Run Bad Boy Run

Chapter 17

I wake up to the sensation of someone trying to drill an ice pick into the top of my skull and a horrible, throbbing pain that pulses through my entire body.

Of course, no one is trying to lobotomize me—not yet at least—and the alcohol that still slithers through my achy veins five hours later is to take the blame as to why I feel so horrible.

This is what you get for being so stupid, I remind myself as I lean over my bathroom sink.

I let myself get carried away. Again.

You should be happy history didn't repeat itself last night.

I am.

Splashing cold water onto my clammy skin, I scrutinize my reflection. There are enough bags under my eyes for me to start my own fashion line, and the grey sheen my skin takes on has me wondering whether or not I died and came back to life last night. I hardly remember anything. I don't even remember how Gabby and I got home. My car isn't here, thank goodness.

It must have been Corry. He said that he and Gianna were planning on stopping by after the game. Great.

He's going to kill me.

The redness rimming the base of my neck yanks fuzzy memories of a bedroom into my vision. I remember trying to find clothes and I remember a man attacking me.

A shiver punctures my skin and for a moment, I remember his grip on me.

"Good riddance," I mumble to myself. "Whatever's on that memory stick isn't worth it. Nope."

When I finally slithered downstairs and into the kitchen, I notice a note scribbled on an old napkin from my mother. It mentions something about picking up milk and bread today. She's going to be working late tonight.

My disgust is no longer from the bile churning in my stomach.

"So you're alive," Corry snorts when he enters the kitchen. He bumps my shoulder with his as he passes me. Before I have a chance to ask him to leave the room dark, the kitchen lights blaze to life and the white light punches me in the head.

Groaning, I hide my face in my hands. "Barely."

"Did you eat anything?"

My stomach churns harder. "Oh no way. I can't even think about eating right now."

"Yikes." He sounds too surprised for his own good.

"What time did we get home last night?" I wonder, crossing my arms on the cold counter and resting my head. I'm surprised he hasn't yelled at me yet. I just want to get it done and over with.

Corry stands opposite of me and the scent that wafts from his breakfast burrito is enough to make my head go spinning. "I don't know," he shrugs, voice devoid of the tension and disappointment it has when he speaks to Mom after one of her more serious drunken episodes. "I didn't hear you come in."

I tense in my seat. "Wait what?"

"I didn't hear you come in," he repeats.

"But didn't you— you came to Nate's house, right?" My heart flutters violently in my chest. "You said you were coming."

"I was so tired by the end of the game and Gianna started her internship today so we decided to call it a night."

"So you weren't there."

"No, Ember, I wasn't there. What's going on?"

"Nothing." I shake my head and disappear upstairs without another word to my brother, bursting into my room and pulling my phone from my bag. Gabby's phone goes to voicemail once, then twice, and by the fourth call, my body is shaking too hard for me to redial.