Page 277 of Something Rad
And the sight before me nearly kills me on the spot.
Cooper sits on the other side of the glass, looking like she’s been through hell and back.
She has the telephone on her side of the glass in one hand while her other hand is pressed against the glass, reaching out to me in the only way she can right now. Her eyes are red-rimmed and the dullest shade of gray I’ve yet to see, the dark circles beneath them only sucking the life out of them further. The usual red glow to her cheeks and lips is gone. Even her hair seems to be lacking its usual fiery hue, hanging limp and lifeless around her face. And then, worst of all, the top left corner of her forehead is covered with a giant bandage, the edges frayed and dark spots of blood still shadowed beneath it from where she hit her head when she fell. From when she passed out right in front of me and I couldn’t do a damn thing to help her because my hands were in cuffs and I was being shoved into a cop car.
Just seeing it now, I’m brought right back to that moment, replaying it over and over in my head. I keep watching her get so overwhelmed with stress and sick with worry that it makes her blackout, her knees giving out from under her and her going head-first into the asphalt.
And then, I’m forced to revisit every moment before that, wracking my brain for what could have possibly led her there. Trying to understand in what world this could ever be something that’s a part of Sara Cooper’s story. And I know what my answer is.
I know it all began with me.
“Hey,” I hear her voice come through the phone line, soft and raspy, bringing me back to reality.
“Hey, Cooper,” I say, trying to force a smile on my face.
Her throat bobs. “How are you doing?” she asks.
“Well, surprisingly, I think orange might be my color, so I’m feeling pretty good about that.”
Cooper doesn’t laugh, her lips pressing tightly together. “Robbie…”
I let out a sigh, running a hand down my face.
“I heard…” Cooper mutters. “About your parents.”
I look down at the countertop, letting out a humorless laugh. “What about them?” I ask her. “That when I used my one phone call on them last night, my dad laughed and hung up on me? Or was it about when the station called my house this morning and my mom answered the phone saying they didn’t have a son named Robert?”
“Both,” she whispers, her voice cracking in a way that makes me want to bust through this glass and wrap her in my arms. But I can’t.
“You know…you could have called me.”
I force myself to look at her.
“What were you supposed to do?” I ask her.
I watch her lips quiver and her hand raise to swipe a tear away from her eye. “Robbie…I talked to Officer Keller up front. She said…that if your parents don’t bail you out…that you’ll be here at least sixty days. That you could even be transferred to a different jail if your hearing doesn’t go well.”
I blink at her, my tongue pushing into my cheek as I nod. “Mhmm. She told me that too.”
“So then it’s obvious, isn’t it?” Cooper asks.
“What is?”
She scoots her chair closer, hugging the phone to her face. “Robbie…let me help you–”
“No,” I say immediately, cutting her off.
“But–”
I shake my head. “It’s not happening.”
“Robbie–”
“Cooper, I saidno,” I grit.
Her brows pinch. “Let me bail you out.”
“I’m not going to let you do that,” I insist, angry tears prickling at the corners of my eyes. “You’re not spending a dime on me, Cooper.”
