Strung

Swear, she went to bed earlier than anyone I knew — her mom still had ttwo more appointments before the night was over — and both were for me and Demetri. I watched as the lights dimmed in her room.

“Another lifetime.” I sighed, “In another lifetime, pretty girl. I would have asked for your favorite color. Your favorite song. I would have held your hand.” I sighed and shoved my hands in my pockets. “Yeah. I would have loved the honor of holding your hand.”

CHAPTER SIX

Demetri

“FORGIVENESS…” MRS. MURRAY cleared her throat, “Until you both can forgive each other, the addiction isn’t going to go away.”

I snorted and looked down at my hands.

“So?” She leaned forward. “Alec?”

My brother tensed next to me. “I’m the one that needs to ask for forgiveness. And I have, but it doesn’t seem to do anything.”

There was an awkward silence where I’m sure I was supposed to be the one to say something but I had nothing. My damn hands were shaking like a lunatic and all I could focus on was either getting high or finding some girl to get lost in for a few minutes.

My knees shook, knocking together as I waited for the clock to strike eight.

“Demetri, Alec brings up a good point. Have you forgiven him?”

They made it sound so easy. Like all I had to do was say ‘yes’ and butterflies would start fluttering out of my ass.

But that wasn’t the case. Because no matter how many times I said that I forgave him — the hurt was still there.

When I closed my eyes, I still saw her guilty face, I saw his.

What type of brother does that? A high one. That’s the answer. Granted, Alec hadn’t touched drugs since — which sucked if you asked me. Nobody likes being the only member at his own party.

Everything felt so out of control that I wanted to scream. Instead, I did what I always did. I smiled and offered Mrs. Murray a solid wink. “I’ve forgiven him but you know as well as I do — things take time.”

“Good.” She smiled warmly and started stacking papers together. “Drug test tomorrow.” She handed us an appointment card. “Please don’t be late.”

One damn week.

I’d been clean.

And already I was wanting to jump into that frigid Pacific Ocean and take a giant ass inhale.

“Thanks.” Alec took the card while I sidestepped him and walked out into the hall. Nat was sitting at the table banging her head against it.

“Rough night, beautiful?”

Her head snapped up and I was suddenly so very thankful that my brother was deciding not to be his usual friendly self. Mine. She was all mine. I wanted those eyes, those lips, that body underneath me and I’d do anything to get it.

She called to me like drugs.

And for the first time in a week I wasn’t focused on the high — I was focused on her.

Huh, replaced one addiction with another. I wonder if that was frowned upon in rehab?

“What are you doing here?” she shrieked.

Alec and Mrs. Murray walked out of the office behind me.

“Oh, hi honey!” Mrs. Murray’s voice trailed off as she started jabbering about another client and then went back into her office, closing the door behind her.

“Explain. Now.” Nat got up from her chair and crossed her arms as she approached us. Damn, she looked pissed. I took a step back and refused to make eye contact.

Alec cleared his throat, “I have uh…”

Wow. Maybe being off drugs would help considering his brain cells had clearly taken a hit. “He has a little problem.” I smirked. “It’s why were here.”

Alec tensed next to me because well, we both knew the problem started with a D not an A but said problem wouldn’t have been a problem if A had kept P in his pants and H out of his veins!

“Aren’t there psychiatrists in LA? Canada?” Nat’s voice pleaded.

Alec mumbled ‘asshole’ under his breath and walked out of the house slamming the screen door behind him.

I almost did a fist pump. Finally, alone with her!

“Sorry” — I wrapped my arm around her shoulders — “it’s kind of a secret, though I don’t think it’s going to stay that way for long.”

Her cute little jaw clenched like she was grinding her teeth. “Mind filling me in?”

And send her screaming through the house? Hell. No. “If’ you’re the math genius you claim you are, then yes, but only after homework.”

Her glare was so damn cute I almost lost it right there. “That sounds an awful lot like bribery.”

“It is.” I shrugged. “Hey you got any food, I’m starving?” Actually, I was craving my body weight in pot and a bathtub full of little white pills, possibly some blue ones, and definitely some white powder. But who was I kidding? I had to pass that drug test if I had any chance of getting out of this place.

With a sigh, she walked to the fridge. “This is pot roast. These” — she made a grand gesture at pointing at the potatoes — “are potatoes, and carrots.” She pulled out a plate. “And this is a plate.”

Whoa! Who spit in her happy juice?

“You put the food on the plate.” She said slowly walking over to the microwave and opening it up. “Think you can handle it from here on out, Rockstar?”

Aw, how cute — we had nicknames. At least mine was baller.

Her anger made me horny as hell. It was… refreshing. Most women just stripped. Not Nat, no she was too busy teaching me how to say big words like ‘plate’ and ‘potato.’