I was speechless. The words I wanted to scream were caged in my mouth, leaving me parched and pleading for air.
My dad stood and pointed to the door. “Get the fuck out of my house, Elizabeth, and don’t ever come home.” I didn’t entirely understand why he was upset with her because he must’ve played a part in her faking her death, but whatever, I no longer cared.
I marched up to my room, dialed Tatum and sunk into my bed.
“I hate my life.”
“What?” she asked groggily. I must’ve woken her. “I’ll be there in a few.”
“You don’t have to,” I choked out, struggling to contain my pain.
“Fuck,” she cussed, then the line cut out. Dropping my arm to the side of my bed, I let the tears silently run down my face. My life was so messed up. Just when I thought I had something good going, something else was thrown from the left field. My chest tightened every time I thought of how stuck with me Bishop had been, and how he said his dad was one of the main reasons why I wasn’t killed. It all made stupid sense now and I hated it. I wished I was back to not knowing anything. There’s a light knock on my door.
“Mads, it’s me.”
I slid off my bed and opened the door for Tate, then shut, locked, and sunk back to my bed, wiping my tears angrily.
Once the blurs had disappeared, I pointed to the bags in her hands. “Whatcha got there?”
She held up the bags, and it was when I realized she was wearing her cotton pajama pants with little unicorns on them. Fluffy slippers covered her feet, and her blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun. I smiled, grateful, once again, for my best friend. She jumped onto my bed, took my phone from me and turned it off, and then snuggled into the covers.
“This is everything we need for at least a couple days. Thank fuck for summer break, or else imagine having to go to school. It’s Monday tomorrow, by the way.” She gestured at my clothes. “In case you’ve forgotten the day just like you obviously have the shower.”
“Tate!” I scolded her through a laugh.
She shrugged. “What?”
I dug into the bag and took out a bag of potato chips. “I found out some shit tonight.” She didn’t say a word, just sat with a tub of ice cream resting on her thighs as I yapped away. At the end of my rant, she handed me the ice cream and went back to digging into the bag.
“Thoughts?” I was worried. Usually, Tatum had a lot to say. Had I broken my best friend? That was it, she finally had had enough of my crazy life. She pulled out a spliff, and put it into her mouth, lighting it up.
“Tate!” I looked at the door. Usually, I would care, but we were on the other side of the house, and anyway, my dad probably wouldn’t care. I mean, you can’t not bat your eyelashes at murder but scold me for smoking weed.
I took it from her and inhaled. I hadn’t smoked since we were out in the forest.
Tate lay back on the bed. “And you and Bishop?”
I shrugged, handing it back to her. “I don’t know. I got him a present for his birthday, though.”
“Lemme see it! When’s his party?” she asked, sucking on the smoke.
“Tonight.”
“Then we go and fuck shit up.”
I nodded. “We go and fuck shit up.”
I stretched my arms wide, feeling a little better than last night.
Tatum’s ass pressed into me. “Quit it, you know how I get morning horny.”
I chuckled, swinging my legs off the bed. “I don’t forget. What do you feel like doing today?”
“Mmmm.” She pressed her index finger to her cheek. “Avoiding the guys is one, but other than that, whatever you want to do.”
Her mentioning the guys had me slowly drifting back to reality. I was… hell, I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt. I guessed I felt betrayed. None of them thought to mention this to me earlier, which is what hurt. If it never played a big part in Bishop being with me all those times, and us being, well, us, then why didn’t he tell me? I slipped into the closet and pulled down my bikini.
“I really want to go shooting. Maybe go back to the place where I met Katsia.”
“Nope,” Tate muttered, getting out of bed. “That’s way too heavy for today. We can do that next week. Today?” She pulled out a little red bikini from her bag. “We lounge by the pool and day drink.”
“We can’t get day drunk, Tate, we have a party to crash tonight.”
“Shit.” She massaged her temples as though she had just remembered. “Okay fine. She stripped naked and slipped on the tiny little… bikini? Looked more like a hoochie outfit for a Mardi Gras. “We start drinking at a more appropriate time, and we go slow, start with cider, and then we hit it hard before we roll up.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “I like this plan.” Then I took out my white bikini. We were heading downstairs just as Nate was coming out of his room.
“Hey!” he snapped, but I rolled my eyes, ignoring him. “Madison!” he repeated. “You can’t ignore me forever.” I flipped him off over my shoulder, going into the kitchen.
“We can skip food,” Tatum says, pulling her oversized glasses down over her eyes.
“Speak for yourself,” I muttered, reaching for the bowls and pouring some of Jimmy’s famous homemade granola in. Best. Ever. I headed out the kitchen doors, the sun kissing my skin instantly.
I inhaled the fresh morning air. “Today is going to be great.”
“It better,” Tate whisked. “I need to get laid, stat!”
I chuckled, wiping my mouth and taking a seat on one of the lounge chairs. “What’s happening with you and Nate?” I was sort of rooting for them in the beginning, but I had witnessed how Nate was with Tillie to how he was with Tatum. There was no denying he was only using Tate, but Tate was starting to catch feelings. With Tillie disappearing for the past months, Tate and Nate managed to come to an agreement, but nothing else has happened between them after their little “talk.” Nate probably got cold feet.
“Don’t make me laugh. I’m not working out my abs today.”
I snorted, my head tilting back. “We will get you laid tonight. Have you seen Bishop’s cousin, Justin? He’s not bad at all.”
“We have different types.” She gestured to me with her free hand as her other rubbed oil over her leg.
I shook my head. “I don’t know, I think you’ll like him.” I placed my empty bowl on the ground and hit play on the sound dock. “Everybody’s fool” by Evanescence starts playing, and I lay on my back, letting the sun seep into my pores.
“Mads!” Someone was shoving me in the arm, my eyes slowly peeled opening to the bright sun. I raised my head up to see Tatum passing me a J. “It’s two P.M, you slept most of the day away. I thought about waking you but thought better of it. What’d you do this weekend to warrant such lengthy sleepy time?” She stood up and dived into the pool.
“Jesus, I don’t know, get absolutely wrecked by trying to save Bishop, and then ended up getting this.” I pointed to the tattoo that was over my ribs.
Tatum swiped the water off her face and started laughing. “Girl, you are owned.”
I shrugged. “His is bigger, and he has two.”
“He has two?” She quirked her eyebrow, pushing herself up and out of the pool.
I nodded and then chuckled. I thought I was wide awake before, but that has nothing on how I’m feeling right now. Tatum dipped behind the little Bahama hut bar we had tucked away at the side of the pool and grabbed out some bottles. “Your dad and Elena are gone, Nate is gone, it’s just us and these poor, innocent bottles of wine.”
I bit my lip. “Hand it over.”
She gasped. “No way, we’re at least going to be classy about this.”
“When are we ever classy?”
She paused, pondered over it for a few beats, and then nodded. “Good point, but, I do want to try my hand at some of these cocktails I saw on Pinterest.” Oh no, Tate and her Pinterest addiction.