Mom eyes me, and I can tell she’s about to grill me, but my phone goes off. I glance at the text from Alec, reading it several times, refusing to believe what it says. The gods wouldn’t do this… not today of all days.
“Chase,” Mom prompts. “Everything okay?”
“No.” I shoot out of my seat and pull a couple of twenties out of my pocket to pay for our food. I don’t know how much it is, but it doesn’t matter.
I’m out the door and in my car in seconds, heading to Los Angeles General Hospital. My mind is racing, and my only focus is getting there, so when my mom asks, “What’s going on?” it hits me that she’s in the car with me. I should’ve dropped her off at home, but I wasn’t thinking.
“A friend of mine is in the hospital. Once we get there, I’ll pay for a car to take you home. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Oh no,” she says. “That’s okay. What’s wrong? Who is it?”
Shit, I don’t want to tell her what’s wrong. She doesn’t even know Georgia, but I know she’ll take it hard.
“It’s Georgia…”
“Your roommate?” she questions. “I never hear you talk about her.” I glance over at her and swallow down my emotions, thankful my mom is here with me right now.
“We’ve become close… friends,” I choke out, hating that fucking word. “She was brought to the hospital because—”
Before I can finish my sentence, my phone dings with an incoming text from Alec letting me know her room number.
“Is she okay?” Mom asks.
“I don’t know. Let me call you a cab…”
“No.” She shakes her head. “This fancy phone you gave me for Mother’s Day can do that. You go, and once you know what’s going on, please let me know.”
She pulls me into a hug. “I love you, Chase.”
I look into her eyes. “You sure you’ll be okay?” It’s still Audrina’s birthday, and the last thing I want to do is leave my mom alone.
“Don’t you dare worry about me,” she says. “I promise I’m okay now. Thank you for today. Now go.”
We walk to the front of the hospital together, and then after hugging one more time, I take off inside. Since I’m in the system, they let me go through without asking questions. Every step toward her room has my heart thumping outside of my chest, and by the time I get there, I’m so worked up, it’s hard to breathe.
With a quick knock, I walk in and find Tristan, Charlie, Lexi, and Alec all standing around a very still, very pale Georgia. If it weren’t for the heart monitor beeping, I would think she’s dead. Visions of my sister surface. Her ice cold body, blue lips, pale face. Her un-beating heart.
“What the fuck happened?” I growl, barely able to contain the anger that’s radiating through my veins.
Everyone’s eyes swing over to me, but Tristan is the one to speak. “She was drugged.”
“Yeah, I got that from Alec’s text. But what. The. Fuck. Happened?”
“She was talking to this guy…” Lexi starts, but her words are garbled from her crying and she can’t finish her sentence. Alec wraps his arms around her and moves her to the couch.
“She was dancing with this guy, and she started to feel sick,” Alec says. “He offered to take her home, but we told him no. She was complaining of feeling hot and lightheaded, and then she dropped to the ground and started having a seizure. The guy took off in the chaos of us calling for an ambulance. They ran tests and found GHB in her system.”
Fucking GHB? “She was roofied?” My hands fist at my sides, ready to punch something. “Where is this asshole?” I will kill him, consequences be damned. There’s no way another fucking murderer is getting away.
“The cops checked the cameras and are asking around, but we only know his first name—Kenny,” Alec says.
“You should’ve been watching her!” I bark.
“I was!” Alec yells back. “You don’t think I feel like shit? Of course I do!”
“Hey,” Tristan says. “Shit happens. I’m pissed too, and if I ever see that fucker, he’s dead, but Alec and your friends were all there. He called nine-one-one, and she’s alive because of it.”
I walk over to her and take her hand in mine, needing to calm myself down. I know realistically it wasn’t Alec’s fault, but he’s the only person I can blame until I find the guy who did this to her.
Someone pushes a chair toward me, and I take it, sitting next to her. I entwine our fingers together and drop my face to her knuckles, trying to inhale her scent. She smells faintly of the perfume she wears, but mostly all I can smell is the hospital, and flashbacks from when I came to this same hospital to see Audrina surface. I try like hell to push them back. Georgia is alive. She’s going to be okay—unlike my sister, who will never take another breath again.