With every ring that Marcie didn't answer, Kaden's mind was running ahead, trying to work out what he'd do if she didn't pick up. Google alcohol poisoning? Try and pump Adrian's stomach on their own? He thought about asking one of the older kids but he didn't know them, he had absolutely no idea if he could trust them, and if they took Adrian to hospital, there'd be police there, and the idea of police repelled Kaden so much, he couldn't get past it, not in the time it took for Marcie's phone to go to voicemail, anyway.
Fuck, fuck fuck fuck... the cold realisation sank in as he hung up on her voicemail; he was on his own. The silence of the park pressed in on his skin, which was cold despite the lingering summer heat, and Kaden anxiously rubbed his arm, and his scar, bare now because he'd given Adrian his hoodie.
Okay... he could do this... he'd been on his own before, heaps of times.
He'd turned to head back toward Adrian when his phone rang, and the utter surprise of seeing Marcie's name on his screen (of help coming - and then of panic, because what if she was angry?) made him freeze for a ring or three before he scrambled to answer it.
"Hey..." he said, trying to be all cool as a cucumber, groping for charm through the anxiety. "Heeey, don't be mad okay, but... can you come pick us up?"