Page 90 of Puck You
“Go inside.You’ll freeze out here without a coat.”
And then he strode off into the night, disappearing around the block without another word.
Chapter 21
Grace
“Welcome back to the living.”
Was I imagining things?I could have sworn that sounded like—
“Sam is here,” called a familiar voice, likely one of my roommates.
I blinked through a world of pain until the scene came into focus.Sam was perched on my bed looking down at me, which could only mean—yep, I was on the floor, a pillow tucked under my head and a bucket placed several inches away.My roommates hovered in the doorway, dressed in comfy pajamas, each clutching a coffee mug between their hands.There was sunlight pouring in from the hallway beyond, so it was safe to assume it was morning.
“Did I miss something?”I croaked, wincing at the soreness in my throat.
“What you missed was lunch and dinner, and then you went out with your roommates and drank everything in sight.Including some random man’s beer, which, by the way, is always a terrible idea.”
Sam was livid, more so than I’d ever seen her before.I glanced at my roommates for help, but they looked equally frustrated, Caroline watching the scene with pinched lips as Lydia shook her head.What the hell happened last night?The last thing I remembered was—oh, no.Sebastian.
“I don’t remember much of that,” I said, bringing a hand to my throbbing head, “but I did eat lunch.You’re right about dinner, though.”
“What were you thinking?”Sam exclaimed.
“They were the ones who suggested I go out!”I said, pointing at Lydia and Caroline like they were to blame for my own reckless actions.
“We also dragged you home after you refused to leave or stop drinking,” Caroline muttered.There was a long silence in which all three of them seemed to be having a wordless conversation.A moment later, my roommates disappeared into thehallway.
I looked down at my hands, inspecting the partly bitten nail beds with great interest.Eventually, I plucked up the courage to speak.“Why are you here?”I asked softly.
Sam and I hadn’t spoken for weeks.To say her appearance was a surprise would be an understatement.
“I was sick of you being too cowardly to answer my calls, so I drove up after work last night,” she said with a nonchalant shrug.“Now your turn.What were you thinking, drinking on an empty stomach like that?Was your goal to contract mild alcohol poisoning?Because that’s what you did.”
There was fear interwoven with the anger in her voice, and a sudden wave of shame crashed over me.“I needed to forget for a little while.And then Sebastian showed up, and he was so angry, so I wanted to forget even more.”
“It was dangerous!You could have been kidnapped or raped or—”
“I know, I’m sorry.”The words came out in a sob, and suddenly, there was nothing to stop the rush of tears from streaming down my face.Sam knelt on the floor beside me, pulling me into her arms.Everything I’d been holding in for the past month rushed out with the force of a tidal wave.
“Please never ignore me like that again.You can be mad at me all you want, but don’t shut me out,” she said, and the words only caused me to weep harder, my body shaking with each gasping breath.
“I don’t know how to deal with everything.They betrayed me, Sam.They lied to me for over a year, and they’re supposed to be the people I trust the most.”My chest jumped as a hiccup forced its way out of me.“When we spoke over the phone, it feltlike you were taking their side.But it’s not okay what they did.”
“They shouldn’t have lied to you, and you have every right to be upset about that,” Sam assured me, rubbing circles into my back.I felt foolish for ignoring her, but I’d been so terrified that another person I loved was turning on me.“I only wanted to help you see things from Gabby’s point of view.”
“She wants me to forgive our mom, but what if I can’t?”
Would Gabby hate me for the rest of our lives?Our family had already been torn apart once.This felt like history repeating itself, only this time, it wasn’t just my mom abandoning me, it was my entire family.
“You don’t have to forgive your mom, but Gabby needs to understand why you feel so hesitant about letting her back into your lives.”
I wanted to shield Gabby from the truth, but Sam was right.If we were ever going to move on from this chapter in our lives, I needed to be honest.We sat in silence for a few minutes, Sam’s hand running up and down my back in comforting sweeps as the last of my tears dried.
“So,” she said eventually, and I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was gearing up to tease me.“What happened with your boyfriend?”
“He’s not my—”
