10. Grady #2
A hilarious picture of Blake making a face at the camera and the word Butt Face underneath makes me smile. These two are fucking hilarious. Picking up the phone, I smile down at her picture until I realize Blake is calling Wily.
And for reasons I can’t explain, something in my chest hitches with worry.
I have no idea why I’m feeling this way, but I should take the phone to Wily.
Or answer it for him. He won’t mind.
Clenching my jaw, I briefly war with indecision until I realize the call is about to cut off. I quickly swipe my thumb across the screen.
“Hey, Blake. It’s Gra?—”
“Sooooo.” She breathes down the line, then lets out this giggle that turns into a groan.
I can hear thumping music in the background, a chaotic symphony of noise.
“Blake?” My instincts put me on instant alert. “Are you okay?”
“I feeeel weird.” Her words are sloppy and barely coherent.
Shit. What the hell has happened to her?
“Where are you?” I walk into the entranceway, glancing down the hallway and figuring I should take this call to Wily.
“A party.” Her breathy giggle is knotting my insides. She’s totally wasted. Or worse, she’s been roofied or some shit .
Fuck!
“What party? Where?”
“I don’t know. I… Shhhhh.” I can picture her lips pursing to make that sound, and then she whispers down the line, “Don’t tell Wily.”
I stop walking toward the bathroom, pausing in the archway of the dining room. “What? You called his number.”
“Shit. Did I?” she slurs. “Wait, who’s this?”
A heartbeat is pulsing in my stomach as I struggle to stay calm. Warning bells are blaring inside me as I grit out, “It’s Grady.”
“Ohhh! The hot one. He’s got a sexy body.” She laughs, but the sound is anything but funny because I know this girl is in some seriously deep shit right now. “Don’t tell him I said that, though. I’m pretty sure the guy’s afraid of me. Or just plain doesn’t like me.”
“That’s not…” I close my eyes and dip my head. Even if I did take the time to explain that I’ve been desperately trying to avoid her because she turns me on like nothing else can, I’m not sure she’d register anything I was saying.
All I know is that I need to get to her.
Now.
“Blake, I need you to focus.” I head back to the shoe rack. Wily doesn’t need to hear this shit right now. It’s not like he can jump into a car and wrestle his way into a party to find her.
But I can.
Snatching my sneakers, I start shoving them on.
“Where are you?” I ask in a clear, calm voice.
She sighs, and I wonder if she’s looking around, trying to figure it out. “I’m at a party. ”
“Yeah, but where? Whose house are you at?”
“I don’t fucking know.” She groans again. “My head…”
“Blake.”
She groans again.
“Blake. Focus. Stay with me, okay? I’m coming to find you, but you need to tell me where you are.”
“I don’t know!” she whines and sounds like she’s about to start crying or something.
Fuck!
Closing my eyes, I try to think past the worry coursing through me. “Okay. It’s okay. Just, uh…” My eyes snap open as a fresh idea pops into my head.
Whipping the phone away from my ear, I put her on speaker and then tap the screen, opening Wily’s Find My app. Two names appear: Satch and Blake. Thank fuck for that.
“Blake, listen to me. I can see your location. Looks like you’re at a house on Alpine Ave. Where are you in that house?”
“I don’t know…” Her voice dribbles off, and I feel a surge of panic when she doesn’t respond.
“Blake? Blake!”
“I don’t… I…”
“Okay, listen carefully.” I dig my keys out of the bowl by the front door. “Just look around you. What can you see?”
She groans again, and I will her to stay lucid so she can do this for me.
Fuck, Wily is going to lose it if something happens to her.
I should tell him what’s going on, right?
And worry the shit out of him? No! Just go find her .
I can’t afford the delay while he gets out of the bath anyway. I need to go.
Now.
If the urgency pulsing through me is anything to go by, I should have left five minutes ago.
“Blake? What can you see?” Trying to keep my voice calm is taking maximum effort.
“There’s a wall and… I just… Who is this again?” She’s struggling to get the words out. They’re coming out of her in long, slurred syllables.
“It’s Grady,” I reply slowly. “Your brother’s roommate.”
“Oh, the hot one.” She giggles, the sloppy sound making my insides sizzle with concern. “I picture him when I touch myself.”
Wait. What?
I jolt upright, gaping at the front door for a second as that sizzle turns to something else entirely.
“But don’t tell him I said that,” she whispers.
A yearning shudder ripples through me.
Holy fuck.
Blake touching herself while thinking about me.
Now there’s an image… that I really can’t afford to get distracted by right now.
Clenching my jaw, I try to find out a little more information before leaving. “Tell me where you are in the house. What else is there other than a wall ? Can you be more specific?”
“Paspefic. Spa-spefic. Sp—” She giggles again. “That word’s hard.”
“Blake.” I close my eyes. “Please, come on. Help me out here. What can you see? ”
“What can I see. I see… There’s a cabinet. Whooooa. It’s so tall.”
A tall cabinet. Okay, so maybe she’s in like a living room or den or something?
“Is there anyone around you?”
“I—” There’s a fumbling followed by a sharp clatter that makes me wince. I pull out my phone, bringing up Google Maps while she struggles to pick up her phone.
Shit, she’s really in a bad way.
“Blake?”
“I’m Blake,” she responds, her voice kind of raspy. “That’s me.”
“Okay, I’m coming to get you,” I tell her, relief pumping through me as I punch in her location and see that I’ll be there in seven minutes. Let’s make it five. “Don’t go anywhere with anyone, okay?”
“Okay.” She sounds kind of sleepy now, and it kills me to end the call with her.
I want to keep her on the line while I drive to this party, but if I take Wily’s phone, that’s going to alert him to something being up, and she asked me not to tell him.
Frowning down at his phone, I ignore my gut and delete evidence of the phone call. It feels wrong, and I’m torn between respecting her wasted wishes and letting my roommate know what the fuck is going on.
But he’ll just freak out, right?
Programming Blake’s number into my phone, I then run out the door, trying to tell myself that I’m doing the right thing.
All I do know for sure is that I need to get to her fast.
I’ll deal with the rest of this shit once I know she’s safe.