Page 60 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

“Where was Dre in all this?”

“Dre? Why would you ask about him?”

“Considering he’s your boyfriend, I’d think he’d be looking out for you.”

Dre. Christa told me that he went off with another woman this weekend. I thought he’d just gone fishing with his buddies, but… could it be true?

“Perry?”

“Hold on. Some stuff’s coming back to me.”

She’d been so angry on my behalf; I could easily recall that. Wanted me to get revenge. We were in her bedroom. She asked me to hold on to a syringe. She set down a bottle of…what the hell? “Deer urine?”

“What?”

Oh, I’d said that out loud. “I have to go, Stephen. I really need some water.”And I must talk to Christa. “Um, thanks for checking up on me.”

“You’re welcome. What are friends for?”

Crazy. “Okay. I’ll see you on Monday, then.”

I swore I heard a sigh. “Have a good weekend, Perry.”

“You too, Stephen.”

I ended the call, then attempted to drag my sorry ass out of bed. On the third try I was successful. I shuffled to the kitchen and poured myself some water first thing. I was chugging it down when—

“Hey.”

I spat a mouthful all over the floor and hacked up my lungs for a good minute before I could even regain a normal breath. Tears were streaming down my face, and I felt light-headed enough to pass out. I grasped the counter tightly. I wanted to murder her.

“Fuck, Christa. What did you do that for?”

“Perry, I was right here the whole time. It’s not like I snuck up on you.”

“You could have said something to me before I took a drink.”

She was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee. I apparently hadn’t noticed her due to my tunnel vision that morning, but she could’ve timed her mouth better.

I cleaned up the spill, then refilled my water. I sat down at the table and gave her a once-over. “Why don’t you look horrible?” Her eyes weren’t even bloodshot.

“Believe me, I feel it. Especially because I wasn’t able to go back to sleep after your phone was making those godawful sounds.”

“Sorry about that. I should’ve turned the ringer down, but last night I forgot that I even owned a phone.”

She snorted. “Yeah, you were pretty wasted. So was I.” Her hands circled the cup. “So, who was that calling so early?”

“My mom and Sam.”

“Okay, well. I’m going to lie back down for a while. I thought this coffee would help my pounding head but it just made it worse.”

She stood up. “Wait,” I said. “What happened last night?”

“You don’t remember?”

“No, that’s why I’m asking. Everything after going out to Dre’s truck is a blur. And what was the deal with the urine?” Why she even had it in her possession was another story, but I’d get to that a different time.

She rubbed the back of her neck. “We were just messing around. No big deal.”

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