Page 20 of Beneath His Robes

Rolling over, I began to crawl and took an army-like stance toward the road. It was pouring rain now, and the bitch had run off.

She’d taken my car.

Guess puking on someone during sex wasn’t exactly forgivable, so I accepted that.

When I got onto the road, the unforgiving asphalt burned my knees and palms. I was close. There was a liquor store a few blocks down the road.

Once I got away from the park, I kept crawling over that way. Eventually, I would find it. I’d probably be sobered up by then, so it would be a good time to get drunk again.

The perfect recycling.

“Watch out!”

A blinding light soared toward me, and I screamed, shielding my head and dropping to the street.

The car veered off the road and slammed into a tree like a moving freight train.

“Oh fuck!” I pulled myself onto my feet.

I was wobbling so much and could barely see straight, but I made it to the crashed vehicle. A woman was behind the wheel. She’d passed out, and her head was bleeding from a huge gash on her forehead. Blood was pooling into her eyes and onto the broken airbag.

“Oh, fuck. Oh, god. Geez-us. Fuck!” I said, pacing around the car, trying desperately to focus and searching for headlights from other vehicles.

We needed help, but we were alone. I smacked my pockets, realizing I’d left my phone in my car.

I didn’t have anything.

This lady was stuck with me and had no way of getting help. I smashed the shit out of my face, trying to sober the fuck up enough to help the woman.

“It’s okay. I got you. You’re okay. I’m Elias. You’re gonna be okay, ma’am. What is your name?”

The woman woke up slowly, instantly turning into a panicked screaming mess.

I didn’t know much about medical shit, but flailing around when you just ate a tree with your car definitely didn’t seem right.

“Ma’am, please calm down. You just had an accident. You can’t be smashing your head around like this!”

The lady smacked me, rage and pain etched in her features. “I crashed because of you, asshole! Why were you in the middle of the street at night?”

I swallowed, not even comprehending that.

“I…”I said, unable to form words. I fell onto my ass, wondering how Ronan would handle this situation.

He was always smart in emergencies.

I’d lost count of the number of times he bandaged his mom up from his abusive asshole stepfather or plucked splinters from my hands as kids.

Ronan was who this girl needed, not me.

No one needed me.

She needed Ronan…and I did too.

“Im fucking sorry,” I said, sobbing like a bitch on the ground in the pouring rain.

I was half naked, drunk off my ass, covered in vomit and still residually high. The woman stopped screaming and fear shot through me like a bullet. The silence stretched and I cursed.

“Fuck! No, no, no. Please, God. I don’t know what I’m doing. Help me, please. No…fuck. Just help her. I can’t be the reason someone dies. I can’t please.”

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