Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
“Oh my God. Courtney, shut up. Christ, I should have cut you off hours ago.” Melanie laughs as she takes the cigarette from Nuke as he grins and follows, calling out to me.
“Hey, man, I’ll go with them. Don’t worry about anything, I got this.” Christ, my jaw is actually aching I’ve been clenching it so hard. Gone is the twitch, it’s now a dull throb.
I need to remove myself from this situation. It’s gone from me wanting to come home and make dinner for Courtney, to her barely being able to stand and going to Mel’s house along with Nuke.
“Fuck this.” Taking the stairs two at a time, ignoring everything as I slam my door, I grab the bottle of warm Jägermeister from my nightstand.
Tonight, I’m going to drink myself numb, pass out, and deal with all this in the morning.
COURTNEY
“Honey…” Feeling the bed dip as I choke back my gag as I blink my eyes open to see Melanie looking way better than she should. Her hair is wet as she brings the large mug of coffee that says Jimmy Fallon to her lips.
“Court, sweetheart. You actually need to get up. Rachel is downstairs.” Her voice makes my eyes pop open again as I groan and roll to my back, my arm covering my bloodshot eyes.
“I’m going to puke.”
“Yeah, rough night. Anyway, get that skinny ass up, I’m not dealing with her alone, and she looks like death, so it might be serious.” She stands, my hand falling off my eyes to focus on what Mel just said.
“Wait. What?” Sitting up slowly, I take in her cute black Spandex workout outfit.
“Yep.” She takes another sip of coffee as I look around her room, and every ugly thing that happened last night spirals like a fucking tornado over me.
“Nooooo…” I moan, rubbing my eyes that are still covered in yesterday’s makeup.
“Please tell me I didn’t really go off on Ammo?” Knowing I did, because why else would I be here, but still hoping it’s not as bad as I think.
“Yeah, you were fucked up. Lucky bitch, he’s so in love with you it kind of bugs me. Any other guy would have kicked you to the curb. God, I forgot what a bad drunk you can be.” She instantly goes into tree pose, sipping her coffee, like none of this is a big deal, when it is, it really is.
“Jesus.” Tossing off the sheet to look down at myself. My silk slip is wrinkled, and I’m sure my face is a mess, but I need to get back to Ammo and pray he’s gonna think last night was funny. I frown as I reach for one of my heeled boots.
“Did you hear Ammo say Rachel was embezzling money?” I look up at Melanie.
“Um, no. But she’s downstairs, looking weird, so…” Her eyes are wide, and I’m way too hung over to deal with any of this.
“Maybe I dreamt it.” Slipping my foot into my other boot, then straightening, I try to act like I have my shit together. “Okay, come on, let’s get this over with.”
“Oh, honey. You know I have Tommy coming over, it’s my day for Pilates…” Her voice trails off as she sees my stare.
“Jesus, okay.” She rolls her eyes. “But if I don’t get my workout in—”
“Mel…” I interrupt her, because are you kidding me? “Look, I need coffee, fucking give me yours.” I reach for it as we start to walk toward the kitchen.
“Stop it, be-otch, I’ll get you one.” She laughs as we both stop as soon as we see Rachel sitting on the couch.
“Rachel?” My voice croaks because suddenly my arms are covered in goosebumps, but I’m sweating, like I can instantly feel it trailing down my neck.
“Courtney.” She stands, but it’s slow, almost as if she’s in pain.
“What’s wrong?” My voice sounds really far away, and for a split second, I’m hoping I don’t pass out.
“Courtney.” Her perfectly manicured nails are chipped, and a couple of her acrylics are off completely as she brings them to her mouth and then starts to sob.
“Oh, shit,” Melanie says but doesn’t move as I run to Rachel and we both sit down onto the couch.
“I’m so sorry.” She wails, as her bony hands cling to mine, and my heart starts to race.
“It’s okay, just…breathe.” Looking over at Melanie, she’s still just standing there frowning.
“I…I…I was raped,” Rachel screams and the entire room seems to close in on me as I try and breathe.
“What?” I whisper.
“I just got back from the hospital, they found large amounts of Rohypnol in my blood. Then they did a…they checked to see…” She looks at me, pale under her tan, her eyes puffy from crying. I’ve never seen Rachel without her lipstick, so seeing her like this…
“They checked to see if there had been sexual intercourse, and it showed signs of rough sex, though he must have worn a rubber because there was no semen or DNA.”