Ellie and Chad follow me.
“Whoa, Livvy.” He reaches for the bottle as I’m filling my cup, causing liquor to splash on my sweater.
My name on his lips grates on my nerves. I always hated when he called me that.
“Dammit,” I growl. “What’s wrong with you?”
He places the alcohol out of reach, so I turn and grab a can of Coke from a bucket on the floor, adding it to the rum. Stumbling a little.
“What’s wrong with me?” he scoffs. “What’s wrong with you? You’re trashed. I don’t think you need more.”
I take a drink while I stare him down over the rim. “You’re not my keeper, Chad.”
His face gets red, and I keep drinking just to piss him off.
“Liv…” Ellie says calmly, stepping beside me and linking her arm with mine. “Come on.”
“Keep an eye on her,” he tells her, and maybe he’s trying to be nice, but I’m not his business anymore. Plus, I’m slightly intoxicated, and lashing out at him felt so good last time. He’s really not the person I want to yell at, but he’s here, so…
“How about you worry more about you and less about me, mmkay?”
His face morphs into a mix of rage and confusion. “What has gotten into you? Wait, is—Where is your little punk boyfriend?” He makes a show of looking around the room. His eyes move back to mine, and he gives me a pitying smile. “He get bored of you already? Move on to the next groupie?”
The cup that was almost to my lips freezes. My face flames, anger and embarrassment heating my skin. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” I jab a finger into his chest, his words slicing a nerve wide open.
His mouth gapes open, but before he can say anything else, Ellie drags me away. “Let’s get some fresh air.”
I let her lead me through the crowd until we’re outside, taking a seat on the ground away from everyone else. She doesn’t force me to talk about my outburst, one that’s so unlike me.
I reach down, yank a blade of grass from the ground, and twirl it between my fingers before ripping it into tiny shreds. That’s what my heart feels like right now. Like it’s in a pile of little shards, needing to be pieced back together. Only one person can do that.
When a guy comes over to flirt with Ellie, I make my escape.
“Hey! Where are you going?” she calls.
“The bathroom. Be right back.” I walk slowly. The Earth is tilting too fast, threatening to topple me over.
“I’ll be right here. Okay?”
I toss her a thumbs-up over my shoulder. As soon as I step inside, the urge to pee hits me, but when I see how many girls are waiting in line, I decide to hold it. I make my way back to the kitchen and pour myself another rum and Coke, already knowing I’m going to regret it tomorrow.
At least it’s the weekend. I silently cheers myself with that thought.
Leaning against the counter, I take out my phone and open Instagram again. This time, I don’t care if Penn sees that I checked his story. I click the circle in hopes of finding something new, but I wish I hadn’t. Another photo pops up with the same line as earlier, but there’s more.
Nothing lasts forever, time doesn’t lie
Sparked the flame only to watch it die
Snuffed it out as if it was nothing at all
Now all that’s left is a box of your things and these broken guitar strings
She packed her bags while I begged her to stay
What the? The page cuts off, and I can’t make out the rest of the words. I zoom in, desperate to see more as tears fill my eyes. The sadness quickly morphs into anger. Is this supposed to be about me? When he’s the one who walked away?
I exit the app and, without thinking, call him for the first time in weeks. I’ve been tempted every single night but I was afraid he wouldn’t answer, and my pride couldn’t take another hit. He wasn’t reaching out either. He made it pretty clear where he stood, but I need to straighten this out. He’s going to write a whole song about a breakup I didn’t even want. We weren’t even dating!
