Page 18 of Losing Faith

A smile touches my lips. but I don’t even consider going back up there.

I’ll go to a meeting on my own. Don’t cancel on her.

He likes the message and I call the one friend I know will make me feel an ounce better. After a few rings, she answers.

“Did you call me by accident or are you in grave danger?”

I roll my eyes at her and I really wish she could see my face right now. “Hello to you, too, Bay.”

She laughs on the other end. “You sound like shit.”

I let out a groan as I put her on speaker and start the car, not wanting to be in this space anymore.

“Damn, that bad?”

“Yeah,” I admit. “What are you doing right now?”

“Honestly? I was going to go play our favorite game of Fate.”

I let out a laugh as she voices our game where we sit in a bar on a bad day and if a guy offers to buy us a drink, we say fuck it and relapse because at that point it’s justfate.

We’re both very aware of how bad that is, but we only ever go andactuallydrink on very dark days which was only once for each of us. A huge part of me wants to join her, but I refuse to let Ana be right about me.

“Come to a meeting with me.”

She lets out a groan on her end and I can’t help but laugh.

“Let’s go play Fate instead.” She sounds excited, but I can hear the hurt behind her joking tone.

“If you come with me I’ll spill the recent tea about Satan.”

She lets out a gasp now. “Bio family drama? You should’ve led with that.”

I stifle a laugh and I’m truly grateful for friends that can make me forget about how badly I want to throw my life away.

Chapter Seven

Lisette

“Blondie?”

I turn on my heels and lock eyes with Erin.

“Houdini?”

A smile grows on her face as she looks between me and Bay. “Of course, you’re friends with Bay. She has a thing for damaged goods.” She teases before hugging Bay who laughs.

“She’sdamaged goods, you’re just damaged,” Bay counters, pulling a laugh out of us both.

I’ve known Bay for nearly eight years now; we met in college and she knows me better than most people, so it feels good knowing she thinks I’m damagedgoodsand not just damaged. Joke or not.

When Erin pulls away, she nods for the donut table. “It’s not sandwich day.” She brings up our conversation when we met at the bar.

“It’s been a long day, but if there’s not at least one good donut in that pile, we all get to drink tonight.”

Erin lets out a quiet laugh, and the man beside her glances between us, his brows pulled together.

“Winter lets us have a cheat day,” I whisper and he only looks more concerned. “Oh, are you not at that stage?” He’s clearly new here and this is too good to pass up.

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