Page 28 of Pretty Little Rocker

Mom released a heavy sigh. “Kin just called me. Abi showed up at the house. Kin said she looked rough, and she just kept crying. All she would tell them was that she was tired. She didn’t have her phone. The one she did have was old as hell.”

Mind racing, I got out of the tub. Three pairs of hands were already there to help me so I didn’t slip. Sparks grabbed a towel, wrapping it around me, his arms holding me in place when all I wanted to do was run. I needed to get to my godparents’ house. Abi was home. She needed me.

“I’ll get there as soon as I can,” I told my mom.

“Good. Maybe she will talk to you.” Mom paused for a moment, taking a few calming breaths. Knowing she needed to settle herself only amped up my anxiety for my bestie. “I’m going to call Lyric and find out if he knows anything. See you soon. Love you.”

“Love you,” I returned automatically, dropping my arm at my side after disconnecting.

“Baby?” Ky cupped my face, lifting my gaze to his.

“Goddess, what’s wrong?” Sparks demanded.

“I don’t know,” I told them, feeling weak. “Abi, my best friend, she showed up at her parents’ house.”

“And that’s bad news?” Jamie asked curiously, wrapping a towel around his waist before hugging me from the side.

“She should be at Trinity University for at least another week. Finals start tomorrow. But she came home, and she’s a wreck. That’s not Abi. Something must have happened. Fuck! I need to get to her.” I closed my eyes, pressing my forehead to Sparks’s chest, wondering what I’d missed in the last few days while avoiding my phone. Not only had I let all my calls go to voice mail, but I hadn’t even looked at anything online. With my Havoc persona having been discovered, I’d hidden away from all things social media. Afraid of what I’d find.

Havoc was such a huge part of me, the safe place I’d used to burn off steam and let a piece of myself free that I couldn’t share anywhere else. Someone had ripped that away from me. I’d told myself I didn’t care—and for the most part, I didn’t—but it would be a lie to say I was one hundred percent okay with the loss of my anonymity.

But that shouldn’t have turned me into a coward.

Because while I was hiding out in my room, mind in chaos over my guys and Havoc, Abi had apparently been going through something huge of her own. Whatever it was, it had sent her running home.

“Okay, goddess. Take a quick shower to wash your hair, and then we’ll drive you wherever you need to go.”

Chapter Sixteen

Hayat

Ali was lying beside her sister when I silently entered my best friend’s bedroom. When she saw me, the younger girl’s face filled with relief, and she carefully untangled herself from my sleeping bestie.

Downstairs, my parents were with Kin and Jace, all of them still bewildered as to what could have happened to cause Abi to leave school so suddenly the day before finals week began. On the drive to Malibu, I’d gone through my list of voice mails, pausing when I’d seen the unknown caller.

It had been from Abi, but it didn’t explain anything, just left me with more questions.

“Hey, babe. It’s Abi. I’m calling from a friend’s phone. Mine is…broken. I dropped it on my run this morning. But I didn’t want you to worry or send Lyric over to make sure I was still breathing. I’ll call you as soon as I pick up the new phone. But I’m so busy studying for finals, it might be a day or so. Love you!”

I’d felt a twinge in my chest at the slight pause while she spoke, my ears straining as I replayed the message over and over while Sparks drove, hoping to find anything that might tell me something about what had happened the day before. Background noise. Other voices. But there had been nothing except that all-too-brief hesitation before she’d said “broken.”

Fitting, because that was exactly how Abi looked. Broken.

Lying down where Ali had just been, I ran my eyes over my bestie. The sun was already fading, dusk turning into night. The lamp on the side table would have been comforting at any other time, but right then, it only made the dark circles under Abi’s eyes more stark in her pale face. Her hair looked limp, her clothes wrinkled.

She stirred, then snapped her eyes open. “Hayat,” she whimpered.

I propped my head on my hand, unable to tear my gaze from her face. We’d FaceTimed earlier in the week, but I swore she appeared to have aged five years since then. Trying to be reassuring, to show her that I was there for her—I would always be there for her—I smiled. “Hi.”

“Hayat.” She choked out my name again, throwing her arms around my neck. I fell onto my back, taking her with me as she buried her face in my hair. Sobs, the gut-wrenching kind that were so hard and painful that I worried if she would hurt her insides, came from her.

Rubbing her back with one hand, I cupped her head with the other, letting her cry it out. Abi was the sweet one of the two of us. The emotional one. The loving one who cared about everyone and everything. She was the good one, my precious best friend. Her pain was mine, and I cried silent tears—in empathy for her, in frustration for not knowing what had caused her pain, a little for myself and the mayhem that had been my last few days.

She cried until her voice became hoarse, and then she cried some more. My shirt and hair were soaked with her tears, but I just held her closer, my arms tight around her, hoping to fight whatever mental demons plagued her. Eventually, she fell asleep, too exhausted to keep going. And I continued to hold her.

Her mom came in at some point, her blue eyes so like Abi’s silently asking me questions I had no answers to. But even if I did, Kin knew I would never spill her daughter’s secrets. Nor would Abi repeat mine. My mother joined her in the doorway, the two of them holding each other much like I held my Abi. Best friends, always ready to pick each other up during any crisis.

Knowing I was there to protect Abi, they left, closing the door behind them. I kissed Abi’s brow, brushing her tangled hair back from her grief-stricken, aged face. While she slept, I finally looked at my phone again. It was on silent, so as not to disturb Abi’s sleep. My guys had texted me a few times, asking if everything was okay. If I needed anything. Telling me they missed me.

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