But, of course, that was assuming she woke up. She might not. She…might not ever wake up.
That was something I didn’t want to face. Absolutely no hurry to face reality. Nope.
I ended up rolling on top of Levi in a bid to get off the bed first, and I think he let me only because he had a bit of a morning wood situation going on—not that it was morning. Judging from the sunlight streaming in—actual sun in late November, totally crazy—I’d say it was at least past noon.
I only wore a shirt, no pants. No bra, either. Flashing the goods, and from the sound of it, Levi made no moves to get off the bed after me. He was probably staring at my ass, not that I could blame him. It was kind of just there.
My feet drew me to Mel’s side of the room, and I started searching for her phone. I didn’t see it last night when I found her, just her and the pill bottle. It wasn’t on her nightstand near her television set, so I moved to her desk, shuffling the notebooks on top around. A pencil rested on top of one of the notebooks, and when I moved the one it rested on, it rolled off the desk and fell to the floor, in the nook the chair was in.
Call it intuition, but I figured I’d better pick it up, so I bent over and grabbed it—and it was a damned good thing I did, because I spotted her phone nestled between one of the chair’s bottom legs and the side of her desk.
I grabbed it and hit the side button. To my delight, the battery was still half-charged, although it wouldn’t be hard to plug it into the charger she had resting near her pillowcase. However, to my utter horror, the phone needed a four-digit passcode to unlock.
Shit. Technology these days. More secure, but at a time like this, a simple open sesame would’ve been sufficient.
I tried the basic ones. One, two, three, four and a few others. None of them unlocked it, and I let out a sigh. “It needs a passcode,” I said, glancing to Levi. He’d rolled onto his other side and propped his head up, blue eyes watching me with interest. Since he was on his side, his boner wasn’t as evident.
“Try two, zero, zero, zero,” he suggested. When I tried it and it worked, I couldn’t help but stare at him and lift both brows. “Her birthday year,” he whispered.
I did not want to think about why Levi knew that off the top of his head, although he was able to fill out her medical forms pretty well. Nope. Not going to ruminate about it. Not going to make drama where there was already drama enough. I knew that was a Kelsey Yates specialty, but I was trying to be better about it.
I went into her contacts, found both her parents’ numbers, and then I hesitated. Who did I call first? And what the freaking hell did I say when they picked up, expecting to hear Mel’s voice but instead heard mine?
Giving the phone to Levi was out of the question. I didn’t know what her parents knew about what happened last year, but I didn’t want to take the chance. No, I had to make this call.
I chose to call her mother, figuring she’d contact the father and tell him. My stomach was in knots as I listened to the line ringing and ringing, and I wondered when the last time I ate anything was.
She picked up after the fifth ring, asking, “Mel, honey, is something wrong? You don’t normally call.” That was a strange way to possibly greet her daughter, and my already conflicted insides grew even more anxious. Her voice came out strained, almost too authoritarian.
Great sign. I could totally tell why Mel refused to go home.
“This isn’t Mel,” I spoke, glancing back at Levi for…I didn’t know, some kind of moral support. This was a kind of call I never thought I’d have to make. Who would?
“Who are you, and why are you calling me from my daughter’s phone?” Her mother was quick to sound angry, and I winced at her sudden change of tone. I felt like she was the type of woman to flip on a switch.
I swallowed. “I…I’m her roommate, Kelsey. Last night I…” Memories of what happened last night flashed in my head, and I knew those were some images I would never forget. As the years wore on, no matter what ended up happening to Mel, I would always remember the night I came home to find her sprawled on the floor, looking pale as death itself. “I found her on the floor. She took a bunch of pills.”
A moment of silence before I heard her mutter, “Oh, God. I knew I never should’ve let her go back there, not after what happened. I appreciate your call. Where is she?”
I rattled off the name of the nearby hospital, “Summit General.”
“Thank you. I’ll let my husband know, and we’ll handle it from here.” She said nothing else as she hung up, and I lowered the phone away from my ear, staring at it as if it was going to sprout legs and run away.
That was…not what I expected, and that was putting it lightly.
“Her mom seems weird,” I muttered, moving to set her phone on her nightstand near her TV. “She said she’d handle it from here, whatever that means.”
Levi finally got out of bed, wearing nothing but boxers. His erection had mostly gone away, and he ran a hand through his brown hair. No one looked as good with bedhead as he
