Instead of Me

∆35∆

Annie pulled up in front of her house. We sat in silence for a while, just staring ahead as snow fell in front of the headlights. I played with the zipper on my hoodie. "You know, I can take you home if you want. It's okay if you want to be alone tonight."

We stayed at the hospital the whole day. I couldn't leave Dad alone after he died. Eventually, Annie and Dr. Lopez had to talk me into letting go of his hand. Coming home, I was emotionally exhausted.

"But," Annie continued, "If you go home, I'm coming with you. I don't have to be in the same room, and you can have your alone time to grieve or figure out where you want to go from here, but I am not leaving you in a big house all by yourself after your father just died." She turned towards me, unbuckling her seat belt. "Or you can stay here with me. And you can cry more if you want to. Or you can just sit in silence. Or you can go straight to bed. Or you can do whatever you want. But I'm not leaving you."

I glanced at her face. She was stern and she meant what she said. She was not about to back down. "Annie. . ." I wanted to touch her hand and thank her- thank her for spending the whole day with me and for not getting freaked out when I went practically insane for a while at the hospital.

But I couldn't.

I couldn't because Heath pulled up next to her, stopping his car in the middle of the road so abruptly the tires squealed. He swung his door open and aggressively pulled Annie's door open. "Anastasia, where have you been?" He swooped down and wrapped his arms around her. "You were supposed to be back this afternoon. I called the motel you were staying at, but they said you left last night so I texted you, but you didn't answer. I talked to your parents but they couldn't get a hold of you either so we've been searching for you since school ended." He pulled her out of the car so that he could hug her tighter. "We didn't know where either of you were. We thought you might've been in an accident and killed yourselves or something."

Ouch.

Heath dipped down and pressed his lips long and hard to Annie's. "I thought you were dead, Anastasia." He seemed tearful and honest. I hated it.

"Heath," Annie replied breathlessly, "I'm sorry. I-I had to help Finn with something. My phone was dead. I'm really sorry."

"And there wasn't enough time to use someone else's phone and let us know you were alive or something?" he said aggressively. "The roads are icy and you could've easily got into an accident. Just last night, Mrs. Valentine was horribly injured because some drunk idiot tried to muster up enough courage to sit behind the wheel on these roads!"

"Heath!" Annie yelled, her face turning red with anger.

I tried to act like I wasn't paying attention.

"What?" he yelled back.

Annie let out a quick breath and took a sharp glance at me before making strong eye contact with her boyfriend. "That drunk was Finn's dad," she whispered, her voice shaking from shivering. "He. Died."

Heath was dumbfounded, his mouth gaping wide open. "I-"

"No, you don't get to say anything right now. Go home." She clenched her jaw and crossed her arms. "You've seen me. I'm alive. But Finn needs me right now. Go home."

"Anastasia-"

"Go. Home."

Heath's head sunk low. Defeated, he pecked her cheek and got back inside his car. Without looking back, he drove away.

Annie plopped back down into the driver's seat. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"You should stand up to him like that more often," I said. "It was hot." I turned to her, grinning wider than I had since I don't know when.