"You stupid bitch." Katrina jerked forward, fighting against Jay's hold on her upper arm. "Try me, see what happens."
I leaned my head back, looked at the high ceiling with its metal beams, and let out a loud laugh.She still thinks she can belittle me.
Reining in my humor, I met her gaze head-on. "Two, three, four—"
She tilted her head. "What?"
"Five." I lunged forward, grabbed her bleach blonde hair, and dragged her through the room amongst gasps and giggles.
She grabbed onto my wrist and tried to throw a punch, but I yanked her to the side, still wiping the floor with her body. "You done messed up now, sweetheart." I twisted the door handle to the hallway outside and threw her into the corridor. "Leave Paxton alone. Leave me alone. If I ever see you near him again, I will send you to the hospital. Do you understand?"
Now on all fours, Katrina glared at me, her perfectly coifed hair hanging in limp strings around her face.
I stepped back and chuckled, fighting an urge to dump a nearby bowl of punch on her head. It would have been justice for the cheerleading tryout years ago.
No, I'm a better person than her. I won't stoop to that level.But God, how I wanted to do it.
Jay pushed his way across the threshold and I let him. As he bent down to check her, I slammed the door shut.
"Damn woman, remind me to never piss you off," Kyle teased.
As I was about to respond, I noticed Paxton stumble, then fall to the floor.
"Shit. Can you help me with him?" I pointed to where we'd been standing minutes before.
Nodding, Kyle and I rushed through the gathering crowd milling about his prone form. A girl and guy snapped pics on their cellphones and giggled.
"What the fuck is wrong with you people?" Kyle reached Paxton first and went to his knees, checking the pulse at his wrist.
"Is he okay?" I moved to the opposite side of the boy I'd loved for so long and smoothed the hair from his clammy forehead.
"I don't know what he took, but his pulse is steady. He needs to be checked out." Kyle sent a text on his cell phone. "There's always an ambulance staffed with a couple of medics at our concerts. They'll know what to do."
I shook my head. "You know, I thought I knew who Paxton Ross was, but not anymore. He would've never let himself become someone else's bitch, and he would havenevertouched drugs. Not after the way his dad squandered everything then died.
Kyle nodded his head. "Sometimes we forget who we are and become the very person who traumatized us in the first place."
"Or we let the trauma steel our resolve."I just wish Paxton had stayed strong.
As Kyle and I waited for the medics, I placed a kiss on Paxton's cheek. "I'm sorry things didn't turn out so well for you, Pax."
I couldn't save him, not like he needed to be saved. Onlyhecould save himself. And it had to be for the right reasons. I needed to focus on my life and leave him to his.
Chapter thirty-nine
Paxton Ross
Aconstantbeepingpummeledmy brain.
Slowly, I opened my eyes to bright light and a generically tiled ceiling. I looked down to see an IV in my forearm and an ugly green hospital gown covering my body.
Sitting up, I fought back a wave of nausea and gripped the white plastic railing under my fingertips.
What the fuck? Where am I?Obviously, I was in a hospital, but how?Why?
A blurry image of Terri popped into my head, of her seeing me at the afterparty, of that guy—Kyle—putting his arms around her as if she were his. Then I remembered her beautiful brown eyes meeting mine as I inhaled that line of blow from Katrina's hand.
Fuck.
