Page 47 of Craving Venom

Tria works here, but she doesn’t try to stop me when I drop onto a barstool. She just moves behind the counter, watching me through narrowed eyes.

I tap my fingers against the wood. “Shots.”

She doesn’t move.

“Faith—”

“Shots, Tria.”

Her jaw tenses, but after a long beat, she grabs a bottle and pours. One shot. Then another. And another.

The first burns.

The second numbs.

By the fourth, I don’t care anymore.

Jason. Fucking Jason. That lying, spineless motherfucker.

I wasted three fucking months crying over him. Three months drowning in grief over someone I thought was dead. And for what?

For him to be alive, breathing, touching someone else like I never fucking existed?

“Faith…” Tria watches as I toss back another shot. “Maybe slow down—”

I glare at her, slamming the glass down. “Unless that’s Jason’s ghost out there, I don’t want to fucking hear it.”

Tria sighs, running a hand through her hair, but she doesn’t argue. She just keeps pouring.

I don’t know how much time passes.

I don’t know how many shots go down before the burn in my throat turns to static, before my fingers tingle, before the edges of my vision blur.

But Tria knows.

She knows my limits better than I do.

Which is why, when I reach for another, she snatches the bottle away.

I scowl. “What the fuck?”

She folds her arms. “You’re done.”

“The fuck I am.”

“Chica. I let you drown yourself enough. But this?” She gestures at the empty glasses. “This isn’t going to make him any less of a piece of shit.”

Fuck her for being right.

But I know what will make me feel better.

I shove off the stool. Tria mutters a curse behind me, but she follows when I shove through the bar’s door. My feet move before I can think better of it, dragging me down the street, toward the one place I should avoid if I had an ounce of self-preservation.

The library.

It’s fucking laughable, really. Jason always used to say he liked being alone. Except now? That motherfucker isn’t alone. He is with that same girl.

I don’t know her name. I don’t fucking care.

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