Words Unspoken

Chapter 24 - Payback

Logan patted the stool next to him. "Drinks are on me today," I just sighed at him and dropped myself onto the seat.

The bartender finished mixing the liquids together and slid the drink across the table to Logan. "And for you?" he asked, wiping his hands on a white cloth.

"Uh..." I looked at the fizzing liquid Logan was downing and shrugged. "I'll have whatever he's drinking." The bartender nodded and turned away.

"Cheers," Logan announced when my drink arrived. Our glasses clinked and Logan downed another third of his drink. I took only a tiny sip and already I could feel the bubbles fizzing in my brain. I fought the urge to spit it back out. "So how was it?" Logan was laughing at my expression. I nodded enthusiastically and forced the burning liquid down my throat.

"So great," I ended up croaking before I cleared my throat. Logan shook his head and continued with his drink. He finished and waved over the bartender for another. I stared in amazement as he finished all of it.

He finally noticed me staring and raised his eyebrows. "What? Have you never seen a guy drink before?"

"Jeez, you drink a lot." I noted.

He smirked. "I dare you to finish the rest of yours."

"What? This?" I stared at the still fizzing drink. Bubbles were still floating to the top. My head was still killing me as was my stomach. What was there to lose now? "Fine. But you have to answer just one question after I'm done." I picked up the drink. Right before I brought the glass up to my drink however, I slipped in a stomachache pill from my pocket. And an aspirin pill for good measure. One more wouldn't hurt. I lifted the glass at Logan.

It took a whole painful minute before I forced all of it down my throat. Logan applauded with an amusing look on his face. "Ask away." he grinned, slapping me on my back. Alcohol almost came back up my esophagus.

I choked down the bittersweet tasting and thought long and hard on my question.

"Why do you drink so much?"

Logan looked taken aback by my question. He took another sip of his drink before spinning on his stool to face me. "It really doesn't matter since I'm going to die anyways." he said it so casually that I might've missed the most important word he said. It might've been a minute or five before I found something to say. He interrupted before I could get so far as an apology for even asking him the question in the first place though. "Please don't bother feeling bad for me. And as for the drinking part, it's easier to feel nothing at all than something. It helps with the process anyways."

"So at therapy today, you weren't there for a friend—" I began, starting to catch on.

"I was there so they could 'prepare me for the day it happens.'" he mocked.

He brushed it off so easily so I figured I might as well say something worth his while. "If it helps at all, you should know that thanks to your drink I'm seeing things now." I tried to joke and change the subject.

"Oh? And what's that? Me looking extremely sexy without a shirt on?" he grinned.

I didn't even bother resisting a retort. "Psh, who said anything about a shirt? I was thinking pants."

We both burst out laughing but the minute I did, something began gnawing at me in my stomach. A feeling of pain shot through my stomach so hard that I felt off balance all of the sudden. The stool I sat on felt tilted and I could feel the drink slipping out of my hand. A haze-like substance settled over my eyes that made everything seek blurry all of the sudden. Logan's voice was faded as I somehow regained my balance enough to ask where the bathroom was. Bile rose in my throat and I could feel Logan's arms around me as he guided me towards the bathroom.

He propped me up against the bathroom wall and turned around to lock the door so we could have some privacy. "Will, are you alright? What happened?"

Suddenly everything I've had this past week seemed to want to come up. Everything meaning everything I had to drink today and the pills I had been taking. I leaned forward to retch in the toilet in front of me. It took all of my energy to just wipe my mouth on my stained sleeve now.

"I think you should see a doctor." was all Logan said. "Here, c'mon," he reached a hand down for me to grab to help me out but I just shook my head at him.

"I'll be fine," I shifted so I could pull the pill bottle out of my coat pocket. "I'll just take another one of these." I screwed open the cap and dumped another pill into my hand.

Logan decided to sit down next to me in the cramped bathroom stall. It was barely big enough for him to stretch his legs out. "Let me see that," he put out a hand and nodded at my bottle of pills. I tossed it over and put the pill I had taken out into my mouth.

I swallowed it dry without water. For all I knew, the water would just come right back up as did everything else.

"That's strange," Logan was saying when I finally was conscious enough to look at him. He had the bottle held at eye level with the label facing me.

"What is?"

He started scratching at the label with his fingernails. When the edge of the label started peeling, he peeled the whole thing away slowly as to not leave a sticky stain mark. There was another layer underneath it from what I could see opposite of him.

Logan's eyebrows were furrowed in confusion when he turned the pill bottle with the label side facing me and asked, "Does this mean anything to you?"

I took the bottle from him and forced myself to concentrate. In tiny purple-inked handwriting, scrawled the words: took you long enough. Natalie's handwriting. A dry laugh escaped my lips. Of course it was her. Of course she somehow got me sick enough to take pills on my own, only to switch the labels on the different pill bottles. These pills weren't for my stomachache or headache. These were the medication she had gone to get refilled two days ago. She couldn't drug me herself so she got me to do it on my own.

"Will?" Logan looked worried. "What the hell is going on?"

"I'm sorry." Using the wall to help myself, I picked myself off the dirty bathroom floor and unlocked the door. "I got to go. But I'll uh," I put the bottle back into my coat pocket for safe keeping, "see you Friday, yeah?"

I opened the door and closed it behind me without waiting for an answer from him. Leaning against it I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself down. Natalie was going to have to pay. I was done playing her games and it was time she got a taste of her own medicine.

~A/N: Hey guys, yes I know it's been 4 months since I last updated. I've just been brain-dead this whole time and since it's summer (thank god), hopefully inspiration will come to me a lot easier than it has during school days. Please don't forget to COMMENT, VOTE, and FOLLOW :)

~Forever_Yours_Too