“Yeah, I know where it’s at,” I said, my voice tight.
Then everything went to hell.
People screaming, a deep voice announcing they were the police. Ada gasped and said, “Fuck.”
The line went dead. My face lost feeling. Nausea roiled in my stomach so intensely that I bent over in case I puked my breakfast, but I didn’t have time to stand around to see if I was going to make a mess on the pavement. Ada needed me.
I ran to Duncan’s office, weaving through aisles and past customers, giving zero fucks about shoulder checking any of them. My only prayer was that he was still there.
When I opened the door, Duncan jolted up from his seat, his eyes wide. He looked spooked. I slumped against the wall, gulping for breath, ignoring the way my heart was slamming against my chest.
“Duncan, I need your help. Ada—Ada’s in trouble. She was at a dope house, and the cops came, and I need to know who we can call to find out if she’s been arrested.”
Duncan gently placed his hands on my shoulders, his grip firm. “Okay, let’s start from the top. Who’s Ada?”
“Micah’s sister. She’s an addict, but Micah thinks he can save her or something, and you know how that is, right? I gave her my number in case something went down, and it did, and we gotta find out if—”
“Hey, hey,” Duncan said, pulling me into a hug. I slumped against him, squeezing my eyes tight, trying to calm my racing brain. “If she’s been arrested, which it sounds like is likely, it’ll take a bit before she’s booked. But I can make a couple of phone calls.”
I stepped away, rubbing both of my eyes with my fingers. “Jesus, today has been wild as hell.”
“Sure has, but this is what it’s like to be on the other side of this, and you’re handling it well,” Duncan said. “Look, I was just coming to see you because Walt’s sponsor called me, and he said Walt’s been asking about you. I was going to give you the afternoon off so you could visit him, but now you can meet up with Ada too. Are you up for that?”
“Yeah, of course. Just text me the deets,” I said, running my fingers through my sweaty hair. “And please let me know if you find out what happened to Ada.”
“I promise,” Duncan said. The small amount of relief I felt from his promise boosted me enough to walk out of the office and grab my things. I understood why Ada didn’t want Micah to know about where she was. He probably would’ve flipped out and dragged her to the nearest rehab.
Micah refused to listen to facts, and even if Ada hadn’t begged me to not tell him, I wouldn’t do it, anyway. Knowing that scared the hell out of me, and it was hard to not wonder if this thing with Micah would work out after all.
MICAH
Ileaned against the side of my car outside the police station and watched Ada. She was looking off, her face void of emotion. She’d lost more weight, her cheeks hollowed. There were sores around her chin from picking at her face.
She didn’t bother to listen to the police offer as he spoke to her. Apparently, he was a guy that Ada knew from college. I didn’t care to ask his name.
“Technically, I could get her for public intoxication, but because this is her first time, we will not press charges,” the officer said to me as he rubbed the back of his neck, stealing a look at Ada. “As of right now, she will have to . . .”
I tuned the guy out, nodding along just to get him to shut up. If he’d spoken to me a few weeks ago, I would’ve written notes and then taken Ada to the nearest hospital to detox. Now, I planned to drop her off at the nearest corner and kick her to the curb.
The guy must’ve noticed my disinterest, because he pulled out a card and handed it to me. “If you have questions, call. I wrote my cell number down for you too.”
“Thanks,” I said, the word tasing like ash in my mouth. I wasn’t thankful, and there wasn’t a chance I was going to call him. What was the point? I’d spent hours calling places and finding who would take Ada’s insurance, so much of my time convincing my parents that this may be the moment Ada would get better.
I looked at Ada. Her clothes looked like she’d put in an effort. She’d even taken the time to wash her hair and twist it in a clip. Which got me curious about something.
“Where do you work?” I asked.
Ada slowly turned to me. “That’s what you want to know?”
I shrugged. “You never talk about it. But I want to know that, when the time comes you get charged with a felony you’ll still be gainfully employed.”
The laugh that came out of Ada was lifeless and caustic. “I work at a call center and barely make over minimum wage. They don’t give a shit.”
I scoffed. “Right. You’ve cultivated your entire world around people who don’t care if you live or die, but you call me. Why is that, huh? Tell me, Ada. I want to know.”
Ada winced when my voice got louder, but it poured gas on a flickering ember, her face twisting with her own anger. “I didn’t want to call you, okay? The only reason you got a phone call here was because your number was the only one I knew by heart. If I’d still had my fucking phone, I would’ve had Nik come and get me.”
My blood went cold as I stared at Ada in disbelief. “How the hell did you get his number?”
At this, Ada’s shoulders hunched, raising her shaky hand to her mouth to chew on a hangnail. She looked frightened, as if the last couple of hours of her life had finally caught up with her.
“He gave it to me the other day and told me that if I was in a pinch, I could call him, and he’d help me without the riot act.” Ada continued to fidget, throwing me a quick glance. “Look, if you never want to talk to me again, fine, I get it. But I need your getting somewhere.”
“Are you fucking serious? If you expect me to drop you off at some fucking dope house, you can figure that out on your own.”
“Listen to me,” Ada said, jerking both of her fists backward and banging them on the car door. “It’s not a dope house, okay? It’s this place people go to who—”
Ada’s eyes widened, and I turned to find Duncan walking toward us. I frantically looked around to see if Nik was with him, but he wasn’t. Duncan extended his hand to me, and I shook it, speechless. Then he offered it to Ada and shook hers.
I watched, utterly baffled.
“Hey, sorry to interrupt y’all,” Duncan said with a closed-mouth smile. “Ada, the officer told me that he’d explained to you the meeting we’ll be having at the Collective. Remember to be there at nine.”
“I will,” Ada said, wrapping her arms around her waist.
I looked between Ada and Duncan, trying to decipher whatever code they were speaking in, but I’d already had enough of this shitty day. “What meeting?”
