Page 72

Darian

Good lord, my head is pounding. This seems to be a common occurrence for me again these days.

I roll over on the couch, lifting the blanket to cover my face as the sun shines through the large floor-to-ceiling windows that make up one wall of the living room in Ryan’s condo. The blanket blocks the sunlight a bit, but then I can’t breathe, so I pop my head out again. My mouth feels like cotton, and my throat’s as dry as sandpaper. I shift onto my back and run my hands through my messy hair and over my face.

God, I have to stop drinking so much. It’s fun when it’s happening, but my god, every hangover seems worse than the last. Pretty sure I smoked a cigar last night, too. That explains some of the terrible dry mouth I have.

I slowly drag myself up from the couch and then pad to the bathroom and relieve myself. I splash some water on my face to try and wake myself up, but I still look exhausted as shit.

Once I’m back out in Ryan’s kitchen, I get some coffee started and down the biggest glass of water I’ve ever had. Then I sit at the island and pull out my phone. There’s a string of texts between Lev and me; thank goodness I didn’t say anything embarrassing. Well, except that I apparently offered to send him a dick pic. I smile to myself. I’d totally do it, too. Wouldn’t be the first time I sent one to someone.

Another text catches my eye. It’s from Lance.

Lance: Ran into your new boytoy tonight. He’s a treat.

I roll my eyes. Oh man. I wonder what happened there. I hope Lev is okay.

Lance has been cool with me since things ended between us. I wish I could say that I feel more empty without him, but I really don’t. I should miss him. But I just don’t. Sure, he’s not thrilled that I ended it, and I’d love to still be able to hang out with him, but I’m not naïve. I know most of the reason we hung out was for sex—nearly every time, we ended up in his bed, sweaty and sated—and so, I’m not sure how a friendship would work. But we had a solid agreement that what we had was temporary, so even though I feel kind of bad ending it, I don’t regret it.

Whatever is going on with Lev is well worth it.

The coffee pot beeps to signal that the coffee has been brewed, and I get up and pour myself a cup of the hot liquid. Then I walk back to the couch and curl up, my coffee in my hands. It’s only about ten more minutes before I hear Ryan groan as he comes out of his bedroom, looking a little worse for wear.

“Fuck,” he says, as he walks straight to the coffee pot and pours himself a cup. He comes to sit beside me on the couch. “We got wrecked last night. How you feeling?”

I laugh as an answer.

“Same.” He chuckles. “Shit.”

I laugh again and tilt my pounding head back to rest on the couch cushion. Turning to look at Ryan without lifting my head, I say, “It was fun, though.”

He laughs. “It was crazy fun, dude.”

We sit in silence, sipping our coffee for a while. After we eat some eggs and bacon a bit later and wake up enough to feel more human, we settle back on the couch and start flipping through his streaming app to pick a movie to watch.

“The bonfire is next weekend,” I say as he scrolls through the movies.

He pauses, and his eyebrows fly up. “Oh, shit! That’s right! What are we doing? We going?”

Our town has a few bonfires throughout the year, but the one they hold around Halloween is by far the best. It’s busy and loud, and everyone lets loose. Most people go in costume.

“What do you mean what are we doing? We’re going! You know it was always Nate’s absolute favorite part of the year. He loved the costumes and the weather and the party, that was a guarantee.”

“Of course, we are but are we dressing up?”

“Ry,” I say, giving him my best exasperated look, “you know I don’t do costumes.”

“Loser,” he scoffs. “It’s freaking Halloween . . . although you look like a freak every day, so . . .”

“Funny,” I say and toss a pillow at him. I have always just done up my look a little more, even on Halloween. I’ll style my hair in a mohawk or paint my nails or throw the eye makeup on a little more heavily. But some people go all out.

“What are you and Katie doing?” I ask. I’m assuming they’ll go in a couple’s costume.

“Not sure. She hasn’t brought it up yet, but I know she has something planned.”

Ryan is so easygoing. He’ll just do what she wants to do and be happy about it. I love that about him.

“Bring the new boy with you,” he teases.