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Well, it was my turf too now. It wasn’t like Iwantedto be there any more than he wanted me there. But there was nothing either of us could do about it, so he needed to get over it or the next year was going to be hell on earth.
A second, much louder sound came from out in the living room, and I looked to my shut door before glancing at the clock on my bedside table—three thirty.
Fucking Travis.
God knew what shape he was in out there if he was running into furniture, or if it was even him. For all I knew, he could havebrought someone home with him, and they could be the ones impersonating a bull in a china shop.
I squeezed my eyes shut and wondered if I was going to have to get up and grab my headphones. Travis was hardly the type to come home alone, and with the mood he’d been in lately, this would be the perfect way for him to prove a point.
Nope. I wasn’t going to think about that. In fact, I did a quick scan of my room, searching out my headphones just in case I started hearing banging of a different variety echoing through the condo. But when fifteen agonizing minutes passed by and the place remained silent, I figured I was in the clear.
Guessing he’d made it to his room and passed out, I decided to head out and grab myself a glass of water and a couple of Tylenol. Might as well get a head start on the hangover that might creep up and make my MondayextraMonday.
I ran a hand through my hair and pulled open my bedroom door, covering a yawn as I headed down the hall doing my best to be quiet. The last thing I wanted was rouse the beast that had stumbled through our place minutes earlier.
The lights from the surrounding buildings illuminated our place enough that I could make my way to the kitchen. So I grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it with some water before reaching for the pills and throwing them back.
I was about to head to bed and try to get a couple more hours of sleep when a low groan met my ears and my feet froze in place.
Shit.
My head whipped in the direction of the sound, and for the first time in a long time I sent up a prayer that it was Travis making that noise and not someone else. Or Travis withsomeoneelse.Oh God, please don’t let it be that.
I waited in the kitchen, so still I might not have even been breathing, and when it became clear I was either going to haveto spend the next few hours there or make a mad dash for my bedroom, I decided to make a break for it.
Doing my best not to make a sound, I tiptoed out of the kitchen and was about to make a run for it?—
“Caleb…”
My back immediately stiffened. My name in that voice did things to my insides that I thought had long since passed. When I heard it again, this time followed by a groan, I knew who was on that couch.
Go back to your room,I told myself even as my feet started to turn.Nothing good can come out of going to him.But it was too late—my eyes had already zeroed in on the figure sprawled out on the couch.
From where I stood, Travis was nothing more than shadows and shapes. But his silhouette was one I would recognize anywhere. Booted feet attached to long legs, one that was hanging off the edge of the cushions he’d flopped face-first onto. His shirt had ridden up, showing off his tight-fitting pants, and the arm that had fallen down to the floor had the usual leather cuffs adorning his wrist and bulky rings on his fingers. His face was smashed into the leather, but his styled black hair was a dead giveaway, and as I got closer, I saw his dark lashes resting against his high cheeks.
I let out a sigh as I looked down at him and wondered if we would ever get back to a place where we could be in the same room and not argue. Or was this it? Did one of us have to be passed out for us to exist in peace?
It’s be pretty sad if that was the case when at one time he’d been my best friend, the person I shared everything with. But Travis would never let it be that way again, he’d made that clear, and no matter how much I tried to keep things civil, he always pushed us into enemy territory.
Annoyed all over again about my current living situation, and the fact I had no choice about it, I cursed my inability to just walk away and leave him there to sleep off his idiotic behavior. I thought about getting him a glass of water and waking him to take some pills, but maybe a pounding headache would help drum some sense into him.
Instead, I grabbed a blanket out of one of the closets and came back to where he lay in the exact same position.
He’d done this to himself. Couldn’t even get through one measly party with me close by. He’d had to go out, get shitfaced as usual, and stumble his way home.
I wasn’t sure what that said about how we were going to coexist for the next twelve months, but if that was what it took for him to try to fool himself into thinking he hated me, let him. Seemed exhausting to me.
I bent down and spread the blanket over him, pulling it up under his chin. As he shifted, a loose strand of hair fell into his eyes, and just like that, I was back with my best friend…
TRAV:
Rhid oarty id sjit
It was the fifth message I’d gotten from Travis tonight, each progressively more incoherent. It took a minute, but I finally translated the jumbled mess into:This party is shit.
Guess there was no point in asking if he was having a good night. I didn’t even know where he’d gone off to, since I’d had a date tonight, but if his messages were any indication, he was in need of some assistance. Were the other guys not with him?
There was no point writing back, since whatever response he managed would likely be even worse. I turned down the volume on the movie I’d been watching and hit call.
