Page 140 of Breaking Hollywood

I toss my barely smoked cigarette into the ashtray. I walk away from the three of them, leaving them there, and go into my bedroom.

I shut the door. I fall facedown onto my bed and bury my face in the pillow.

But it smells like Speedy.

I roll onto my back and sit up, scrubbing my hands over my face.

As I draw them away, I see a pair of her bed shorts hanging over the back of the chair. Her lip balm on the dresser. One of her hair ties on my nightstand. I push up to my feet. I strip all the bedding from my bed. Then, I gather it up in my arms. I get the hair tie, lip balm, and shorts. I go over to my bedroom door, open it, and toss it all out into the hallway.

Then, I close my door, climb onto my bed, pull the duvet over my head, and shut my eyes.

Gabe

My apartment is quiet, apart from the low sound of the television in the living room, when I finally drag my ass out of bed.

I go into the kitchen to get a bottle of water.

It’s clean. The mess I made is gone, like it never happened. The only signs it did are the missing stool under the breakfast bar and a dent from when I smashed it into the wall.

I walk over to the fridge and get a bottle of water out. Then, I go into the living room.

I see the back of Vaughn’s blond head as he sits on my sofa, watching basketball on my TV.

“You still here?”

He turns at the sound of my voice. “You look like shit.”

“So sweet of you to say.” I unscrew the cap off the water and drain the bottle halfway. “How long was I out for?”

“An hour.”

“Is that all? Felt like longer.”

“How are you doing?” he asks.

I shrug and walk over to the sofa. I put the water down on the coffee table, pick my smokes up from there, and sit my ass down on the sofa.

“What happened to Tate and Julian?” I ask.

“Tate had to go to the hospital. He got called in. There was an emergency with one of his patients. He’ll be back as soon as he can. Julian’s gone on a coffee run.” He looks at me. “You were out of coffee. And you know how twitchy he gets without it.”

“Ava—” I cut off.

“Ava what?”

I drag a hand through my hair. “Nothing. She used to get the coffee; that’s all.”

He’s silent a moment. I light up a smoke and stare at the TV.

“You know, you didn’t have to stay,” I say low.

I can feel his eyes on me, but I don’t look at him.

“I know I didn’t have to stay. I wanted to.”

I take a drag of my cigarette and slowly blow the smoke out.

“When the shit hit the fan with Cain and Piper, who was the first person to call me? You. Hell, we weren’t even close back then. We just knew each other through work. But you were the first to call. You got my ass out of the house. Sure, you took me out and got me trashed, but you were there. The very fucking least I can do for you right now is be here when you need me.”