Page 219 of My Ruthless Neighbor

Something wakes me up. A sinking feeling in my stomach. My back hurts as I move. The hard surface underneath my body tells me I crashed on the fucking floor last night.

Cursing under my breath, I sit up and look around. Shit. I am still at Todd’s place. How much did I drink last night? I remember doing a keg stand and winning the challenge. Then the butt hurt Anderson challenged me again in some stupid drinking game. I won that too. After that everything seems to be a blur.

Something vibrates against my thigh and I realize it’s my phone. I take it out.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I curse as I go through the notifications. Several missed calls, voice messages and texts are waiting for me. All from Amy. But as I scroll through them, I notice that the recent ones are from Eomma.

I fucked up. This time to the point of no return. I broke her fucking heart.

She’ll never forgive me for not showing up. Even Eomma is calling to give me an earful.

Getting up from the floor, I look around and find people passed out all over the place.

I step over the bodies and get out of the house. Trailing into his backyard, I call Amy.

She doesn’t answer. Amy is not the one to ignore phone calls. Especially mine. She is just not the person who would take her anger out on people by ignoring them. Instead, she would force you to face her. She’ll sit with you and talk until the issue is resolved.

So when my third call goes unanswered, my heart begins pounding hard.

Stabbing my fingers in my hair, I try again. “Pick up, pick up, pick up.” I chant as I pace.

When she doesn’t answer, I contemplate calling Eomma but stop and decide against it. I shouldn’t worry her.

So I go through her messages which mostly contain questions asking where I was.

Then I move to the voice messages.

I listen to the first one.

“Hey, are you okay? You are not responding to my messages and calls. It made me worry. I should be pissed, you know. You made me wait for an hour outside my apartment.” She breathes. “But I am not mad. I am just… worried. Please call me.”

The next one.

“Okay, now I am officially late to my own party and I don’t care about it. I am heading to your place.”

I move to the next voice message.

“I am so tired right now. My feet are killing me and my cab just canceled on me. I might have to walk a little bit to get a taxi. Don’t worry, I’ll be there soon. I hope you are okay.”

Coldness drips down my spine as I listen to her.

I move to the next.

She breathes hard as if she’s been running. “Archer…. I t-think someone’s following me. I saw a homeless man when I turned a corner ten minutes ago. I think I dodged him. Also, I think I am lost. Please call me if you get this. I-I’m scared, Archer. Please… come get me.”

My blood runs cold. Gripping my hair, I try to calm my racing heart.

That was her last voice message. With trembling fingers, I scroll frantically, trying to find another voice message in case I missed it. I didn’t.

I call Eomma.

She is deathly silent. Just rats out the hospital’s name and hangs up.

I run. One of my shoes slides off my feet but I don’t stop. I get behind my wheel and drive like a maniac.

“No, no, no.” I shake my head frantically. Not allowing a single bad thought to take root in my brain.

“She’s okay.” I feel tremors running through me as I climb out and dash inside the hospital.

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