“I’m sorry.”
“You should be. What were you thinking?”
“He wasn’t thinking. That’s the problem.” Dad tried to sound hard, but I could see the emotion in his eyes. By the looks of him, he hadn’t slept any more than Mom.
Mom didn’t take her eyes off me. “I know you’re probably not ready to talk much yet, but at some point you’re going to tell us what happened.”
“You probably know more than I do.” I struggled to remember what happened, but I kept coming up against a wall once I got to the part with my Jeep flipping.
Mom took a seat beside me. “The police called to tell us they found your car flipped over and that you were already on your way over here. I know something happened between you and Ben, but he won’t tell me anything.”
“You don’t want to know.”
“You two hardly ever fight anymore. I don’t see how it could have been bad enough to cause this.” She gestured to me lying in a hospital bed.
“It wasn’t his fault.” I wasn’t going to let Mom blame Ben. This was my fault.
“I never said it was his fault. I just want to know what happened.”
Why the hell not? I figured I’d rather give my version instead of letting Ben tell it. “Daniela decided to tell the world about how we tried to break Molly and Ben up in high school.”
“You did what?” A look of horror crossed Mom’s face. She’d always loved Molly and wanted her around. “Wait, how’d you try to break them up?”
I swallowed. I didn’t want to admit this part. “Daniela tried to get him to cheat on Molly with her when we knew he was plastered.”
“But he didn’t, did he?” Mom didn’t seem as confident as I expected. Maybe she wasn’t as blinded by Ben’s perfectness as I thought.
“No. He wanted nothing to do with Daniela.”
Dad nodded. “Of course not. Ben had a one-track mind when it came to girls. You saw that and wanted to feel that way too.”
Mom looked at me. “That’s why you did it, isn’t it? You were jealous.”
“Yeah, and I liked her.”
Dad half laughed. “Liked her? Maybe you had a crush, but do you really think that’s what it was about?”
“It doesn’t matter. I was stupid, and I realized it pretty quickly afterward.” I think Dad was right. I was jealous. I’m pretty sure I liked Molly because she was the girl I couldn’t have.
Mom patted my leg through the blanket. “It was stupid, but Ben couldn’t have been that angry about it. It was years ago.”
“He’s angry. You should have seen the way he looked at me. And Molly—” I didn’t even want to think about what she thought of me now. We fought all the time, but she never actually hated me. “There’s more. I also sent a stupid picture that was pretty much the reason Molly decided to go to B.U.” I’d given Molly such a hard time about hurting Ben, but really I was the one who started the whole mess.
Mom smoothed out my blanket. “Molly wanted to try something new. If it wasn’t college, she would have done it later on, or worse, would have regretted her decision not to.” I wasn’t sure whether Mom was just trying to make me feel better or if she really believed it.
“I still messed things up for them.”
Mom rested her hand on the bed next to me. “That doesn’t explain how you ended up flipped over in a ditch.”
“It doesn’t? I was upset. I drank a little more than I should have.”
“A little more?” Dad shook his head. “How much did you drink, Jake?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“This has to stop. If it wasn’t your fight with Ben it would have happened anyway. We’ve been pushing it under the rug for years, but you have a problem.”
“I’m not an alcoholic if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Like hell you’re not.” He looked down and up again. “I’d know. I’m one too.”
I went to cross my arms but the tube from the IV stopped me. “What are you talking about? I’ve never seen you take a drink in my life.”
“Why do you think that is?” He ran a hand through his graying hair.
“I thought it was because of Grandpa…” I knew Dad’s dad had drinking problems. He’d been in AA my whole childhood.
“It was partly, but I really stopped because I almost missed Ben’s birth.”
“Shit.” The word slipped out before I could think.
“Jake!” Mom snapped at me.
“Sorry.”
“I’m lucky your mother didn’t kick me to the curb. Thankfully, your uncle got me in there in time. I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since.”
I didn’t know what to say. Why was he only telling me that now? Maybe if I’d known… I stopped that train of thought. It probably wouldn’t have changed anything. It’s not like I would have wanted to listen to him.
Dad didn’t wait for me to respond. “I already called Jim Morgan. He thinks he can keep you from doing any jail time because it’s a first offense, but there’s no way you’re getting out of this without at least some community service. You’re also going to lose your license. Jim thinks it might only be the minimum one year, but a 0.3 alcohol level is not a minor offense.”
Jim Morgan was Dad’s attorney. He’d only be talking to him about me for one reason. “Wait, I’m getting a DUI?”
“What did you think was going to happen?”
“I’m in the hospital…”
“Because you drove drunk. Thank the Lord you didn’t hurt anyone else.”
I hadn’t even thought about that. What if I’d hit someone? It was one thing to get myself sent to the hospital. If I’d hurt or killed someone else—I couldn’t even fathom it. I put my head in my hand. “What happens next?”
“You have a court date set up for next week. Now we wait to talk to the doctors and get you home.”
I looked up when I heard someone knocking on the open door.
“Can we come in?” Molly asked tentatively. Ben waited with her.
I made myself smile at her. “Yeah, definitely.”
“Why don’t we let you all talk? We’ll be in the waiting room.” Mom patted my hand before getting up. Dad gave me a small smile and followed her out.