A Whole New Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 1)

Mandy fell back a step. The color drained from her face.

“I love you,” I said, forcing my tone to soften. “Because of that, I’m taking you to a facility. None of your bullshit will work on me. I’ve gone this route too many times with Brian. I won’t go through it again. Because you’re not fighting as much, I know you’re early in the process. You can be helped, and you have to be helped. Mandy, you have to be.” She was my family. “With this fucked-up situation, you became my sister. So I’m here and I’m fighting for you. Take the bags, Mandy.” Please. I mentally prayed. She needed to go of her own choice. I couldn’t force her to go so I pleaded. “I’ll drive you and I’ll help you.”

“Taryn?”

Her voice cracked and a tear fell down her cheek. I saw the shame. It flared over her face and then she hung her head.

That was when I knew she wasn’t going to fight it. I stood there, shocked. Brian always fought. He denied. He yelled. He threw things. Then he would cry and he would plead and he would beg me not to leave him. Mandy did none of this. She went straight to crying, and she crumbled on a chair by the table.

CHAPTER TWENTY

I was still in shock at how easy it had been to convince Mandy to go to rehab. She didn’t say much on the car ride there. She sat, slumped down, and cried most of the way. As we filled out the paperwork and sat in the lobby, she still didn’t say much. The counselor came out for her assessment and she followed him into the office without a backward look to me. After th

at, she was admitted. As they led her through a back hallway, I could still see where they were searching her bags. That was when she looked up and I saw a frightened little girl staring back at me.

The counselor spoke her name, but Mandy looked haunted. I narrowed my eyes, wondering if she was more scared of herself than of going into rehab. Then he touched her arm and she looked away. The small window she had given me to see inside of her closed up. Taking her bag, she followed him and I couldn’t see them anymore.

When I left, with a doctor’s note to give to the high school administration, a ball of emotion was in the bottom of my stomach. It wouldn’t move. How I drove home, I had no idea. I was on autopilot and I stayed like that for the rest of the day. Tray texted to see if things were fine. I told him to expect Austin and me that night. I waited for my little brother to get back from his tournament. When he did, I picked him up. When he saw my face through the car’s window, he stopped walking. He was dressed in low-riding, baggy athletic pants and a large jersey with his earbuds in his ears. Someone yelled goodbye and he lifted his hand, but it was an absent-minded farewell. As he came closer and got inside, he didn’t say anything for a moment. He tugged his earbuds down and then asked, “Where’s Mandy?”

I studied him before I replied. He was fourteen. I could tell he was popular. He was athletic. His friends were good-looking and wealthy. He was jaded. He didn’t have the innocence most others did at his age. Weighing all of those factors together, I knew Austin wasn’t dumb. “I took Mandy to an in-house treatment facility.”

His eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”

I didn’t hold back with my answer. “Your sister has a drug problem.”

“How do you know?”

I hid a grin. He wasn’t fighting me. I heard what he hadn’t said. “My ex used to be a drug addict. I just know.”

He jerked his head in a nod. “She’s at some place getting help?”

“As long as she stays.”

“What do you mean?”

“She signed herself in. She can sign herself out.”

“She can do that?” He snorted and leaned back in his seat, plopping his head back against the headrest. “She’ll be out by tonight.”

“Maybe.” I hoped not. “If she does, they’ll call. You can still talk to her.”

He rolled his eyes. “It won’t matter. This shit’s been going on forever.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mom and Dad took her in last summer. It didn’t do anything. She came out and was popping pills on the drive home. It was a joke.”

I frowned. His words rocked me. They had known? “The bottles I saw were prescribed from your dad. Why would he continue to do that?”

“He doesn’t. He cut her off a long time ago. I bet she just uses them to store the pills in there.”

She got the pills somewhere else…that information seared through me. She had another drug dealer, and her family was forced to take me in. I didn’t think those two items were random. In my life, I learned there weren’t many coincidences. As I drove home, I knew that I would have to go see Jace. He didn’t want me there, but I didn’t care. I was going to find out some answers. When we headed inside, I told Austin to pack a bag.

“Why?”

“It doesn’t seem right to stay here, not after I took Mandy in without your parents’ permission.”

He frowned. “Oh. Wait a minute, if they don’t know, how are you paying for this?”