Page 5 of Bleeding Hearts
I drop my phone to my chest as I throw my hand across my face. My room is quiet except for the soft, crooning voice of Chappell Roan on my vinyl player.
Lifting my phone again, I open the photo album on it, and Lally’s smiling face stares back at me. There are so many pictures of us relaxing here, having movie nights, and days spent exploring and just spending time together.
How could she say there was nothing between us?
I open the last one, and my thumb sweeps over her smile. It’s dimmed, and she looks a little sad, but she’s there with me, at my side, and I would give anything for her to be beside me again. She doesn’t need to smile or pretend.
She just needs to be here.
But she’s not.
Closing the album, I scroll aimlessly through Instagram so I stop thinking about her. Alek’s post is at the top of my feed. He’s smiling down at Evan, who has a camera aimed at a mirror. Fuck, they are so cute. It makes me sick. The next is Skylar’s, and he and Bones are holding hands at a fancy restaurant. I groan at all the happy couples. Everyone I know is happy and in love, and I’m just here, pining after someone who doesn’t even want me anymore.
I keep scrolling through posts before I click on stories, seeing Sash’s, then Liam’s, and a few others before I freeze. It’s someone I know through a friend of a friend, a random guy from lit class, but it isn’t him I’m focusing on as he grins, spinning on the dance floor. I see pink hair in the background.
It’s a color I know better than my own eye color, and I know it’s her before he moves around, playing with his friends but giving me a better view of the party. She’s stumbling around before falling into a big guy’s arms. He grins at his friends and pulls her closer. Her eyes are barely open, and it’s clear she’s drunk as hell. I sit bolt upright, panic winding through my chest as he grabs her, and she’s oblivious.
“Fuck!”
The house is recognizable, it’s one of the frats, and I’m shoving on my shoes, shorts, and oversized shirt before I can even register what I’m doing.
I click through the stories religiously as they come up as I run through campus toward the house. She’s in no state to be alone. Where the fuck are her friends? Who left her alone that drunk? It’s not the first time I’ve gone to her when she’s in this state, and it won’t be the last, but it does seem to be happening more frequently. It’s all she seems to do at the moment—drink, fuck, and party. Some might say she’s just enjoying her college experience, but this isn’t having fun. This is spiraling.
This is self-destruction, and there’s a difference, but no one else seems to care.
Putting my phone away, I maneuver around the drunk college kids spread across the lawn, and once inside, the music pulses as bodies move together. I have to press onto the toes of my tennis shoes to scan the crowd, but it’s no use.
I climb the stairs so I can look over the open living room, searching for a flash of pink as terror clutches my chest. Adrenaline courses through me until I spot a familiar face.
I push through the crowd, not stopping until I’m before him. “Well, hello, gorgeous. I’ve never seen you before?—”
“Yeah, cut the shit. I’m not fucking you. The girl with the pink hair, Lally, where is she?” I demand.
“Pink hair?” He blinks, clearly drunk. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bright pink hair. You were with her less than ten minutes ago. Where did she go?” I press, growing annoyed as his friends grin and look me over suggestively.
He smirks. “Why? Is she a friend?”
“Yes, now where is she?” I snap, barely refraining from grabbing this oversized jerk.
“Bitch threw up on my shoes and stumbled out back,” he scoffs. “You’re much more my type though.”
“Well, you aren’t mine. You have a dick, for starters,” I retort and turn away to head out after her.
His hand latches onto my arm as I turn away. “Stay and play with us. We’ll make you forget all about your friend.”
Anger courses through me, and I turn, forcing a sweet smile as I grab his arm. He relaxes like he thinks he has me, the idiot. Gripping it harder like Bones showed me, I turn and fling him over my shoulder, and he hits the floor hard. The crowd around us stumbles back, but I simply step over him as he curses and yells after me.
I head out the open back door, ignoring the people fucking on the grass as I search for her, frowning when I don’t see her. I head left down a little paved path leading around the house, and I find her around the next corner.
She’s slumped into the wall, her hair over her face. Her legs are spread before her, and her short leather skirt is more like a belt than anything else. The guy is leaning into her, using his phone camera as he runs it across her body. I watch as he reaches out to tug her tube top down, and I lose it.
I grab his hand and snap it back. He yells as he stumbles away, dropping his phone, and when he reaches for it, I slam my foot on it, crushing his camera.
“Report me, I dare you. I’ll report you for filming unconscious girls.”
“Fuck you!” He gets to his feet and hurries away. I watch him go and then I crouch before her.
