This is totally the last time I drink.
I freeze at the entrance.
Aunt stands there as if she’s been waiting for me.
Shit. I need to leave before she smells the alcohol on me.
If I knew she’d be here, I would’ve never taken the damn shot.
“A-Aunt? Weren’t you supposed to work tonight?”
“I can’t leave you alone all the time or I’ll die from concern.” She takes my backpack. “Was that Knox just now?”
“Uh, yeah. He picked me up because Kim couldn’t.”
Contemplation covers her features. “Does that mean King is no more?”
“Knox and I aren’t like that.”
“Well, if you have to choose, my vote goes for him.”
I study her for a bit. “Why have you never liked Aiden, Aunt?”
She freezes with the backpack in her hand before she forces a smile, and I know, I just know that there’s something she’s not telling me. “I feel like he’s taking you away. You haven’t been the same since he came into your life.”
She can say that again.
“Wait a minute.” She sniffs the air and my breathing stops when she gets closer to inhale me.
“Is that… were you drinking?” She all but shrieks.
“It was only a glass, I promise.”
Her eyes blur with unshed tears and I feel as if someone jammed a knife into my heart. I don’t like making Aunt upset. What the hell is wrong with me?
“It won’t happen again,” I offer in a small voice. “I’m not even drunk.”
“What if your heart condition relapses? You know how hard we’ve worked to get you stabilised.”
“I-I’m sorry.” God. I feel like the most horrible person ever.
Aunt clutches me by the shoulders and pulls me inside to sit me on the sofa. “A few days ago, you were found drowning in a pool. Then you had an episode in the hospital and now you’re drinking? This isn’t you, Elsie. Tell me what’s going on.”
I want to know the truth. Tell me the truth, Aunt.
But I can’t say that, so I apologise one more time and promise her that it won’t happen again.
We eat dinner together and I try to ignore how she watches me as if I’ll have an episode any second now.
It’s at times like these that I wish Uncle Jaxon wa
s around.
After helping out with the dishes — and Aunt making me drink some soup to chase away the alcohol — I go to my room.
I sit at my desk to work on some homework, but I end up slouching in my seat with a pen in my mouth.
Did the plan work?