress loosely—Cinder had given her the number just in case, and Iko and Cress had never even heard each other's voices. But Iko had to trust Cress for this, because she was desperate and, if she didn't have any evidence Cinder was okay, she would never stop crying.