Page 165 of The Secret We Keep
“Are you okay in there?” Paddy calls from his side.
“She’s fine,” Holly snaps, shrugging off her coat and sitting on the toilet again.
“Morgan?”
“I’m fine,” I gripe, knowing it doesn’t feel that way. “Mum called it an episode,” I then say to Holly.
Holly’s eyes narrow like pins, her jaw tenses. “An episode? Morgan, none of what you’re saying is making any sense.”
“Trust me, you’re not the only one finding this confusing.” I close my eyes, hearing Holly biting her nails.
“What are they doing about it? Your parents, I mean?”
My shoulders lift. “Don’t know. Mum gave me tablets. That’s it. I think they’re starting to work.”
“What tablets?”
I open one eye. “Painkillers.” I think. Whatever they were, my body’s relaxing.
“What painkillers?”
Both eyes are now open. “I don’t know. The kind that take away the pain.”
She looks through the bin, rummaging through the crap.
“What are you doing?” I grimace when a used tissue lands on the floor.
“Checking what you’ve taken.”
“Why?” I ask, my back straightening.
Holly looks up at me, giving me an obvious glare. “To see if I can make sense of it.”
“Make sense of what?”
Her cheeks puff out dubiously. “Because, parents or not, you don’t just take tablets off people without seeing what it is first.”
My eyes narrow. “I think taking something off my mum is fine.”
She laughs under her breath. “It’s always the people closest to us who hurt us the most.”
Standing to my feet, I grab the rubbish from the floor and begin tossing it back in the bin. “I think you’re overreacting.”
“Listen to me,” she says, eyes wide and tone even. “I love you and your parents, but they have always been shady with you. Controlling you. Acting like you don’t have a life of your own. I’m serious, Morgan. If I were you, I’d be over that bowl and emptying my stomach, just in case.”
“Oh my God,” I half laugh, half hear myself getting angry. “What the hell are you saying?”
“I’m saying, don’t be so naive. Something isn’t adding up here.”
“Like?”
She curses under her breath. “How often does your mum give you tablets? A lot? Just this once? Which is it?”
“What?” I shake my head, feeling my hackles rising. “I…”
“Think, Morgan.”
My head feels heavy on my shoulders. My cheeks feel hot. My spine tingles.
