Page 11 of The One I Hate
“I’m fine.”
“Just put it on, Bug,” I say, taking it back from her and holding it so she can slip her head into it. She shimmies it on, and it takes all I have to push down the feeling of satisfaction I get from seeing her in an item of my clothing.
“I hate that name.”
“No you don’t.”
She lets out a sigh as she gives in. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I did. I’m a gentleman.”
She tilts her head and gives me a look. “Really? Since when?”
I smile and put my arm back around her, bringing her head back down to my shoulder. “Since always, Bug. Since always.”
The telltale sound of a sob brings me back to the present, and my body goes on high alert. I walk around the side of the building and it’s déjà vu—only more than a decade later.
Charlie is sitting on what looks like a crate, hair hanging over her face, sobbing.
I start to walk toward her but stop myself.
She doesn’t want my comfort now.
She doesn’t want my words.
She doesn’t want any part of me.
She hates me.
Which I get, because in this moment, I hate myself.
Chapter 3
Simon
Idon’t get drunk often.
But when I do, I get fucking sauced.
Which is what I am now. Sauced. Hammered. Shit faced. Four sheets to the rain. Or is it six sheets to the wind?
I don’t know the saying. I don’t know a lot of things right now. Including how much alcohol I’ve consumed. Or why the hotel bar kicked me out. It wasn’t time to close. I know because I can still kind of see the time on my watch. Wait, I bet it was because I called them liars for saying that they ran out of Johnny Walker. They didn’t. They just didn’t want me there because I fell off the barstool.
That’s why they kicked me out. Victory! I do know one thing.
I’m so smart.
Actually I’m not smart. Because I don’t know why I was so mean to Charlie.
Wait! I do. It’s because she didn’t say goodbye to me after we kissed and I missed her so I did the adult version of pulling on her pigtails.
In my defense, her pigtails areso funto pull.
I stumble into the elevator and push the button for every floor because I can’t see straight. The only thing keeping meupright is this wall and the sound of my stomach growling for food.
“Did I eat tonight?” I say to no one. I didn’t. I forgot. I was too busy drinking because I made Charlie cry. As soon as I left the tasting I parted ways with Shane then went immediately to the hotel bar. I was supposed to have dinner with my buddy Emmett, but I canceled. I had more pressing matters to take care of, like drinking myself stupid to punish myself for how I acted today.
The elevator door opens and closes one by one. It’s going to take forever to get to the sixteenth floor. Oh well, gives me time to think about what food I’m going to order.
