Page 76 of The Road to Ruined

That should have worked. But it's been days since I took my medication. Maybe Sebastian is wrong—maybe I do need it.

"Hey," Blakely says, sliding back into the booth. "Are you having fun?"

"Yeah, I'm having fun. Are you?"

"You sure you don't want to dance? God, I need water."

She grabs a bottle from the middle of the table and drinks the entire thing.

"I'm sure."

"I wish you were going to be my maid of honor," she says. "I'm getting so fucking sick of Sophie. But you can't. Because your tits are sliced up, and it would ruin the photos."

"Yep, I got that."

"I wish you would have come home with me," she adds. "When I came to Denver. Everything would be different."

I look over her shoulder. Fake Declan is still there.

"Yeah, I guess it would be, wouldn't it?"God, would it ever."To be fair, one tit still would have been sliced up."

"Really?" she asks, crinkling her nose. "Which one?"

"The left one."

"I hope we can be friends again like we were before someday," she says. And I know she's drunk, but maybe she even means it. Unfortunately, for us, that someday won't ever come.

"Blake, I forgive you," I tell her. "Even if you're not sorry right now, I want you to know that I forgive you for the things you've said to me and the way you treated me. I forgive you for not knowing how much I was hurting when I was younger, and I forgive you for not being there for me at the very worst moment of my life—when my heart was ripped out of my chest and mom had me committed. I think you did the best you could; we were just different. We could never understand each other, but I do love you."

"Teagan, I—"

"Hey!" Sophie says, pulling on Blakely's hand. "They're playing your song next! Come on—let's go!"

"Go ahead," I tell her. "I'm going to go back to my room. I'm tired."

"Are you sure?" she asks.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

She lets Sophie pull her back through the crowd on the dance floor, looking back over her shoulder at me once before disappearing. I think she'll remember it. And when I die in a car accident after the wedding, I hope it brings her some kind of peace.

My phone vibrates on the table, and I pick it up.

SHINY ASSHOLE Don't fuck with me. I can be there in less than an hour.

I smile. Maybe I do want him here.

I stuff my phone back in my purse and leave the booth, but when I do, something odd happens. Fake Declan also starts moving, brushing shoulders with someone in the crowd. The person stumbles backward, spilling the drink down the front of their body.

"Hey, what the fuck?" the man yells. "Watch where you're going!"

I can't breathe. Either I've ascended to a new level of hallucinating and I'm seeing more fake people…or Fake Declan is corporeal.

I try calling out to him, but no sound comes out, and so I stare, incredulous, watching the guy he ran into attempt to clean the front of his shirt with cocktail napkins while bitching to his friends.

I turn back to Declan, who heads for the back of the room.

Move, Teagan,I tell myself.You're losing him.

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