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“Yeah,” I muttered. “Sorry.”
Kaylie sat down at the bed, reaching out a trembling hand to lay it on Marc’s arm. “I thought you were dead,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry you had to go through this because of me.” She stroked his arm so gently and lovingly that I had to look away. I felt like I was caught watching something intimate.
Leaving them there, I slipped into the bathroom, dialing Bree’s number. Fuck it being too early for her. I needed to hear her voice. After our fight from hell, and the brief fear of losing her, I needed it more than ever. Leaning against the door, I waited for her.
“Johnny?” Her sleepy southern drawl made me smile. Slipping down the door, I dragged my legs up, and leant my head back.
“I just wanted to hear your voice,” I confessed. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too.” I heard the smile attached to the words, and it made my heart ache to be separated from her again.
“Is everythin' okay,” she asked, adding with a sigh. “How’s Marc?” The way she said his name made me chuckle. Her dislike toward the man was no secret even though she started to warm up to him slowly.
“You’re not gonna believe this,” I muttered. “Physically, he’ll recover. But…”
“But what?” she urged.
“He’s found a girl.”
Her surprised “What!” mirrored my feelings exactly.
Voices drifted in and out of my head. Low. Muffled. The words blurred together making it impossible to comprehend. Something touched me, a strange warmth. A soft pressure on my arm.
As I came around more, a deep ache in my shoulder made me groan. I tried to move away from it while my mind caught up with reality. To shift my position to ease the ache and the stiffness that made me want to stretch out my muscles and bones. Thoughts were too slow. I couldn’t grasp one to make sense of theofffeeling in my body. Was I drunk? I couldn’t remember drinking, but I sure as hell felt like I had.
“He’s waking up.” A female voice called out, and I mentally frowned.
Another voice reached me, then something slapped my face repeatedly. I rolled my head to get away from the sting, muttering something incoherent that made the other person chuckle.
“Snap out of it!” The voice said, and I suddenly knew who it belonged to.
“Johnny?” I tried to roll to my side to sit, but a strong hand nailed me to the mattress.
“Not again,” Johnny said, holding me down while I tried to understand. “Not until you know what the fuck you’re doing.
My eyes struggled open, gazing up at him through blurry eyes. Someone stood behind him. A woman. Dark hair. White skin. She drifted in and out of blurry focus. I tried to settle my gaze on her, sharpening my eyes until I blinked her into focused vision and gasped. “Kaylie?” Her name came out as nothing but a rasp, and I coughed, clearing my throat to try again. Before I could speak, Johnny stepped in the way, stealing the focus by blocking her from my view.
“Wake the fuck up.”
“I’m awake,” I slurred. “The fuck does it look like.”
He shucked, shaking his head at me. “Yeah, no.” He again shoved at my chest to keep me from getting up and anger flared within me.
“The fuck, Johnny!”
“You’ll thank me later,” he muttered.
“What’s wrong with him?” Kaylie asked from behind Johnny, and I tried to follow. Did I imagine her there? Did I hear things now? See things? Was I dreaming?
It took too long for my head to clear, and the previous day started to come back. I groaned as I realized I wasn’t drunk—but drugged. And I did this to myself. Johnny warned me, and he should fucking know. It was his pills.
“Help me up,” I mumbled, secretly hoping he hadn’t heard me, but also needing to move my body. Asking for help wasn’t only against everything I believed, it was also fucking humiliating. But the last thing I wanted was a rerun of the previous attempt at self-harm.
“Nice to have you back.” Johnny grinned, moving to support me as I struggled to sit. The fucking shoulder still hurt, and even though the frustration was hard to fight, I knew I shouldn’t have expected anything else. It wasn’t going to go away that fast. I had to face it, no matter how much I hated the idea of being fucking impaired. I couldn’t even take a shower for fuck’s sake.
Johnny stepped aside, revealing Kaylie staring back at me. My eyes met hers, and the world stopped. All the things I tried not to feel slammed back into me with a force that nearly knocked my breath from my lungs.
“I left you there,” I whispered at last. “How are you…” I looked between her and Johnny. What did I miss?
