Page 225 of Burn Bright
Then I turn back to her. “Audrey?”
“She came down here herself,” Leif says civilly, trying to dig himself out of this ten-foot ditch. Several frat brothers corroborate while munching on football-shaped, perfectly iced cookies from a Tiffany Blue tin.
“Did you?” I ask Audrey.
“I did.” She struggles to sit up and just abandons the effort. My ears are ringing with adrenaline. I am a malfunctioning, broken computer. My system is completely crashing. I normally can read body language like I’m AI, but my intelligence has spun back to the Jurassic period.
“I was looking for you,” she explains with panicky eyes.
“You found me,” I say, not sure how to calm her because I am going out of my mind.
“You…you mentioned you’d be at the party, remember?”
“Yeah.”Yeah.I told her about the football party. I said I’d be stopping by the Kappa house tonight. Did not tell her I was dropping out. Did not tell her when I’d be here. When she asked for further information, I just said,probably late, around midnight.
It’s around midnight.
“I wanted to surprise you…I took a rideshare.” A fucking rideshare? “I just thought I could…make friends with your friends. And you’d invite me over more.” Her eyes glass, her nose flaring with emotion, and she leans closer to whisper, “They are your friends? Aren’t they?” Her terror is terrifying me.
She trusted them because of me—because she believes I trust my friends.
The urge to vomit is surging rapidly. I feel violently ill.
Do not puke.
“Ben?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I nod, unable to tell her the truth. That, no, I wouldn’t even trust Dalton Academy’s hockey team alone with her—and I knew them for fuckingyears.I just met half these guys in this basement eight weeks ago.
She tries to relax. “Okay, so…we’re okay.”
We are not okay.
I am not okay.
I look her over frantically. Trying to reboot myself. Her frilly burgundy dress has a high neckline, long-sleeves. A gold locket lies against her heart.Burgundy. Gold.MVU’s colors. Her clothes aren’t torn. Blood drains out of my face when I see her bare feet and the lacy white stockings on the floor. “Where are your shoes?” I sling my death-decaying glare at Leif. “Whothe fucktook off her socks and shoes?”
“She twisted her ankle coming down the stairs.” Leif rakes a nervous hand through his brown hair. “Believe me, we were just trying to help her, man.”
“It’s true, I tripped.” Audrey intakes a weird, slow breath. She reaches for her foot but doesn’t wince.
“We were icing it for her,” Leif adds, pointing to the Miller can that fell off the cushion. They were icing her foot with cold beer. Her right ankle is a hundred percent swollen and puffy.
Audrey has this questioning, anxious look in her eye.
“Did they do anything?” I whisper under my breath to her, still in a squat beside the couch. “Audrey, you can tell me.” I’m just barely hanging on right now. It feels like a monster is trying to rip out of my ribcage.
She attempts to shake her head, but it’s weaker. Her cheek lies back on the armrest. “They’ve helped…I think.”
“You think?” My brain pounds. “Did you drink a beer, vodka, anything?” Did they roofie her? I start thinking about Winona, and I want to collapse to my knees and scream.
“No, I didn’t.”She didn’t drink anything.
“She couldn’t put weight on her foot,” Leif explains. “She was in a lot of pain. So I told her to take a seat on the couch and wait for you.”
I see blood-red. Fury incinerates me.“Where’s the text telling me my sister showed up?! Where’s the text telling me she got hurt coming down the stairs?!”
“Yeah, you’re right, I should’ve texted.” Leif shifts his weight uneasily, his hands threaded behind his neck. “Ben.Look, we’re all brothers here.”
