Colton’s voice is erratic and excited when he saystheirnames, and it’s as if a blade stabs through my heart, digs and carves around.
Jade, Laiken, Jade, Laiken, Jade, Laiken.
My sister.
Her best friend.
Their names are what I hear on repeat as I sit there slumped against the wall, my arms at my side, unmoving, my legs numb, no longer working, while his fists pummel into me.
I try not to let go, I fight with everything I have, but when a crack to my temple takes me, I feel the weight of my breath expel from my chest.
Raucous vibrations shake the closed bathroom door.
The slapping beats of a persistent palm grating up my spine.
“Open up, I need to piss,'' says the guy who had been slurring the same words over and over for the past ten minutes.
“Erh,” I growl, slapping my lip-gloss down on the white shimmering marble countertop and taking two determined strides toward the rattling timber, a short second away from opening it and punching him in the throat. Instead, I beat it back with a“fuck off!”
Over my shoulder, my best friend sits on the toilet, picking at her nail polish unfazed, her knees turned in.
She was drunk, and so was I.
After the fight between Chase and Colton, and Chase trying to make decisions for me, I couldn’t get a drink into myself quickly enough.
Tonight had already been a lot.
The guy beyond the door beats it again, and I press my mouth to the gap and bark, “Find another one, or piss yourself. Your choice.”
There’s an exaggerated breath on the other end, another slap, then a kick, then, “Bitches.”
“Fuck you!” Jade yells, ripping at a handful of toilet paper, balling it in her palms, throwing it in the direction of the door, only for it to fall to the floor.
She’s laughing at herself and it’s so light and carefree that I’m forced to join in, easily forgetting the impatient asshole on the other side of the door.
I return to the vanity, tightening the ribbon in my hair as Jade slides up beside me and washes her hands, drying them on her bare legs. Then I’m hiking myself onto the counter, telling my best friend, “I really don’t like that girl.”
My statement is blunt.
I’ve always been a little more intuitive than most—and Aria, Colton’s girlfriend—her energy feels dark, fucking off.
Jade drags all of her dark hair to one side, pulling it over her shoulder where she works on braiding a loose and messy plait that falls from the large bow still tied in her hair.
“What girl?” she asks, biting the hair tie and tearing it off her wrist.
“The one your brother…” I don’t finish.
She laughs, shaking her head. “Trust me, that would have meant nothing to him.”
I swallow, feeling hope squeeze through my chest.
“Do you think that’s why they were really fighting?” I ask, pausing to bite the inside of my cheek. “Not because of what Colton had said to me, but because of her?”
She reaches toward my thigh, pinches it, and I bristle a snarl.
“Silly little girl,” she whispers.
“What the…”
