Page 23 of False Start
“What areyoudoing?” I ask with a crooked smirk, shutting the door behind me.
“I’m using the bathroom.” She frowns, doing her best to make the lie believable.
“For the fourth time tonight?” I cluck my tongue as I check my watch, like it even means anything. “Try again, princess.”
“I am!” She’s visibly flustered now, trying to push me out of the way.
I grab her wrist, forcing her to face me, and when her body slams against mine, I’m able to see the little bag in her pocket.
Not what I’m expecting.
I still have her wrist in hand, her chest pressed to mine and a lethal smirk on my face, when K-Otic enters the bathroom with us.
“Everything good here?” they check, bouncing their eyes between us.
“Is it?” My lip can’t help curling at the realization that I have something on her.
“It is.” She shakes her arm, and I let go of her wrist.
“I need another beer,” K says without looking at me, their gaze locked on Nia.
I turn, returning to the bar, the little bag of pills safely tucked into my own pocket.
10
NIA
“You sure you’re good?” Kade asks, eyeing me suspiciously, their gaze stuck where Harvey had gripped my wrist.
I nod, wiping it on my pants as if that could somehow rub off the redness on my skin. “She doesn’t like me.”
They chuckle. “No shit.” Hands find their way to the small of my back as they shepherd me to our table. “She’ll get over it.”
If Kade can work like Harvey repellent this easily, I’m finding myself to be quite fond of them. But it isn’t just the way they’re able to nonchalantly disregard Harvey’s hatred or anger toward me—it’s also in the way they spent the night listening to every word out of my mouth as if they were worth listening to, in the way they didn’t judge me when the topic of my mother came up and I immediately started crying, which then forced me to go to the bathroom to numb the parts of me that could feel too much.
When I decided to come back to Devil Town, my biggest fear was coming home to find everyone I loved gone. To my surprise, I still have many friends. And here,with Kade, I’m proving I’m still capable of making new ones, something I abandoned trying long ago.
With my head swimming from the painkillers and nearly three full cocktails, I hesitate once we get to our table.
“You wanna get out of here?” Kade notices, stopping me from sitting.
“It’s probably for the best. I don’t know that I should be in her space,” I confess, feeling every kind of awkward at having invaded the place she worked, knowing she couldn’t stand me.
“Sounds tough for Cat Harvey. Devil Town only has so many bars,” Kade chuckles. “I’ll go pay the tab if you want to wait outside.”
I want to argue and maybe fight for the bill, but the thought of going up to the bar and having a one-on-one with Harvey again makes acid crawl up my throat. I’m leaning against the brick wall when it hits me just how sloshed I am.
Taking a deep breath in an attempt to clear the fog, I realize it will do me no good. I’m fucked up, and the dizziness is permanent. I don’t make a habit of drinking to the point of throwing up, but I overlooked my threshold with narcotics included.
A wave of nausea sweeps over me, and I run, leaning over the nearest planter, throwing up cheese fries and whiskey across the freshly sprouting tulips. I instantly feel better, despite the world still spinning all around me. I wipe my mouth with the back of my sweater, returning to my place by the door when Kade comes out of the bar, sticking their arm out in a silent bid for me to take it.
We’re only two blocks from their place, and though there isn’t much in Devil Town, Kade’s house would beconsidered prime real estate. There’s a lot that wasn’t here when I left five years ago—a gourmet coffee shop, a pottery studio, and some other blurry things I can’t make out in the dark.
“Oh, I got you,” Kade says, catching me from behind as I trip over my own feet.
“Sorry.” Laughing, I cling to them a little harder as we walk back to their place.
“What are your plans? Long term?” they ask.
