Coming Clean Read Online Free

went to the waiting room and sat down.
    I hate hospital waiting rooms. I never want to touch anything for fear that I’ll pick up some superbug and die for no good reason. So I sat totally upright, my hands clasped in my lap.
    There were six other people in the room. Every so often one of them would get up and go off somewhere. He or she would eventually come back shaking his or her head and looking mystified. After a while, by listening to them talk to each other, I realized that it was Mary Jane’s family, her mother, father, aunt, sister, cousin and grandfather.
    At around four thirty, her father stood up and announced that he was going to get some answers.
    â€œWe should go,” I said to Adam. He didn’t respond. He was staring at a place on the far wall. I was about to suggest we leave again when a bellow echoed down the hall.
    It was the worst thing I had ever heard.
    If you want to know what it’s like to have your insides slowly scraped out, listen to a bellow like this. Mary Jane’s mother leaped from her seat and darted out of the waiting room. A second later, I could hear her saying, “No, no, no.” Adam shuddered beside me, stood up, slammed a fist into the wall and left.
    Outside, I started yelling at him.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” He didn’t respond. “Adam. What the hell were we doing in there?” I was certain Mary Jane had died. If I’m honest, I would even say I sensed her leaving. Like there was this giant inhale followed by a long, slow exhale, and she was gone. “Adam!” I yelled again. We’d reached the car. Adam got in and slammed his door. I got in the passenger side.
    Adam had his head in his hands. He was shaking and sobbing.
    â€œWhat is going on, Adam? What were we doing in there? Why were you asking me about her?”
    He shook his head and turned the ignition. He dropped the car into gear and drove down a walkway past the pay station.
    â€œWhat the hell are you doing?” By the time we hit the main road, we were moving at almost double the speed limit. “Adam! Slow down. You’re going to get us killed.” He swerved to make a turn, and the car shifted sideways. We slid across the road and smashed into a snow-bank. Snow flew everywhere, coming back down and rattling against the roof. Adam tromped on the gas again, but the tires just spun on the ice and snow. He started jamming the car into Reverse, then Drive, over and over again until the air was filled with smoke.
    He slammed the steering wheel.
    â€œWhat the hell is going on, Adam?” He turned to face me. His eyes were filled with water, and tears ran down his cheeks.
    â€œI killed her,” he screamed. “All right? I killed her.”
    â€œWho? Mary Jane?”
    â€œWho else?”
    â€œWhat are you even talking about?”
    He started pounding on the driver’s side window until I thought it was going to shatter.
    â€œI screwed up. Man, did I ever screw up.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about, Adam?” He looked ten years older than he had seconds before. Older than I ever could have imagined him.
    â€œShe OD’d,” he said. “And I was the one who gave her the drugs.”

Chapter Six
    â€œLet’s get out of here before someone calls the cops,” I said.
    â€œWhat for?”
    â€œWell, we just rammed into a snowbank and then spun out on ice for, like, five minutes. Someone might call that in.” Adam breathed heavily. “I don’t need to have any more interaction with the police tonight, all right? Get out and push. Come on.” I shoved him. I’m not sure if, at first, I shoved him because I was angry or simply to get him to snap out of it.
    Later I would know exactly why.
    â€œScrew off,” Adam said.
    â€œGet out and push,” I said again, hitting him.
    He turned toward me. Something rose from deep inside me. I punched him in the face.
    â€œWhat the hell!” he