Chapter 30
Zach
Buzz
“Turn the damn alarm off, Tuck,” I grumble into my pillow.
Buzz
“Come on, man,” I plead, my face still smooshed into the pillow. Each buzz feels like a jagged dagger in my temple.
Buzz
Motherfucker. I wince as I pull my pillow over the top of my head in an attempt to drown out the sound.
“Hello?”
My eyes snap open underneath the pillow.
“Who is this? You called me?”
I hurl the pillow across the room and stare at the girl on the phone next to me. In my fucking bed.
What the fuck.
“Zach? Why would you be calling for Zach on my–” she pauses as she pulls the phone away from her face, verifying that it is indeed my goddamn phone she just answered. Her blonde head whips in my direction, her big doe eyes open to their widest setting as she slowly hands the phone over to me.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Please, dear baby Jesus, please let it be Mama.
“Hel–” My voice comes out rough, the words skating across my tongue like sandpaper. I clear my throat and try again, “Hello?” Silence greets me on the other end. I pull the phone away and see that the call has ended.
My fingers tremble as I press the back arrow. My heart stops when I land on the last caller. Little Bit.
“Get out.” I growl at the unwanted female in my bed, my eyes never leaving the phone.
“I said, get the fuck out!” I scream when she hasn’t moved quickly enough. I don’t give a fuck if she’s hungover or in shock. I need her out of my space so I can figure out what’s going on and how in the fucking sam hell I’m going to explain it to Charlotte.
Bex scrambles around the room. Her noisy search pulls my attention in her direction. I bite down on my lip, hard enough to break skin, when I see that she is dressed in nothing but my practice jersey.
She quickly steps into her jeans and shoes and begins to leave the room.
“Leave the goddamn jersey.” I force out, my anger brimming at the surface. At her. At myself. At the fucking universe for this cruel joke.
Panic overtakes me as I jerk the sheet off of my lower half. A breath of relief expels from my lungs when I see that my boxers are still in place.
Standing up, my hands instantly fly to cup my head. A quartet of coal miners are chipping away in there. Stabbing their picks into the soft meat of my brain. The need to piss overtakes everything else.
Standing in front of the toilet, I reach down to pull my dick out through the fly hole.
But the fly hole ain’t there. What the hell?
I look down, confusion pinching my brows. I pull the waistband out and stare at the tag. A cold chill creeps over my body.
My fucking boxers are on backward. The only way that coulda happened is if, at some point… they were off.
Buzz
I flip open my phone with lightning speed.
Little Bit: Happy fucking birthday.
* * *
Voicemail. Again.
I’ve tried to call Little Bit repeatedly since this morning. She either blocked me or turned off her phone. I’ve also tried to get ahold of Morgan. I need to know what the hell happened last night.
You drank too fucking much. Again.
I have flashes of memory: hanging out at the underground club with Morgs and her friends, them all dancing and drinking, me just drinking. I vaguely recall getting back in Morgan’s car and the two girls joining us.
But what happened after that?
“Pick up, goddamnit.” I curse at my phone as the ringtone trills.
“Jesus, Zee. You know I had an exam today. What is the fuckin’ emergency? I’m walking out of class now.”
“We need to talk. Now. Meet me at the coffee shop in ten.”
Crimson Brew is fairly empty for a Monday afternoon on campus. Finding an empty table is easier than usual. I order a plain black coffee and wait for Morgan.
“Okay, here I am. What’s up?”
“What’s up?” I ask, glaring at her.
“Yeah, what’s up?” she replies, unbothered.
“You wanna tell me what happened last night after we left the club?”
She lifts a finger at me and darts off to the counter. The violence that begins to brew in my body is reaching a scary level, even for me.
She falls back into her seat, gulping down her choco-frapa-thingy. Impatiently, I wave my hands at her to hurry up. She gulps the coldness down faster, wincing at the brain freeze that settles in.
“Chill, dude. I dropped you and Bex off at your dorm, took Mellie home, and then I went home. What’s your problem?”
“Why did you drop Bex off with me?”
“She was fairly wasted but said she had a friend in your building who knew she was coming and she could stay with.”
Picking up the scalding cup, I down half of it in one go. Relishing in the pain as it burns its way down my throat and chest. I fist one hand against my thigh and lean closer into her, “If she had a friend who she was supposed to be staying with, then why did I wake up to her in my goddamn bed?”
Morgan’s eyebrows shoot to the top of her forehead. “You slept with Bex?” she whisper shouts the question at me.
I glare back at her before peeking around the space to make sure no one heard her utter those blasphemous words.
“What about Charlotte?”
“Well, funny you should ask. I can’t get ahold of Charlotte,” I take one more gulp of the coffee, finishing it off. “You see, I woke up to a girl talkin’ on the phone. In my bed. On my phone. To my fuckin’ girlfriend.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yeah. Oh, shit,” I scoff. “When I took the phone from Bex, Charlotte had already hung up, and she ain’t answered since.”
“I don’t understand Morgs. I love her. With every goddamn part of me. I would never cheat. Ever.”
Morgan looks over at me, sympathy lacing across her delicate features. She reaches a hand out, gently placing it over mine. “But it sounds like you did, Zee.”
“I need to talk to Bex. Can you tell me where I can find her?”
“Hang on, let me call Mellie. I don’t have Bex’s number.” She holds a finger up to me as she calls Melanie.
“Fuck.” She closes her phone with a forceful snap.
“What?” I ask.
Her shoulders sag, and she huffs out a breath. “So apparently, Bex goes to AU, and she headed back there about two hours ago.”
“Oh my God. Do you think she knows Charlotte? Fuck, is she gonna tell her? Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” My hands fist my hair, pulling roughly in all directions. Morgan’s hand lands on mine, prying it off my locks.
“Hey, hey. Chill Zee. Calm down. Do you know how big the AU campus is? I highly doubt there is only one Charlotte that goes there. Besides, how would Bex even know her name or what she looks like?” she asks.
I nod along. Yeah. She’s right. Bex wouldn’t know Charlotte from a hole in the wall. I need to calm down.
“It just don’t make sense. I think I would know if I had fucked someone, right?”
“Don’t look at me. I may wear a penis in the bedroom from time to time, but I don’t actually have one. If someone had fucked me–” she gags at the thought, “I think I would definitely know.”
“Well, what do you remember? Try hard. Do you remember leaving the club?” she questions thoughtfully.
“Barely. I remember the staircase and thinking how fun it would be to sit on the rail and ride down it.”
“Oh, that wasn’t a thought, Pretty Boy. You fucking did. Well you tried, you fell after about three feet.” I instinctively rub the mystery sore spot on my side. No longer a mystery, I suppose. “What else?” she asks.
I pinch my eyes shut, digging through the static of my memory for a glimpse of anything.
I remember the cookie in the car. Didn’t do much to soak up the alcohol, clearly. The audio and video of my memory switches on and off in sporadic intervals like siblings fighting over the remote, clicking random buttons incessantly. Think Zee. Think.
I remember vanilla.
I remember silky blonde hair.
I remember Little Bit.
No . I remember the hollow illusion.
From there, it’s blank. I tell Morgan as much. Both of us at a loss, we part ways. She heads to her next class. I head to the gym. Ready to atone for my sins with the sacrifice of my body.