Page 16 of Half-Hearted
Six thousand, one hundred and fifty-three days, I thought, nails digging into my palms as I swallowed down lump after lump of emotion crawling up my burning throat.
Six thousand, one hundred and fifty-three days, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let it turn into six thousand, one hundred and fifty-four. Not like this—I couldn’t do another day of this. I’d promised myself last night, I’dpromised. I was going to get a final answer one way or another. Today.
So I did what I had to do: I swiped away a loose tear with my fist, blinked the rest of them back, pasted a convincing smile onto my face, then turned around and walked out the door.
5
Joel
Her phone had started buzzingwith an onslaught of incoming calls and texts not two minutes after Alexis darted to the en suite and slammed the door shut behind her.
I ignored it at first, trying to check on her a few times with very little luck. Then I left the room to grab her a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin, only to come back and find the thing still going off. It had vibrated all the way to the edge of the bedside table and was threatening to fall off… which was the only reason I reached for it. I swear.
The screen flared to life the second I picked up the device, revealing nine missed calls and a whole bunch of texts. All from this morning, which seemed a little excessive if something wasn’t wrong or—
Bzbzzz.
Jane: Lex seriously where are you???
Bzbzzz.
Supreme Leader Bree: Hey, you disappeared? Did you go home?
Bzbzzz.
Jane: I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry. Can you please just call me back so I at least know you’re safe?
Bzbzzz.
Jane: We were massive assholes. The alcohol doesn’t excuse it. I’m really sorry.
Bzbzzz.
Priya: Dude where tf are you? We all thought you slept over but Nev says he saw you stumble out last night???? Like how were you even walking
Bzbzzz.
Jane: You have every right to be mad. They shouldn’t have said anything about you and Joel, and I should have stood up for you
Bzbzzz.
Jane: I promise we just want what’s best for you…
Bzbzzz.
Supreme Leader Bree: J’s losing her fuckng mind btw. She thinks you’re upset about the joke bets. She’s in a cab heading over to—
The phone bounced out of my guilty grip like a hot potato the second I heard the bathroom door open, landing softly on the mattress. I stuffed my fists into my pockets way too quickly, like I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t have been doing… which was exactly what had happened.
“Hey, sorry about that,” Alexis said. Her face was bright pink, her bloodshot eyes both swollen and glassy. And if I hadn’t heard all the hungover-induced ruckus responsible for it, I’d have thought she’d been crying.
I shifted on my feet, watching her. “You okay?”
She hummed. “I will be. Just went a little overboard last night with the tequila shots.” And then, with an easy, flirty smile, she added, “Obviously.”
Her phone vibrated on the bed right as she answered, and then it vibrated again. And again.
“You might want to get that,” I said, hands still stuffed in my pockets, pretending like they’d been there the whole time. “It’s been going off like crazy.”
