“You should have been here hours ago,” Parker speaks and I frown at the scolding in his voice. Savannah told me she started calling you at three a.m. east coast time which would have been midnight California time. Since when are you asleep at midnight? And you sleep with your phone under your pillow… for emergencies,” he speaks and his tone is laced with accusations. I can hear the question in his voice though he doesn’t explicitly ask. “So where were you?”

“Mr. Anderson, I’ll be back in a little,” the nurse says as she picks up her clipboard and moves out of the room and part of me wishes I could leave with her to avoid this awkward tension.

“And since Whitney is finally here, I’ll go look for your father. I don’t want him filling up on junk from the vending machine.” She presses a kiss to his forehead. “Sweetheart, I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Thank you, Mom.” He nods.

She brushes past me before giving me a look like she can see everything I’ve done in the past twenty hours and I try my best not to appear guilty or nervous but I worry I fail miserably.

“Parker, I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. I… was asleep early. I was angry at you for how you’d been treating me and—”

“Asleep where?”

“What?”

“I didn’t stutter,” he snaps. “Asleep, where? Because you weren’t at our house. There’s been no one there since you left at like nine a.m.?”

“I went to my parents’ house, where I told you I’d be when I left yesterday morning,” I tell him.

“You said you were going for breakfast, not to stay the whole damn day.”

“What difference does it make? I’m policed on when I can go to my parent’s house and for how long? Are you out of your mind?” I hadn’t meant to come off that harshly but give me a break.

“So that’s where you slept? Your parents?” His tone bites and I’m equal parts relieved and annoyed that he hasn’t said anything along the lines of “I’m happy to see you.” No “I just got in a car accident and thought I’d never see you again and now you’re here and everything is better.”

I am relieved because dealing with an angry and aggressive Parker will make this easier but I just don’t fully understand the scope of his hostility.

“No. I slept at Chloe’s.” I’m grateful that Chloe had already laid this groundwork and I hate that I needed her to construct this lie for me. That I have to lie at all.