"Hello, Emerson residence," Lucy says as she answers the phone.
The noise she's met with blasts out of the receiver, nailing into her ear and forcing her to pull it back, wincing. It sounds like rending metal, a few voices shouting something unintelligible, and...Frank Sinatra's 'In The Wee Small Hours'?
"Hello?" She questions into the cacophony. "Hel-"
"-shut the fuck up! It's not like I saw the telephone pole either!" A man yells into the phone. "Hey, is this uh, Michael's mom?"
The voice sounds young. More a boy than a man, and at the mention of her son's name, Lucy feels her stomach drop to her feet. She holds the phone closer.
"Yes, this is she. Who is this?"
Something bangs in the background and there's a rustling as whoever is holding the phone on the other end almost drops it.
"I'm Pau- uh. That doesn't matter right now. Um, look, Mike- I mean, Michael like, told you he was going out tonight, right?"
He did, but this does less than nothing to assuage her fear. Just hours earlier, he'd been picked up by some boys he'd called his 'friends', and she's wondering if this isn't one of them, unsure if she wants the answer to be yes or no. Already Lucy is eyeing her shoes by the door...and privately hoping that whatever this is, it won't need bail money.
"Yes," she answers impatiently. "What's going on? Where's Michael?"
"He's fine, it's all fine-"
"-fuck you, David! Get me the fuck down!"
Lucy blinks. That's Michael. He sounds about as angry as she's ever heard him.
"It's not my fault you can't fly for shit!" A different voice answers, somewhere nearby.
At least it's not scared or hurt. She's about to demand that this boy she's talking to put him on when she'd overpowered by the sound of a revving motor.
"Oh good, Marko found a chain saw! Looks like we'll have him back soon after all!"
"No, no don't hang up-!" Lucy stutters, but the line goes dead.
She stares down at the phone for a minute or two before hanging it up, a pounding in her temples telling her it's far too late to go out there and track down her eldest and drag him home by an ear - if his head is still attached to his body.
But he's going to have some explaining to do in the morning.
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