by Erin Danzer
Chapter Twenty Nine
Ronnie enjoyed her time at the football game with Andi that night. Despite her falling out with Shawn, Ronnie cheered for him when he replaced the starting quarterback during the third quarter and threw a touchdown to end the game. It wasn’t enough to win, but he went out and showed he was good enough to start. Ronnie was proud of him.
She went out for pizza with Andi and a bunch of others from school, enjoying a night of freedom despite her grounding. Her mom knew they always went out for pizza after the game and said it was okay tonight, even though she wasn’t happy about Ronnie’s recent disregard for the rules. Because of this, Ronnie still had an eleven o’clock curfew and had to say good night to everyone earlier than she wanted.
She got home and didn’t know what to think when she found every light in the house blazing. Her stomach curled with dread as she walked into the house and found her mom furiously running around with various items of clothing in her hand. Her blonde hair was a mess and her mascara ran down her cheeks from crying.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” Ronnie asked as her mom ran passed her. Her mom stopped, looked at Ronnie and burst into tears. “Mom, what happened?”
“It’s your grandmother, she’s had a heart attack,” her mom cried as Ronnie held her. Ronnie gasped, tears welling in her eyes. She hadn’t seen her mom’s mom in almost a year, since last Thanksgiving, but the elderly woman was always smiling and walking with friends. She was the last person Ronnie would have expected to have a heart attack.
“Oh my god. I can pack in five minutes,” she told her mom. To her surprise, her mom shook her head.
“No. I’m sorry, Veronica, but I don’t know when we’re coming home. Aunt Lauren didn’t say how severe it was; I just don’t know,” her mom explained. Ronnie numbly nodded. “If it’s more serious, we’ll come back for you.”
In other words, if her grandmother was about to die, they would come get her to say goodbye. Ronnie ground her teeth as she nodded again. It wasn’t fair that she couldn’t go with them.
“Call me when you know something,” she said bitterly and headed upstairs to her bedroom. She sat on her bed with the door open and listened to her parents run around the house, packing and crying as they got ready to go. Half an hour later, she heard the garage door go up and her dad’s minivan drive away. Once they were gone, Ronnie sent up a prayer for her grandmother to be well soon, changed into her pajamas and curled up in bed. As she drifted off to sleep, she hoped Gavin would surprise her with another middle of the night visit but somehow she knew that wasn’t going to happen.
