Free Fire In Her Eyes by Amanda Heath Page B

I can still see Harley lying, hopeless, in the back of that truck; beaten and broken.
    Mason and Lucy are curled up together in the backseat and Dean is up front with Carter, who is driving. I see lights flash by from passing cars and I hear them talking, but I don’ t care enough to listen to what they are saying.
    Carter called Mom and Richard. I don’t think I can face them. I failed Harley in so many ways. I should have been there tonight. I should have been with her so this would n’t have happened. What kind of man am I if I can’t even protect my own girlfriend? I am a sorry excuse for one.
    We’ve been in this waiting room for what seems like hours. I just want to know if Harley will be all right, Paige as well. Dean is a fucking mess. I didn’t even know he felt so st rongly for her. Lucy and Carter are huddled together on a couch, softly crying. I can’t even imagine what they are going through. Mason is standing by the door almost as a look out. That dude is freaking huge. I’m sure both of us look silly without our shirts on but I can’t make myself care.
    Mom and Richard walk into the room and I feel a punch to the gut. I don’t make eye contact because I don’t want to see the disappointment in their eyes. Its bad enough I feel it coming from myself in waves.
    Mom walks over to where I’m sitting on the floor leaned up against the wall. She doesn’t even have to look at me before the tears come. Now I’m crying my heart out. What happened to Harley hits way too close to home. My mom went through the same thing with my dad. I used to have to listen to him rape her almost every night. If I tried to stop it, I got the shit beat out of me. Finally, one night, I thought he was going to kill her, so I called the cops. They caught him in the act and he was arrested. His bail was posted by his mom and he skipped town. We haven’t heard from him since. That’s also the reason we moved to Duke and changed our last name. Grady is my grandmother’s maiden name: something my father hadn’t known.
    I feel her arms wrap around me and the tears get worse. I can’t take this. It’s all too much. I feel like I might explode from the pain. Harley didn’t deserve this. My mom didn’t des erve it either. I can’t go back and change what happened. I can’t take the pain for them either. I would take it all just to not see the pain in their eyes.
    “Spencer, it’s okay. She’s alive, and that is all we can ask for at this point.” She rubs my back in soothing circles as I clutch onto her shirt for dear life.
    “I know,” I sob into her. She knows me; she knows that I am reliving everything that happened with Dad in my head.   I know she is hoping I won’t go back to that depression I was in. I can’t do that. Harley needs me.
    I can hear Richard and Dean talking somewhere over mom’s shoulder. I want to hear what they are saying, but I can’t bring myself into listening. I’m too deep in my own pain. Mom is rocking me back and forth like a child, and I’ve never felt safer. I don’t care how old I am, I will always need my mom.
    A hush falls over the room and I look up to see a doctor. He’s wearing those ugly green scrubs and holding a white cap in his hands. He looks tired and a little sad. My stomach drops. Please, don’t let her be dead. Please, don’t let either of them be dead. “Paige is stable. She has a severe concussion so we will be keeping her overnight for observation. Mr. and Mrs. Hutson, you can go back and see her now.” I see Paige’s parents get up from their seats over by the girls. I didn’t even hear them come in the room. I notice Liam sitting by Carter. Didn’t hear him either.
    “How’s Harley?” Richard asks softly.
    “She was a little more injured than Paige, obviously. She is stable, though. We had to pump her stomach since she was given such a large amount of GHB, the drug.   She also has a concussion, but it’s not as severe as Paige’s. We had to do a