The Redemption of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen Page A

he says, and then squeezes my hand. “Just don’t overthink it.”
    I shut my eyes and hold onto the thought that tomorrow I’ll see him, alive, and not bleeding on the floor. Maybe then I can finally get the god-awful image out of my head.
Kayden
    It’s mid-December, the start of winter break. If I weren’t here, I’d be heading home from school, probably with Callie and Luke. It’s weird knowing she’s probably driving into town right now, just getting home, so close to me in distance, and yet she still seems far away, almost unreachable, since I’m stuck in here and she’s out there.
    I’ve secretly been collecting rubber bands and I have five of them on my wrist. Not that Doug knows it. I kept pretending that I broke them until I had a collection. The thickness gives more of a sting and it settles me on the inside each time I flick them. I need a lot of settling because my mother showed up tonight and has been here for over an hour trying to work things out with the doctor and Doug to get me released.
    They’re over by the doorway having a conversation about me like I’m not even here. It’s actually more of an argument than a conversation.
    “But we’ll be there watching him at all times.” My mother talks with her hands a lot and she’s got long fingernails. Every time she says something she swings her arms animatedly and almost nails the doctor in the eye.
    Doug fans through his yellow-sheeted notebook and reads through his notes. “Look, Mrs. Owens, I know this must be hard for you, but I don’t think it’s healthy for Kayden to leave the facility just yet. In fact, I’d advise against it.”
    My mother taps her foot on the floor and crosses her arms as she stares Doug down like he is a small, insignificant piece of shit. “Look, I understand what you advise, but I’d rather not take advice from a doctor who got his PhD from some low-budget college.”
    “I got my PhD from Berkley,” he says, pulling out a pen from his pocket.
    Her gaze sweeps over him and she elevates her eyebrows. “Really? Then why are you here?”
    Doug stays calm as he balances the notebook on his arm and writes something down. “I might be asking you the same thing.”
    I think I like Doug at that moment and I smile to myself as I wiggle my finger under the bands and flip them against the inside of my wrist and let the burn soothe me. I’m sitting in the corner of the room, not the one I sleep in but a larger one with a lot of tables and chairs scattered around. The walls are brick and cracked with old age, but it’s more comforting than the dull white ones in the room. Some people eat lunch in here, but I choose to eat in my room because there’s always too much going on, like fights and yelling and crying.
    My mother stabs her fingernail against Doug’s chest. “Don’t you dare insinuate anything.”
    “I wasn’t,” Doug says simply, wincing as he grips the spot on his chest where my mother stabbed her finger. “It just seems like you’re awfully eager to take Kayden out of here when it’s clear he’s not stable.”
    I scan the scars on my arms and the bandage on my wrists. I’ve been picking at the scab that’s underneath it a lot, which is why it’s not healing. But it’s a fucking habit and I can’t seem to break it.
    “He’s perfectly stable,” my mother insists. There’s a slight slur to her speech and I wonder if the doctor can hear it. “And it’s my call, since I’m the one who signed him in to be here.”
    I stand up, stunned. “You did that? I thought that was the hospital?”
    She glares at me with annoyance. “I put you here for your own good. You needed to be watched for a while, but now… you’ve been here for a little over a week and it’s time to move on and get your act together.”
    Or kept away from my father. “Then I want to leave,” I say, walking across the room. “And I want to go back to school, not back home.”
    “You can’t,” she replies curtly.