Page 22 of I'm Yours

“No. No, I do not,” she says, a teasing lilt to her voice that has me chuckling.

“No, I’m sure you don’t. You accomplished it.”

“I did. Though I’m not sure I deserve any praise for that.”

“Fuck, that was nasty shit.”

“It was. I threw up for two days straight after that night. Mom thought I was pregnant.”

We laugh together and I don’t allow myself to focus on the fact that it feels natural.

“You were a mess. I thought I was going to murder someone that night.”

“You almost did, if memory serves. Which, as we established, isn’t very clear of the night.”

“Fucking Tim. That ass.”

She chuckles but doesn’t disagree. “You probably saved me from a lot that night.”

“Punching Tim and breaking his nose was my pleasure, trust me.” I’ve never been so pissed or terrified as I was that night. I kept trying to get her to stop drinking but Tim kept feeding her more and more. I know what his plan was. He said it loudly and to anyone that would listen that he had every intention of “screwing that” before the night was over. He was known to be a jerk, but he ramped it up that night to epic levels. Obviously, that wasn’t happening on my watch. When I finally got Sadie pulled away from the fray, all I could think about was getting her home and away from all the dangers. To say she was drunk would be putting it mildly. She couldn’t stand on her own, couldn’t hold up her head. I’m sure she had alcohol poisoning but I was too afraid to say anything. I was young and cocky enough that I was pretty positive anything she threw at me I could handle. I still don’t know why she was so hell bent on forgetting that night.

“I saw him a few years ago,” she says absentmindedly.

The corner of my mouth turns up a little remembering the end of that night. It felt so good to lay into that asshole. “Oh, yeah?”

She nods, grinning and giving me a knowing look. “His nose is still all janky.”

I can’t help the smug grin that stretches through my lips. “Good,” I grunt.

“Figured you’d like that. He’s also still just as big of a tool as he was then.”

“Not surprised,” I murmur. Guys like Tim don’t change, though I’d hoped that busting him up a little would have gotten him to at least take a good hard look at how he treated people. “Was he still a dick to you?”

She hesitates, looking away and putting her feet back down, dangling them over the edge of the tailgate. “I can handle guys like Tim.”

I don’t know what that means but it doesn’t give me a good feeling in my stomach. “So he was a dick.”

“No more than he was back then. It’s fine, Reed. Trust me, I’ve encountered far worse than Tim Stratford. He’s simply an egotistical ass who thinks he’s God’s gift to women.”

“And let me guess, he’s far from it?”

She looks at me out of the corner of her eye and gives me a little side grin. “Faaaarrrrr.”

I chuckle again and feel the tightness in my chest from the fear of Tim still mistreating Sadie loosen a bit. Sadie was always stronger than she thought and I have no doubt that she’d bust his ass if he deserved it. “That night…” I swallow hard and shake my head.

“Yeah?”

“What was going on? You weren’t yourself. You never told me why you were so determined to get drunk that night.”

Her lips twist and she jumps down from the tailgate, walks around a little bit. I let her have her time just like she did me. In fact, if she decides she still doesn’t want to tell me, I’ll let it go. Still, I lean forward, wanting to hear every word she is willing to tell me.

“I found out something that day and I just needed to… I don’t know, forget life. Feel like a teenager. Anything to help me forget what my life was like — and would always be like.”

I hate that she always had walls up between us. I thought we told each other everything. She was my best friend. If we were at school, we were together between classes and lunch. If we were out of school, we were hanging out. On the weekends, we were together. Our lives were so entwined it’s no wonder I fell in love with her.

“What do you mean?”

“My mom was sick. More than I thought she was, I guess. Sick in a different way, I mean. And, well, I didn’t take it well.”

---