I merely flushed the toilet before I ralphed again, vomit mixed with tears. Birdie and Kiki had sat me between them while Shakira drove as quickly as she could. They hadn’t even waited for the other girls on the team, texting them and telling them they’d come back for the group after they took care of me. They had wanted me to go to the hospital, and I hadn’t even started vomiting yet. I’d obviously refused, mumbling out I’d take care of myself after I assured them I was fine and made them leave.
Bullshit.
I hurled again, shaking as I fell from the porcelain. On the cold tiles, I rested for a little while until I had both the confidence and stamina enough that I could hold my own weight. I couldn’t, dragging myself into the tub. There, I peeled off my clothes and I couldn’t even stand in the shower, merely turning on the nozzle and letting the jets hit me hard from above.
I lifted my face into them, attempting to sober myself without the proper resources. I’d gotten shit-faced before, but it’d been a while, not since I stopped feeling sorry for myself for mistakes in my past and started taking care of me for once. I dropped a bunch of weight before sophomore year, stopped the hard partying shortly after, and now, found myself a reformed drunk at eighteen, her sloppy glory days long gone, and my body felt it.
I cradled my legs, dropping my face between my knees. A blanket of fear weighed me down more than the physical discomfort from drinking. What had happened to Mira? Had the ambulance come for her in time?
Had Royal taken care of her?
I rubbed my arms, crying for the second time in a goddamn weak. I wasn’t this person. I didn’t do these things anymore, so why had I done them? I guess I wanted to prove something to Mira, myself, and everyone else tonight, but all I ended up doing was feeling like the very trash she’d emphasized tonight.
The bitch.
I wanted her alive, but she was still a damn bitch. Sniffling, I shut off the warm current and took the time to get on my feet. Shaking, I stepped out and grabbed my towel, wrapping it around my body. With some extremely attentive maneuvers, I managed to get myself dry and my hair partially so. It hung in a drippy mess on my body, curling in waves it only tended to do right out of the shower. I didn’t bother with it, immediately going for clothes in my walk-in closet.
Puppy dog eyes popped out of a box instantly. Hershey had somehow gotten both herself and her dog bed out of the guesthouse, into the main house, and in my closet.
What the hell?
Bounding, she tipped the box over to get to me, wagging her little tail and drooling profusely with her happy dog grin. How in the entire fuck she managed to get herself up here when I’d left her out in the guesthouse I didn’t know, but happy to see her, I grabbed her tight in my arms.
“What are you doing in here, little lady?”
She licked my face in response, and I did a juggling act of holding her, then getting clothes on. I settled on just an oversize shirt that hit me at the hips, the only thing I could manage to get on being basically piss-ass drunk with a dog in my arms.
“You must be Houdini or something, huh?” I crooned, rubbing my nose against Hershey’s. I headed out of the closet, and the moment I sat on the bed, I got the answers I looked for.
I brought Hershey upstairs and put her in your closet. She’d only stop whining once she was in there. Your dad got called out of town for a last-minute business conference, but I didn’t want her to bother the neighbors. Don’t forget to feed and water her in the morning. I hope you had a good time at the party.
A note from my ally nearly brought tears to my eyes, Rosanna’s folded note right on my pillow. She had no idea how much I needed this damn dog right now.
“I didn’t have a good time at the party,” I murmured, letting Hershey lick my face. “I did something really stupid at a party and might have accidentally killed someone.”
She didn’t understand, of course, bounding from my arms and onto my bed. Wanting to play, she hunkered down in the sheets, but growled, then hid at a sudden tap to the window. The noise scaring the shit out of me too, I grabbed my chest, gazing over to find a prowler outside my second-story window.
What the fuck?
I stood, heading over, but even with it being dark outside, I easily made out a large body and chiseled cheekbones that could cut glass. Royal Prinze was outside my bedroom window, making a turn motion with his hand for me to unlock it. He frowned. “Gonna let me in, princess?”
Naked from the thighs down, I wrestled with my clothing. “What the hell are you doing here? How are you up here?” Like stated, I was on the second story. This wasn’t possible, and after a roll of his eyes and no action from me, Royal took things into his own hands when he pulled a pocket knife out of his jeans. He used it to jiggle space under the sill, the lock obviously faulty. Soon, he was working the window right open, and after putting the knife away, he started to maneuver that big body of his through the small space.
I grabbed a pillow, covering my chest. I wasn’t wearing a bra on top of not wearing panties. “What the fuck are you doing in here?” I growled. My desk in the way, he gripped both it and the window to push himself through and get on his feet. Once actually in my room, he towered in the small space, and after a quick analysis of my body, my pillow in particular, he smirked.
“You don’t have anything I haven’t seen or touched, princess,” he said to me, completely cocky about it when he flicked blond eyebrows. “As far as how I got up here, obviously the window.”
A smart-ass, I threw the pillow at him. He caught it easily, tossing it to the foot of the bed, and I folded my arms.
“You know what I mean,” I said and he nodded, easing himself back against the desk.
He pushed a thumb behind. “The tree, the roof, then the window,” he ticked off with long fingers. “In that order. It’s how your sister snuck in and out.”
“My sister?”
His head of perfectly tousled hair bobbed twice in acknowledgment. He’d obviously tossed fingers through it. He smiled. “I helped her. It’s the only way she could get in and out of this place without your dad noticing. Her room was right across from his. She had to get through the guest room, this room.”
His story, the intricate details as well as information about my sister, sobered me more than anything I’d done tonight. He really did know my sister, know this house and my dad.