Page 80 of Call You Mine
I’m about to step out into the hall when I hear my phone vibrating on my nightstand, my body instinctively turning toward the noise.
A phone call in the middle of the night is never good.
I glance over my shoulder at Georgie and contemplate letting the call go to voicemail. I don’t know why she’s up, and I feel a pull to go check on her. I squint my eyes, trying to see the caller ID—another pull in the opposite direction.
I decide to just see who’s calling, in case it's an emergency, and then I can go check on Georgie. Closing my bedroom door quietly, I go to grab my phone, the bright screen making my eyes squint.
Auggie.
What the fuck could he possibly need at two in the morning?
Holding the phone to my ear, I don’t have time for greetings. “Auggie? Are you okay? What’s wrong?” I keep my voice just above a whisper.
“What? Everything’s fine.” His voice sounds bored, as if he’s calling me in the middle of the afternoon, not the middle of the night. “I need Mom’s insurance information.”
“Why do you need that at two in the fucking morning?” I’m frustrated with myself for even answering the phone, especially when Georgie is up, all by herself. Maybe she wants to be alone, but I wantherto tell me that. The pull to go to her strengthens, but I can’t until I deal with my brother.
Auggie exhales dramatically—likeI’mthe one inconveniencing him. “She’s switching doctors.”
There’s a little voice in the back of my head, telling me to push him on this, but I want to get this call over with as fast as possible so I can go check on Georgie. But my mom hasn’t switched doctors in years, and now all of a sudden she is? And why would Auggie be doing thisnow?
“Why would she do that? And why are you doing this right now?” I ask him, rubbing my forehead.
“I haven’t had time,” he whines. “I’m up gaming with a few guys, and before she went to bed, Mom said the new office left a message for her. I figured I’d just do it now.”
His answer barely makes sense, and I can’t fight the suspicion that he’s not telling me the entire story.
My mom hasn’t said anything to me about switching providers.
And that’s when I realize I haven’t called her in a couple of weeks.
Guilt, like an old friend, overrides all my other thoughts and feelings, so I do the only thing I know how to—help.
“Yeah, I have a copy of her card in my wallet. Hold on.” I read off all the information on her insurance card and text him over a picture of it too. “Why did she switch doctors?”
Auggie explains something about a change in her medication and how her old doctor recommended this new one for the new prescription.
And since I’m not the one helping our mom with her pain management anymore, I guess I have to take his word for it.
Once we hang up the phone, I head out into the living room, hoping to check in with Georgie and see if she’s okay. I’ve never heard her get up in the middle of the night, and with my fucked up sleeping schedule, I’m usually awake during these odd hours.
But when I make my way to where she just was a few minutes ago, she’s gone.
I glance down the hallway that leads to her bedroom and find the door cracked open. Part of me wants to make sure she went back to bed and that everything is okay, but the other part reminds me—convincesme—it’s not my place.
Heading back to my bedroom, I strip down to my boxers again, tossing and turning for the next two hours, my mind spinning, wondering why Georgie was up, and why Auggie’s call left such a bad taste in my mouth.
CHAPTER 25
AVA
I’ve been tired before—Ithink I’ve been perpetually tired for my entire life.
But this exhaustion is so deep, I feel it in mybones.
“You sure you don’t want to sit next to Anderson?” Emerson asks me, shoving her tote bag underneath the seat in front of her.
I nod, stifling a yawn. “I’m good with you guys.”
