Stuck in the Middle

Chapter 32

I could only stare at my phone as it continued to ring. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to answer it. I didn't want to know whatever bad news she had to tell me.

Marc looked down at me, giving my shoulder a little squeeze. "Everything okay?" he asked me quietly.

I shook my head. "I don't think so."

Stepping away from him and the rest of the group, I took a deep breath before finally accepting the call. I took another deep breath as I brought the phone to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Spencer!" Mom breathed out in what sounded like a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad you answered. I was starting to worry."

"Is everything okay?" My voice cracked slightly with the question, not that I knew why. My first thought was that something happened to my dad, but I wasn't close to him anyway. Even the thought of something bad happening to him shouldn't affect me this much.

"Your father's in the hospital," she said.

A heavy feeling settled in my gut. I knew it had something to do with him. "What happened?" I asked stiffly.

"I should have called you sooner, but I honestly forgot in all the commotion. There was an accident over the weekend. It's not looking good."

I let out a long sigh. It was Wednesday afternoon. She waited this long to tell me? I was afraid to ask how bad it was, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

I asked anyway. "How bad?"

She took a shaky breath, sounding like she was holding back tears. "He went golfing on Saturday, with his usual group. While he was driving the cart, he went into cardiac arrest. There was an accident. Spencer, it's not good."

"Oh." I didn't know what else to say. I wasn't all that surprised he had a heart attack, considering he barely kept himself healthy. The accident, however, was a lot to take in.

"Can you come home?" Mom asked. "Please, just for a few days? The house is too empty."

I sighed. I guess if it was going to happen, it was better that it was this week, since there were no classes.

"Okay," I said. "But I have to be back by Monday. I can't miss school."

"Of course! Oh, Spencer, I'm so grateful. A car's already on its way to take you home. It'll be there in an hour."

Before I could say anything else, she hung up.

I slowly walked back to Marc and John. John didn't seem to have realized I had left, joking around with the other guys. Marc, however, grabbed my hand and I leaned into his side.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly.

I shook my head. "I have to go home," I whispered.

"Why?"

I didn't want to say it out loud, at least not where other people might hear. Instead, I said, "I'm heading back to the room. I have to pack."

I left before he could say anything. I wanted him and John to come back to the room with me, but I wasn't going to pull them away from their friends just because I was feeling some unknown emotions about my father.

I was about halfway back to my dorm when two people fell into step on either side of me. I couldn't stop the smile that appeared on my face when I realized they were exactly the people I wanted to be with.

"I heard you're leaving us," John said, throwing his arm over my shoulders.

I nodded slowly. "My dad's in the hospital and my mom wants me to come home. It'll just be a few days."

"Are you okay?" Marc asked as we were walking through the front doors of our building. "What happened?"

I briefly recapped the conversation I had with my mother as we waited for the elevator to take us to our floor. Part of me felt like it wasn't real, but the other part of me was a mix of emotions. Grief, anger, annoyance? I wasn't really sure how to feel or what I was feeling.

"I honestly think she only wants me home because she doesn't want to be alone," I said, watching Marc unlock our door. "She doesn't care if it's me with her or not, as long as someone is there."

"I'm sure that's not the case," Marc said.

I shook my head. "She said the house is too empty. What else could she mean?"

I stood in the middle of the room, looking around. Most of our stuff was packed up in preparation of moving. I guess all that effort was unnecessary, considering we get to stay, but I didn't have time to think about that right now. Instead, I needed to focus on packing a small bag for a long weekend at a place that never felt like home before to be a support system to a woman who never felt like a mother before.

Before I knew it, I was climbing into the backseat of the car my mother ordered for me. I politely greeted the driver and there was a silent agreement between us that we'd have little to no conversation during the ride.

The sun was already setting and the four hour ride ahead of us would feel like it'd take forever. As the car pulled away from campus, I was regretting agreeing to my mother. I was going to end up sitting in that big house alone while she moped over my father. Or she'd force me to go to the hospital to see him and I'd be bored out of my mind. It's not like I didn't want to see him get better, but I barely knew him.

By the time I got to the house, I was exhausted and starving. It was nearing ten o'clock at night and I hadn't eaten anything since lunch. I hadn't wanted to ask the driver to stop anywhere either, but now I was regretting that decision, too.

The whole three-story house was dark when I walked up the front path. The only lights were the solar lights that lined the stone walkway. Each step I took was slow, drawn out, so that I'd have a few more moments before having to open the door and find myself alone in that house. Like every other time I'd been here.

Eventually, I reached the door. Unlocking it, I stepped inside the dark house. I sighed, flipping on the light. The large chandelier illuminated the front foyer in bright florescents that practically bounced off the perfectly white walls.

I felt like my presence in the house would ruin the pristine perfectness of everything. It never once looked or felt lived in, which is something I always hated about being back here. It was like stepping into a magazine.

As I slowly made my way through the house, I noticed the faint blueish glow from a TV coming from the living room. I stepped in the doorway to see some insurance commercial playing on the screen, casting light onto an empty bottle on wine, a nearly empty wine class on the coffee table, and my mother passed out across the couch.

I sighed, shaking my head. It wasn't the first time I'd found her like this. But it wasn't something I was expecting to walk into and definitely not something I wanted to deal with tonight.

But I guess I didn't have any other choice.