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* * *
Hours pass,I think. My sense of time is fuzzy.
Everything tilts when I lean against Mike. It’s quieter too. Only for a moment and then it’s all louder. Is this what being drunk is like?
“I just need to lie down for a sec,” Sam says, gripping my arm and before I can say anything, she’s already headed up the stairs.
“You want me to come with you?” I call up after her but the music is so loud that she doesn’t hear me. The bass blasts through the house and makes my chest feel tight then hollow with each beat as I follow her.
“Need help?” I think I hear Mike say but when I look back, he’s talking to one of the guys who’s now playing beer pong.
I feel dizzy and it’s all so much. “Water,” I say softly and force myself to go back to the kitchen. Sam needs water. Hell, I need water too.
The smell of beer and pot hits me the second I round the corner.
Holy shit.I want to throw up.
Sam keeps moving, climbing the stairs to the second floor with both of her hands over her ears. “I’m coming, Sam,” I mumble as I run to the kitchen faucet and fill two cups. One for me and one for her.
Exhaustion and a thick cloudy haze greet me as I turn the corner to go up the stairs. It takes me a moment; while I stand there, a few guys pass by me and go upstairs. Mike’s cousin is one of them. The other two wait in line for the bathroom.
I watch as Mike’s cousin goes into a bedroom. The door was open, but he closes it behind him.
“Hey, you going up there?” A guy’s voice startles me just as I start to call out Sam’s name and I swear my heart almost leaps out of my chest. My ass hits the railing as I whip around to him and spill both cups.
“Me?” I say, fear clearly evident.
“You okay?” he asks me again with a broad smile like this is funny.
But it isn’t. The cups fall from my hands like I’m watching in slow motion.
“Whoa,” the guy says. Some part of me dimly notices he’s tall as he catches me when I tip forward. I know that I’m falling. I’m aware of it, but then it all goes black. I can hear him for a moment, asking if I’m all right and calling for help.
I guess that makes it okay, so I give in to sleep. Help is coming.
IN ONE DAY
In one day, a life can change. Or more than one.
Sometimes it’s a single moment that alters everything in existence.
Sometimes it’s the chain reaction of falling dominoes, lined up in pretty little rows and designed so that each one will cause more and more pain as it topples.
In a single day, everything changed, and there’s no way to go back.
ALLISON
SIX YEARS LATER
From the moment I laid eyes on Dean, I knew he’d be trouble.
I didn’t anticipatethis, though.
I didn’t expect to let it get this far.
I didn’t want him to be a casualty of my obsession.
Someone to my right clears their throat and I look down the row of people. A woman looks back at me; she’s older with graying hair, wearing a thick sweater with a cowl neck that’s practically swallowing the frail woman. She holds my gaze, narrowing her eyes and pressing her lips together into a flat line.
