He nodded to my empty shot glasses. “One tequila, two tequila, three tequila,floor.” He pointed at my position on the carpet. Funny fuck.
I didn’t have it in me to laugh, so I just grunted. Then yawned. When was the last time I’d slept?
“Come on, I’ll help you get to bed,” Jace told me, reading my mind. Or hell, maybe I’d said it out loud. Who knew these days?
Still, I batted his helpful hand away when he tried to pull me up off the carpet. “Fuck off,” I mumbled. “I don’t need your help.”
Jace knew me well enough that he didn’t argue, just sat back and watched as I rolled onto all fours like a drunken armadillo, then started crawling my ass out of the living room. I had enough experience being wasted not to try walking upright. Last time, I’d stumbled into a doorframe and given myself a black eye.
By the time I’d dragged myself into my tangled mess of sheets, I’d totally forgotten Jace was following me. I flinched when he dropped a bucket onto the hardwood floor beside my bed, then glared up at him.
“What?” he replied, scowling. “Can’t hurt to have it nearby for when you start to sober up.”
I scoffed, my eyes rolling back into my head. Fucking hell, when did we move onto a ship? That was the only logical explanation for why I was swaying so much. Right? Or maybe that was the tequila.
“Fuck off with your smug face, Jace,” I mumbled. Then snickered. “That rhymes. Smug face Jace. Gimme those.” I waved a hand at my bedside table where a pill bottle sat half empty.
Jace picked it up and read the label, nosy prick, then sighed. “Rhett… you’re a goddamn mess, bro. You need to clean up.”
My only response was to stick my hand out, asking silently for the pills again.
Jace glowered, but he uncapped the bottle and shook two little white pills out into my waiting palm. I didn’t bother with water, just dry swallowed them both and snuggled my face into a pillow. They’d work quickly now that I had so much liquor in my system. Would I wake up? Debatable. There was a reason you’re not supposed to mix booze and sleeping pills, but it was fucking preferable to the insomnia.
“I’ll be here when you wake up,” Jace said with a sad voice, probably thinking I had already passed out. “We can talk then.”
Not fucking likely. Jace wasneverhere when I was even remotely sober. Too busy running from his own past come back to haunt him. Too preoccupied ignoring his own baggage and indulging in his addiction of choice: anonymous pussy.
I wished I could do the same… but the idea of fucking a groupie made me physically ill.
Or maybe that was just the tequila again.
Who knew? Who fucking cared?
* * *
“Get up, Silver,”someone saidwaytoo close to my ear.
I winced, covering my head with a pillow to dull the sound. “Screw off, dickhead,” I snarled, not giving a shit if they could hear me. It was Jace again. I think. Maybe Gray? Nah, too melodic for Gray, who sounded more like he sang in a thrash metal band. Jace, then. Dick.
Blankets were ripped off me far too abruptly, and my body flailed in reflex.
Jace’s unmistakable snicker made me quit thrashing.
“Fuckoff,” I shouted, sitting up to reach for my blanket. It was too damn cold to be chilling in my boxers and nothing else. I was too goddamn hungover. Where was the bottle of tequila?
“Get up, Silver,” he repeated, screwing up his face. “And take a fucking shower; youstink.”
I caught the towel he tossed at me and lifted an arm to sniff my pit. Oh yeah, he wasn’t wrong. The fact that my own smell made my stomach roll and twist was theonlyreason I dragged my aching ass off to the bathroom. Jace’s bullying had fucking nothing to do with it.
“Why are you so goddamnbrightthis morning?” I drawled as I stripped and climbed into the shower. Jace’d followed me, and I didn’t care. We’d been best friends and bandmates long enough that he’d seen my dick a thousand times. We had no qualms about nudity anymore.
“I started writing a song last night,” he told me with a sly grin.
My brows shot up as I peered through the glass shower screen. “Seriously?”
He shrugged. “Seemed like it was time.”
I scoffed. “Gray got to you, huh? He turned up here yesterday, too.”
