The Anatomy of a Broken Heart //Completed//

60. Santana

Some random dude opened the door when I got to mom's regular room at The Diner. He smiled yellow through his wiry gray beard and winked at me. I tried not to puke at the smell coming off of him, actually grateful when mom shoved his greasy ass away from the door.

"Finally. Did you go butcher the cow yourself?" she asked. I shoved the bag of food into her arms and let myself through the door.

"Bon ap'tit'" the guy said, taking out the burgers from the bag after she handed it to him. She put out her cigarette and lit another one before sitting back on the bed and leaning her head on the headrest.

"I haven't been working so I don't have any money," I told her immediately. When she called, she asked me where I was and then only asked me to bring her some food. So far, she hadn't asked for money, but I had to warn her before she started making her not-so-idle threats.

"What kind of person do you take me for? Can't a mother just want to see her oldest daughter?"

"Oh, please, spare me the melodrama," I spat. The room reeked of piss and smoke and probably something less hygienic.

"Girl's got a bite, Vanessa." Gray Beard guffawed, but mom rolled her eyes.

"She gets it from me," she said.

"All I get from you, Vanessa, is a headache and the urge to shower after I see you, so I'm out."

"Not so fast, Santana." She got up faster than I would've expected her to, especially in the jeans she was wearing. I doubted she could move at all, but mom always did know how to worm her way around a tight spot.

"What is it?"

"We're looking for a little something stronger than that bottle of Jack on the table tonight. I know your little boyfriend has something extra special, so I need you to call him for me."
"I told you I wasn't with Jasper anymore. I can't help you."

"You still have his number though, don't ya?" The cigarette in her hand burned away, but she didn't take a puff. She looked at me, half smiling, knowing that of course I still had his number. I hated that she knew anything about me at all.

"I could give it to you."

"Ha! You're too easy." She threw her head back. "You gotta learn to let shit go, honey." She finally took a drag of the cigarette and exhaled it like a sigh. "No. I need you to call him so he can give us a good deal. You need to be here."

"He won't give me a deal. Business is business with him. Besides, he's got no reason to care if it's me."
"No, no, no. I know teenage boys," she shook her cigarette in my face. "A girl who looks like you doesn't get erased that easily. Not even with all the shit .he's probably wired on. So call him up and get us something good."

I pursed my lips, thinking hard how to get out of this. It was humiliating enough to have to get drugs for my middle-aged mother, now I had to see Jasper after what happened at the concert. I could pretend to call and say he never picked up, but knowing her paranoia, she'd probably make me put it on speaker. There was no way out of this.

"Fine." I pulled out my cell and looked his number up, and pressed the key.

"Put it on speaker phone."

Called it.

I did as she asked, but huffed in frustration so she could see how stupid I thought she was. It didn't faze her.

"Hello?" a lazy voice asked on the other end, and my heart jumped into my mouth. I couldn't talk.

Say something, my mother mouthed to me looking at me like I was the idiot.