Why is Sam here? Where’s my Kari?
My brain was a complete fog. Nothing made sense.
“Where’s Kari?” I asked, trying to focus my eyesight enough to look around the room.
She shrugged. “How would I know? How much Crown did you drink? Your tab was almost $150.”
“Yeah,” I slurred. “I drank a lot.” I rubbed my eyes with my knuckles.
“You smell like a bar,” she laughed. “Want me to help you up to bed?”
I tried to shake my head, but I couldn’t tell if I actually did or if the room moved or if I was imagining it.
I heard her sigh and then her heels click across the tile into the kitchen. I drifted off to sleep to the sound of her voice, my mind trying to tell me to remember something. But I couldn’t remember anything. Everything was so warm, so relaxed.
I awoke to my boots being removed.
“What ‘cha doin’? Why are you here?” I asked. “Pretty sure you shouldn’t be touchin’ me.” I tried to laugh but it was just a garbled chuckle.
“Damn it, Max. You went and got yourself drunk and I came and got you. Remember? Now let’s get you comfortable before you totally pass out.”
“Where’s Kari?”
“I don’t know. I told you that.” She stood up and put her hands on her hips. “I’m guessing you got into a fight about Blaine.”
“Blaine . . .” I tried to make my brain work.
Come on. Think! Blaine. What happened?
I remembered Blaine’s face and Kari’s sad face. And then I remembered Kari telling me the things she told Blaine. I remembered her leaving the house and so did I. And the Crown.
Kari left me.
My stomach rolled, the Crown sloshing as panic started to set in.
Of course she didn’t. I wouldn’t have let her.
“Did Kari leave me?” I looked to Sam for answers. A sly smile crossed her face and it only added to the confusion in my brain.
“Probably. I don’t think she really loves you. I mean, she loved Blaine enough to divulge her deepest, darkest secrets but you found out from him. What’s that say about her?”
I felt the Crown inch its way up my esophagus. I tried to swallow it down, but the fire had worked too far up. I started gagging and Sam took a step backwards. I coughed and sputtered and finally got it under control. The effort it took wiped me out and I fell back on the couch with a thud.
“Don’t say that,” I said, squeezing my eyes closed. I couldn’t hear it, couldn’t process what she said.
Sam began undoing my boots again. I tried to hold my feet in the air to make it easier, but they felt like lead and fell back to the couch.
“It just really makes me angry at her,” she went on, tossing one boot to the floor and starting on the second. “Why would she lead you on for so long if she didn’t love you?”
“Stop,” I said, but it was barely audible.
Sam either didn’t hear me or didn’t care. “And could she really think our family would look at her the same once we knew she had an abortion? That she—”
“Stop, Sam.” My voice was louder now, laced with irritation through the slur. “She lost the baby.”
She laughed. “I’m sure that’s what she told you. But that’s not what Blaine told me and that was before he even knew I knew her. He isn’t a liar.”
“Doesn’t matter to me. Even if she did.” I imagined Kari’s face, the smile that lit up my world. The way her giggle made me feel like everything was right in the world.
I couldn’t make sense of much. I fought to wake up and out of the self-induced fog, but it was too powerful.
“Let’s get your shirt off,” she said.
“Nah.” I felt her hands lightly brush the skin of my abdomen right above the top of my jeans. Her fingertips trailed across my waist, leaving goose bumps in their path. “What ‘cha doin,’ Sam?”
“I’m taking care of you. I’m doing what Kari should be doing.”
“I let her leave,” I said, my head spinning like a whirlpool.
“You should let her leave. She’s a phony. She’s just mind-fucking you. You need to see her for what she is.”
“Shut up,” I warned her, trying to keep everything straight in my head. Her knuckles sat against my skin as her fingers grasped the hem of my t-shirt.
She bent down, her lips by my ear, her breasts sitting on my chest. “Rise up,” she whispered, her words soft.
I lifted up as high as I could, managing to smash our bodies together.
Sam giggled and licked her lips. Her blues eyes peered into mine. “I can make you forget her,” she whispered, pulling my shirt over my head and tossing it somewhere.