Emma's POV
"Mom!" I screamed as soon as Kevin jumped off my mom's moving car.
It was a day that would never leave memory.
A lot of fucked up things were happening. Just when I thought the day had ended, that had to happen. And in fact, it was the worst of all.
Mom helped me with Kevin. After we got him tucked at the back, she jumped on the driver's seat and turned right back, headed for the hospital.
It was about to be far too messy and we all knew it.
Just when we thought we were done with the police. Hopefully, Kevin would be graceful enough to admit that he jumped out on purpose rather than let my mom take the hit.
I was thinking up so many ways it could end, and none of them were good. The only good part was that we didn't have to worry about money.
As soon as we got there, Kevin was wheeled in and we were told to wait at the lobby.
None of us insisted on going in with him because we both knew he wouldn't be so keen on seeing our faces first when he's revived.
I stalked his sister, Kayla, and dropped a text for her.
She sounded quite chill on text, and I thought she was, till she showed up at the hospital with her mom.
"Kevin, please. He was just rushed in." She said to the nurse at the desk, after seeing and snubbing my mom and I.
I could understand, so I didn't get pissed.
They were ushered in, and I released a breath I never knew I was holding.
"You see, when next you want to take custody of someone else's child, it's best you do so with their consent." Their mom said, with all the disgust and anger she could summon. I caught the nurses side eye and I knew it would take just my mom's response for them to send us all out of the hospital.
I squeezed my mom's thigh, stopping her from replying.
It was around seven pm, and I couldn't wait to be done. Such a long day!
Everyone quietened, while we waited for the doctors.
It was a period where even the air we breath echoed through the lobby.
"He's such a good young man, you know." The strange voice had us all looking in the direction where it came from. "He's awake and stable now."
"Thank heavens." My mom said under her breath. Things were just starting to go well for us, we couldn't stand having a murder tied to our names.
"Yeah, you better." Kevin and Kayla's mom relied, snidely.
"You know what woman?" My mom's voice rose, going from zero to hundred instantly. "Maybe if you taught your son to stop sharing private pictures of other people's children, he wouldn't be caught up in such stupid situations. Emma, you can stand there with your mouth open for flies or come with me right now." She stunned us all. I was grateful, deep inside me, for what she did.
"What does that mean?" Kevin's mom's time fell several pitches while she talked to Kayla. I picked my mom's cardigan that dropped from her shoulder while she savaged Kevin's mom out, and ran after her.
She had already left the hospital premises before I caught up with her,
I knew it was no nonsense night. She wasn't going to let anyone make me feel bad, she was going to do it herself.
There's a lot she was going to say, and I know I deserved it all.
She drove as rough as I remembered her doing when we moved out of my dad's.
Sometimes, when I think about it, I had so many fucked up experiences for a kid my age.
"Shut it behind you." She said before heading in.
I made sure all the doors were locked, taking extra time to do so, anything to delay what was eventually to come.
I locked the garage and finally followed her.
"I'd love you to sit, young woman." My moms voice was stern.
"I'm so sorry, mom. I didn't mean for any of that to happen." I said, apologizing. I was already tearing up, my lips were quavering. The fact that she was still so composed and collected shook me far more.
She was only ever like that when her mind was made up and there was no going back.
"I only sent them because he made me. I swear, I wasn't thinking. I didn't know it was going to lead to all these." I quietened when I saw that she wasn't interrupting me, and I had exhausted everything my tired brain could cook up at that point.
"Emma, I did not raise you to be a victim." She started. I almost thought I did not hear well, so I quietened down, so I should grasp whatever it was she must be trying to say.
"As much as I should, I'm not judging you. I have no moral right to. But I'm your mother, and what I'd do is tell you what is right and what isn't." She continued, placing her car key on one of the side tables that decorated our living room.
"Sending your nudes to a neighbor you met less than twenty four hours ago doesn't really make sense. I'm not going to be high and mighty, but I taught you better."
"Nobody's bastard should make you feel less of yourself. I'm not going to take that from you. You know better than to sit and wait for life to happen to you. If that was all I did, do you think we'd be here now?!" At this point, she was screaming, and I knew she had taken it more personally.
Her eyes were glistening with pooling tears.
"I won't take that from you! At all! You don't fucking cower! You see what I just did, it's what I expect of you. And who cares if he hops out of a moving train?" I had always known my mom to be overly protective of me, but that night affirmed a whole other level of protection.
"I don't fucking…" The sound of our doorbell punctuated her statement. We stared at each other for a minute. None of us were expecting anyone. She stood up and headed for the door.