Melted & Shattered Read Online Free

couldn’t. You were unconscious, and I didn’t know if you’d wake up. Next thing I knew, they were wheeling you into surgery. I’ve never been so scared in all my life. Not even when... well, you know.” I knew. Chris had almost been raped by her mom’s boyfriend when she was thirteen. I’d heard the gritty details one drunken night. Although he didn’t get his dick in her, he fucked her body and her head up enough to leave scars.
    “Anyway,” she continued, “J and I basically had it out in the waiting room.”
    “What?!”
    “A few different times.”
    “Oh shit. Ya’ll were fighting in the waiting room? You and the giant? That must’ve gone over well,” I said sarcastically.
    “Actually, I made the fucker wear his cut most of the time. No one was about to fuck with a giant MM. Once you were out of surgery, they told us we had to wait for you to wake up. The doc questioned your bullet wound. I pled ignorance and called J to stand with me. That was about all he was capable of. Despite the fact that I wouldn’t mind if his dick fell off, I can’t deny he was a hot mess, girl. Anyways, the doc took one look at him in his cut, and that was the last we were asked about bullets. I told J he could leave.”
    “Did he?”
    “After another lobby scene.”
    “Damn. Sounds like it was pretty Jerry Springer up in here.” I clutched my side as a chuckle slipped out of my mout h. Chris wasn’t laughing though, and instead she had a bit of a scowl going on.
    “Sorry. That’s funny, but it wasn’t at the time. You don't know what it was like. Girl, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t call anyone at first. If you didn’t wake up, I didn’t know what I’d do, how I'd just—I don't know, move on I guess. Eventually 1989 came up here.”
    I shook my head at her Larry reference. It was more like 1993, but I wasn’t going to correct her. I didn’t understand though. “When did Larry get your number?”
    “He didn’t. You didn’t show up for work. I never thought to call them. I think he said he checked your house, which by the way, does he have your house key?”
    “No.”
    “I didn’t think so. Well, ole boy somehow got up in your place and could tell you hadn’t been there. He was literally going from hospital to hospital looking for you. He finally found you here and that’s when the masses started coming. Once half the damn restaurant came, it seemed like everyone started coming. Your teens, your parents, Aaron, who by the way was hella pissed I didn’t call him right away.”
    “You didn’t call Aaron? Oh, shit. I bet he was pissed.”
    I saw her face fall. “I felt like if I called anyone, it would all be real. I wasn’t ready for it to be real.”
    “Aw, girl. Come here.” She crawled into the bed next to me, making sure to stay on my right side, my good side.
    “Fuckin' A, bitch. You scared the fuck outta me. You finally started waking up, but you were in and out of it. Not really awake. It’s like your eyes would open and you’d look around, but then fall right back into it. It was fucking creepy.”
    “I was in a dark place. I remember trying to squeeze your hand, but I couldn’t move. I think it was the praying that woke me.” I nodded to Fernie’s mom, still in the corner with her rosary. How the hell did everyone manage to just ignore her?
    “Yeah, Genesis came first , of course, and brought her along,” Chris said, looking over at Fernie’s mom. She had stopped praying and was merely holding the rosary to her lips, eyes closed. Maybe she was resting? Shit, I didn’t know. “We squared things away before I let her tell the other teens. When you didn’t show up at the Center, she had to tell them something.”
    “Fuck, so many lies. What’d you tell her to say to the teens at the Center?”
    “Basically what you told your parents. Wrong place, wrong time. They didn’t ask too many q uestions really. You, me, J, Fernie, and Genesis are the only ones who know what