Easton

“It’s going to be okay though. They’re your friends for a reason.”

“We’re not friends.”

“You don’t really mean that.”

“I do. We were all forced together, but we’re not friends.”

Carla sat beside him and tucked her hair behind her ear. He remembered her doing that so many times. Her hair was always too long, and he missed seeing her do that.

“They are your friends. If not, they wouldn’t care if you’re an addict or not. You’re here because even if you don’t feel it, they do care in their own way.”

“This is the most I’ve talked to anyone in a really long time.”

“How come?”

“I … I don’t know. Talking is not exactly my talent.”

She laughed. “It doesn’t have to be your talent, Easton. You got to learn to let things go.”

There was a knock on his door.

He turned toward it just as a nurse entered.

“Your visitors are here.”

“I’m coming.”

Trying to discreetly see if Carla was still there, he turned his head, looking over his room. There was no sign of her.

Getting to his feet, he followed the nurse out of the room, and for the first time since arriving at the center, he felt nervous.

There was a separate area for visitors.

Axton had paid for a private room, and as he entered, he saw Axton was sitting with Taylor beside him. Karson and Romeo were also paying a visit.

“Look at you,” Karson said.

He was embraced by Karson and then by Romeo, who each slapped him on his back.

“You always did tell me they were the brutes of the club,” Carla said.

He looked over Axton’s shoulder, and Carla was in the corner, smiling. He wasn’t going to freak out.

“Well, how is it going?” Karson asked.

“Good. Good. I’m still alive.”

“You’ve not tried to sign yourself out yet, so that’s good,” Axton said.

“Now I totally understand why you want to kick his ass. Look at the guy. He has it all. The looks, the wife, and look at Taylor, she is so beautiful. I always knew she would be in high school.”

He tried not to think of what Carla was saying. “There’s no point in trying something unless I’m going to do it properly.” He had no idea what he was saying. Carla started to laugh, but he didn’t look over Axton’s shoulder.

Taking a seat, he offered Taylor a smile.

“I didn’t agree to their methods,” she said. “Does it hurt?” She pointed at his face.

“A little, but there was no other way of getting me here right, and I need to.”

“You could ask Taylor to look her up. I bet she would love to.”

“So, what’s new?” he asked.

“You’re seriously going to pretend I don’t exist right now? You want to go and meet this woman. Why not ask Taylor? She’s my best friend; she’d understand.”

He tried to drown out Carla.

Axton was talking about a new deal Paul was working on, and he really didn’t care.

The truth was, he wanted to know a bit more about another kind of woman, and he couldn’t ask Taylor.

It was a stupid idea even thinking about it, let alone listening to Carla tell him to use Taylor.

“What’s going on in here? Have you banged anyone yet?” Romeo asked.

“Ew, why do you have to go there?” Taylor asked.

“Because it must be boring.”

Easton looked over Axton’s shoulder, and Carla gave him a wink. Taylor caught him looking, and he just forced a smile.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m more than fine.”

“Taylor’s always been a worrier. I always talked about her, remember? She must hate me for that. You know her better than Axton does by now. You know her little revenge would never have lasted. She was angry, hurt, upset, but above all else, she couldn’t hurt anyone else. Well, she could have pissed them off, and it made her very obsessive, but she would have seen the truth.”

Carla liked to talk about Taylor a lot. The revelation of her trying to bring them all down didn’t fit with the girl he once knew. The girl Carla would talk about all the time. He didn’t mind as it meant she wasn’t asking him endless questions.

Taylor was a good girl pretending to be a bad one, and what he could respect was her desire for justice. When you lose a loved one, who wouldn’t want that?

It didn’t work for her, and now she was married to Axton, and pregnant.

“You’re following the program?” Axton asked.

“I’m doing it. I’m going to get clean.” Easton thought about the drugs in his desk. He ran a hand down his face, to try to stop the shame from rushing over him. When he purchased those drugs, he had every intention of using them, whereas now, he didn’t know what the hell to do anymore. “I didn’t use them.”

“What?” Karson asked.

“The drugs. I didn’t use them. They were there just in case.”

“Did you have any intention of using them?” Romeo asked.