Tangled in Tinsel (A Christmas Novel)

18| The Guilty Truth

Warmth. Amazing warmth.

That's what I felt when I started to wake up in my bed. When I shifted a little, I realized that the warmth wasn't coming from the blanket that was draped over me. It was coming from Micah.

My eyes snapped open and I glanced down. Micah had his arm wrapped around me, clutching my body close to his. It was obvious that I had fallen asleep lying on his chest. That's when the events of the night before came rushing back to me.

"She's dead." 

Micah stopped extending his hand towards me. His lips parted on a shallow gasp. "What did you just say?" 

I couldn't stop the tears this time. "She's dead. Analiyah..." I covered my mouth with my hand.

"It's okay, Aria. Just tell me what happened." 

I shook my head. He didn't get it. How could I make him get it? "No. You don't understand. She's dead. Oh, Micah. She's dead...and I killed her." 

Michael placed his hands on my shoulders and kept his voice calm and gentle. The same way a parent did when explaining something to a child.

"Aria, take a deep breath. You aren't making any sense."

I sat up in the bed. Okay, I was still hammered, but the events from my parents house and the past was starting to slowly sober me up. That wasn't a good thing.

"Talk to me," he whispered.

I looked into his eyes and that was it. Everything that I had been keeping bottled up inside me came pouring from my lips.

"After my sister's graduation from high school, Ana and I were invited to a party. We both really wanted to go, but our dad told us we had to stay inside. There was a boy there that she really liked and she was so upset that our dad said we had to stay home. So...I came up with the idea for the two of us to sneak out and go to the party anyway."

When I didn't continue, Micah reached over to the nightstand and grabbed me a tissue. He handed it to me, but didn't say anything. He just waited until I was ready to continue.

"We went," I finally said. "We had fun. Ana drank alcohol. I didn't. Even though I wanted to party and have a good time, I told my sister that I would drive us home."

I sniffed and fidgeted with the tissue in my hands. "It didn't take long for my mom to realize that we were gone. She called me and told me to hurry up and get home before my dad noticed. He was already in a bad mood because of a meeting that didn't go well earlier that day." Deep breath from me. "So, I quickly found Ana and we headed home."