Living Your Lie (boyxboy)

Chapter 22

"You look like you need to get drunk," she yelled into my ear. I barely heard her over the music. I briefly wondered if she were psychic before I remembered my face was probably still flushed and my eyes were probably red and puffy from the crying. She tugged on my hand. "Come on, let's get you something."

I didn't object, I simply followed her as she wound us through group after group of people. I recognized some of them from school or lacrosse games, but most people I'd never seen before. On our way out to the back of the house, Corian reached out a hand and snagged a bottle out of a bucket that was filled with ice.

I raised my brows, but didn't say anything. I hoped she didn't want me to drink straight liquor. My unasked question was answered when she stopped in front of a table outside by the pool and filled two cups with coke before topping them off with the rum she'd taken from the house.

Corian handed me one of the cups and clinked hers against mine. "Drink up," she yelled before taking a long drink. I glanced at the cup in my hand for a moment before I thought fuck it and put it to my lips.

The rum warmed my throat as I swallowed it, but in a way it felt nice. I kept drinking it and by the time I pulled the cup away, it was half gone. Corian was grinning at me from behind her cup and I laughed.

"What?" I asked over the music.

She shook her head. "Nothing. Just trying to figure out what's up with you."

I took another drink. "You don't wanna know."

"You don't wanna talk about it," she corrected, a knowing tone lacing her words.

I nodded. "You got that right." I finished off my cup in record timing and set it down on the table. I felt the alcohol moving through me, already relaxing the stiffness in my muscles, so I poured myself another drink, ignoring Corian's eyes on me. I grabbed her hand again.

"Let's just have fun tonight," I yelled to her as I pulled her after me and into the crowd of people dancing.

Corian didn't argue, she just took another swig from her cup and nodded.

************

The week following my fight with Dante could be most closely compared to actual hell on earth. I couldn't focus on anything--not my classes, my homework, or lacrosse.

Coach Blackwell was probably just one more shitty performance from me away from benching me for the rest of the season. And I honestly couldn't blame him. I missed nearly every single pass, got my ass handed to me by our opposing teams during our two games that week, landing flat on my back from hit after hit, and my aim was way off whenever I tried to score or throw the ball to someone else.

The worst part about everything was that I felt like I'd lost my best friend. Yeah, I had Nathan, Andrew, and Anthony, but they didn't know me the way Dante had. He'd been the one person who I'd been able to be completely open with for the last year. But now he was gone and I felt like I had no idea what I was doing anymore.

Corian was there for me if I needed her, though. I loved her for her endless support despite the fact that she hardly even knew me, but at the end of the day it wasn't the same.

"Hey Harley..." she trilled at me from across her bedroom. I was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall while she laid on her stomach on her bed staring at me.

I glanced at her. I felt exhausted. "What's up?"

"You just gonna sit there all night like a paralyzed mute?"

I blinked at her. "Probably."

She rolled her eyes at me and threw her colored pencil she'd been using on her latest sketch at me. I knocked it away at the last second and watched it clatter to the floor beside me.