Whisky Melody: Rock Star Romance, New Adult College Romance (Tennessee Romance Book 2) by Lexy Timms Page A

bustling with injured people and their families, the weekend obviously in full swing. Nevertheless, they were hustled straight into a room, and a doctor appeared immediately.
    Ashley was forgotten in the rush of charcoal and IV lines and monitors, and then Kaylee was rushed away. She sat there, crumpled and defeated, unsure what to do. After a few moments, she took out her phone, painfully aware that she had to call Kaylee’s folks. She didn’t want to, but the naïve hope that it might be nothing was pure bullshit, and her parents had a right to know. There was no way around the truth, and the truth was that Kaylee had gone far too far, so far she might never come back from it.
    Her fingers fumbled her phone from her purse. She opened it and called her mother first, and she was relieved when her call was answered on the third ring.
    “Ashley, honey, is everything all right?” her mother asked, her voice sleepy and frightened.
    Tears ran down her cheeks unchecked. “No, Mom, I’m afraid nothing’s all right. It’s Kaylee. She…took something. I don’t know what, but I think it was drugs. Sh-She had a seizure, and I had to call the ambulance. I’m at the hospital now. I don’t know what to do. I gotta call her folks, but I-I just can’t. I don’t know how, Mom. I don’t know what to say.”
    “Oh baby, is there anyone near you?” she asked, her voice suddenly brisk and urgent. “Can you find a doctor or a nurse who might be able to talk to me?”
    Ashley got up and walked, on shaky legs, past the white curtain. She saw a uniformed woman rushing past, and she quickly thrust her phone in her direction. “Can you help me please? Can you talk to my mom, tell her what’s going on with my cousin?”
    The nurse looked at her, then at the phone, then took it. “Um…can I help you?” she said. Then, after a pause, she continued, “Oh, yes. I’m sorry, ma’am, but the doctors haven’t reported anything to us yet. Sure, I would absolutely recommend that you call her parents and tell them that.” She then handed the phone back.
    Ashley’s fingers were so unsteady she nearly dropped the phone, but she managed to get it back up to her ear. “Mom?”
    “I’ll call your aunt and uncle, sweetheart,” she said.
    The hush in her mother’s voice made Ashley’s panic well up even further, and she struggled to tamp it back down so she wouldn’t hyperventilate again. She had to be strong for Kaylee, because there was no one else there for either of them. “Okay, Mom,” she said after a moment. “Thanks. I just… I don’t think I could talk to them right now.”
    “That’s okay, honey. You just hold on and try to be strong.”
    “I am.”
    “I love you, Ashley.”
    Her throat clumped with salty tears. “I love you, too…and I’m sorry, Mom.”
    “For what?”
    She wiped her eyes and retreated behind the curtain. “I-I knew Charlie was going to break up with her. I should have kept a closer eye on her. She had some kind of real weird thing going with him. It was like she couldn’t… I can’t even explain it.”
    Her mother sighed. “Was sort of…obsessive?”
    Ashley blinked. “Yeah. How did you know?”
    “It isn’t the first time. Kaylee’s always felt she has to be popular, the person everyone loves the most. Maybe it’s genetic. I don’t know. She doesn’t take rejection well. Anyway, let me call them. Stay close to your phone, and if you need me—”
    “I’ll call you, Mom.”
    Ashley ended the call and huddled in the chair, staring at the white curtain. Time dragged on for what seemed like forever. Her eyes drifted closed, then jerked open again; she felt guilty for even trying to sleep at a time like this, but she was tired and hadn’t gotten any sleep at all after a hectic, emotionally-draining day. She was in need of rest, no matter how dire the situation, and her mind and body demanded it.
    Her head nodded toward her chest again, and her eyelids dropped, then closed. She jerked