“Are you in?” Crane rasps, holding onto the ledge as he studies me.
His hair falls into his eyes, concern clashing with anger as he seems to battle what to do next.
“Yes,” I whisper, ignoring the pain in my hands and knees.
“Goodnight, Sierra,” Crane says, dropping down from the ledge before I can say a word, closing the window behind him.
The scent of him lingers in the air, and I slide my heels off, wondering if he is still close enough to hear me if I call out to him.
Then again, what would I say if he was?
Fuck it.
“Crane?” I whisper into the night, trying to focus on the darkness that surrounds the roof.
Nothing.
Disappointment floods through me.
What did I expect?
He just helped me home, that’s all.
I wash my hands in my en suite, watching the blood swirl with the water in the basin.
It looks pretty, like a cotton candy color.
Hissing as I dry them, I dab at them softly with the towel. Swapping my dress for an oversized t-shirt, I climb into bed, my eyes closing almost instantly.
Crane.
The last thing I think of before I go to sleep is my brother’s best friend, the complicated, moody man that he is.
But oh, what a man he is.
What a man indeed.
My throat is so dry I panic I’m dying, having dehydrated through the night. I squint at my bedside table, spotting my phone but no water.
I need water, and I need it now.
Getting up is a problem.
My brain feels like it’s in a fishbowl, and I guess it is. It’s pickled with vodka and whiskey.
I exhale as nausea hits me, but I manage to make it downstairs, thankfully avoiding all family members on my way to the tap.
I stare at the wounds on my palms, the throbbing pain reminding me that I’d drunk too much to remember what happened to them.
My hands shake when I lift to get a glass, but I’m soon groaning with pleasure as I fill my body with the only thing that’s going to save me today.
Ice cold, crisp water.
“Fuck, that’s good,” I mutter to myself, refilling it before turning to make the journey back upstairs.
Where is everyone?
I shrug in answer to my own question, somehow making it back to bed in one piece.
