AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Got somewhere else to be?” She shouldn’t be annoyed, but she is. All she does is tell him to leave her, to walk away, but in this moment… she’ll feel like nothing more than fucked trailer trash if he does.
Preston looks at her from black eyes on a stony face. Unreadable and so fucking cold it twists her insides.
He doesn’t answer her.
He just shakes his head and pushes from the kitchen bench. The only pause he gives is to look her over once. “Take a damn shower, Billie.”
Her face twists and she turns her cheek to him. “Fuck you,” she whispers, exhausted.
“Again?” There’s nothing teasing in his cruel tone. He mocks her. “I’m fine, thanks. Another time.”
With that, he stalks out of trailer, and makes extra sure to slam the door shut behind him so hard the wall rattles—and Billie decides she’s getting real tired of people slamming doors around here.
This whole town might need some anger management.
But she throws the thought out of her mind as, slowly, she flops onto her side, then pushes up to an unsteady stand…
Her legs are jello and her eyes are murky.
Still, she staggers her way to the back of the trailer, through the open door to her narrow and drafty bedroom. She drops to her knees at the edge of her bed and reaches under—reaches for the stashed moonshine.
She stays there for a long while.
The sky gets darker outside. Until it’s night. And distantly, she can hear her cell start to come to life in that mini bag of hers somewhere in the lounge. The girls. Must be out of the station now, out of their interviews.
And they’ll be coming for her.
Billie can always count on them.
Carmine and Kate the most.
Always, Carmine and Kate. Her true family.
They do come.
Both girls come barreling into the trailer like bulldozers.
And they find Billie huddled up with her moonshine, tucked between the edge of her bed and the nightstand. Her face is blotchy with the never-ending sobs that jolt and rattle her body—they could hear her wailing from out on the porch.
They just drop to their knees around her. Arms snaking over her shoulders and under her arms. She’s pulled forward, into the awkward three-way hug, but one that works like the drink does, works to soothe her pain and loosen the agonizing knots bunched up inside of her chest.
Her family.
They stay like that for a long while.
But eventually, Kate manages to pry her up from the floor at some point and guide her into bed. With a kiss to the temple, Carmine whispers goodbye, then sneaks out, murmuring something about how she has to go stay with Grace who’s too shit-scared to be alone.
But Billie’s so numb and dazed, she barely pays the words much mind. She’s sinking into the hard, springy mattress, like her eyes are sinking shut.
Billie falls asleep as Kate slips into the bed.
She falls asleep with Kate holding her,
with Gigi’s corpse burned into her mind,
and Preston’s hand fisted around her heart.
17
