AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Blinking his eyes open in a squint, Liam waited for the room to stop spinning and the near constant ringing in his ears to die down before he cast his gaze around the dimly lit interior. A head of blonde curls lay on his chest, her hand splayed on his stomach. Between his legs, using his thigh as a pillow, was a brunette. She had short hair, pouty lips, and breasts that he vaguely remembered sucking lemon juice off the night before. To his right, sharing his pillow, was a redhead—a natural one if the freckles across her shoulders were any indication. The remnants of her red lipstick matched the ring around the base of his cock.
Liam shifted again, trying to get comfortable on the too-hard bed. He’d fallen asleep somewhere unfamiliar again—the third night in a row—and now he had no clue where he was. He looked around the room, trying to place it. Had he been here before? There was no way to tell. Apart from the bed, with its grey sheets, heavy grey curtains drawn across the window, white walls, and furniture, there was little else in it.
The ringing in his ears started again and the woman between his legs shifted, burrowing down as if she was trying to bury her head in her pillow. She shifted her hand, and Liam was suddenly very awake.
He reached for his junk just as the brunette punched her fist forward, lifting it to cover her head. Her hand connected with his balls as she moved, his sac recoiling into his body with the force. Liam cried out and curled in on himself, jostling all his bed mates. Blondie rolled away from him, taking the arm she had slung across him with her, and the ginger groaned, her face crumpling as if in pain. Liam blinked away the tears and breathed through the high-pitched squeal he wanted to let loose as he gripped his bruised balls in his free hand. With the other, he shoved at the brunette, knocking her head off his leg. With his legs spread and up in the air, cradling his emptied-out balls, Liam rolled toward red.
The peace as the ringing in his ears stopped was short-lived. Liam looked at the woman, trying to remember her name, but apart from snippets of drinking, flashing lights, and naked bodies, the last few days were a blur. It would be another awkward morning not having any clue what his hook-ups’ names were.
Liam blinked. Ginger had turned green, her stomach tensing rhythmically as if she was readying to puke everywhere.
Oh. Hell. No.
He sprang up, scrambling toward the edge of the bed. His head spun, his stomach lurched, and he half fell, half threw himself off the mattress. His knee connected with a body part—the brunette most likely—and an “Ow, fuck, watch it,” sounded from behind him. He hit the polished timber, his shoulder and hip taking the brunt of the impact as he thudded to the floor.
“Sorry,” he muttered, looking for his pants. The ringing sounded again, and now awake, Liam scrambled for his phone as heaving sounded behind him.
Screeching and cursing grew louder, and he gripped his head. The pickaxe had turned into a jackhammer and the smell of vomit had him dry-retching. He had to get out of there before he lost… the bottle or two of liquor he’d downed.
Why did he do this to himself?
Oh yeah, statistics.
He crawled out of the bedroom along the corridor where clothes were strewn. He spotted it. The ringing had stopped by the time he picked it up. Seven missed calls. All of them from Lij.
Shit.
He looked at the time and groaned. He was late. Really late.
He hit dial and stood, snatching up his jeans and slumping against the wall to step into them. “Lij, hi, I’m—”
Blondie stumbled out of the bedroom holding her hair off her back, the chunky carrots and pink foamy puke dripping from the ends and down her back between her arse. She kicked the door next to him closed behind her, and the bang ricocheted around his skull like a gunshot, exploding his brain. He dropped the jeans he had halfway up his leg and gripped his temple. Liam gagged at the stench that lingered, and he turned away needing to put more distance between himself and the others.
“—late,” Lij muttered. Then he sighed. It was a put-out, frustrated sound that sent Liam straight back to his childhood. His mother used to make the same sound when she scolded him. “And I needed to get back home. I have a video meeting that I’ll be late for if I kept waiting for you.”
Liam was… struggling. With everything. Every insecurity, every one of his faults had seemingly magnified, concentrating with a laser focus on the detonator that would trigger an explosion. Once it happened, it would tear apart the fickle hold on his life that he was keeping together with a mix of that shitty packing tape with no glue and blind hope.
An hour before he’d received his marks, his sister had called. She was pregnant, and while that should have pleased Liam, the gloating made it hard to swallow. He wasn’t welcome there; she’d made it abundantly clear when he’d asked for an invite to the baby shower. She laughed it off with a “oh no, that will only be for my close friends.” His parents would be in seventh heaven, doting over Nessa as her belly grew and then over their newborn grandchild. The brush off had hurt almost as much as seeing the fail stamped across his transcript.
Liam rubbed his forehead, his shoulders slumping. “I’m sorry—”
“Yeah, I know.” Lij sighed again. “Where are you?”
Liam hesitated, listening for any tell-tale signs of where he was. “I… I don’t know.”
“Liam—” Lij stretched out his name, pronouncing it in two syllables. There was so much disappointment in his voice that he hated himself even more for it.
“Lij, don’t. Please. I know, okay. I’m a complete fuck-up.”
“No, you’re not. But youaregoing off the rails and I hate seeing you like this. Let’s talk. I’m worried about you, but I’ve gotta stop and get some lunch, or I won’t have time for anything until tonight.”
“Leave it. I’m on my way home. I’ll pick something up for you.” Flashes of him driving the night before penetrated the fog of his memory and Liam swallowed. Had he really driven there? Had he been that stupid? He pulled on his clothes, patted the pockets of his jeans, finding his keys, and groaned. Shit, he hoped he was imagining things. But when he opened the front door and spied his black SUV parked on an angle in the driveway, the driver’s front wheel halfway into a garden bed, he knew he hadn’t been that lucky. Or maybe he had. By the looks of it, there was no damage to the car. He hoped that boded well for not having hit anything. Hopefully.
He unlocked the car and slid behind the wheel, backing out and leaving the unfamiliar house. He plugged his address into the nav and followed the directions onto the main road. But something made him hesitate. He was dizzy. Lightheaded from the booze, lack of food, or exhaustion after depleting every bodily fluid in him, Liam didn’t know, but there was something off.
He pulled over, turned off the engine, and got out. The fresh air didn’t help—summer was only a couple of weeks away and the heat and humidity combined were awful. He sighed and rubbed his forehead. If he got a rideshare, it’d get out. This shit always did. Same with a taxi. He bit the bullet and swiped at his phone.
Addy pulled up in her little hatch twenty minutes later. He opened the door and slid in, wincing at the dried cum on his belly pulling at his treasure trail. Her nose crinkled and she pursed her lips, a look of disgust passing over her features. “Jesus, you smell like you had an all-night orgy in a brewery.” Her words hit too close to home. For the first time since he’d started this slide downhill in September, drinking and partying harder than he normally did, he was truly ashamed of himself.
