Page 8 of Beautifully Broken
My thumb brushes against her pale cheek. “Come back to me, Ivy. We are just getting started.”
Chapter 5
Blaire
Darkness surrounds me completely. Tentatively, my hands glide against what feels like silk sheets, and pain radiates throughout my entire body.
Why does it feel like I got hit by a bus?
Something hard hits my fingertips and I scramble, finding a switch, and I flip it. The room is instantly bathed in a dull, warm glow.
The room looks like it belongs in a millionaire’s bachelor pad. A perfectly manicured bed, composed of silk sheets, pillowcases, and a large wooden headboard is the main focal point amongst the dark, wooden furniture. A small sliver of light escapes from the floor-to-ceiling blackout curtains.
I move to sit up and my body screams in pain.
Where am I? What happened to me? Why does everything hurt?
Think Blaire. Think!
“I’m sorry, sir, but I already told Alec I will be out for the foreseeable future. Yes. It is her. No. I do not require assistance. I’m sorry, sir. I understand. Yes, I am available for a consult if it is quick.”
I freeze.
Ezra. The hospital. Tank nearly killing me.
I need to get out of here. Sitting up, I try to swing my legs to the side so I can make a run for it, but I can’t. Every muscle in my body aches and my head feels like I’m underwater.
Ezra is back.
An angry chuckle escapes me. I can’t help but think it's only right that the man I once loved, who became the person I hate the most in the world, would return on the day he made countless false promises to me ten years ago. Promises that were left broken and leaving me to live a life that was no longer in my control.
Ezra’s long, dark hair flies in the wind as we sit shoulder to shoulder on top of a picnic table in my backyard.
Without uttering a single word, I watch as Ezra’s hands shake as he slips the needle under his skin, plunging who knows what into his veins.
“Ya know, you probably could keep a job if you weren’t addicted to whatever the hell is in that needle,” I say, bumping my shoulder against his once he caps the needle.
His almost white eyes flash to me and he shrugs. Leaning in close, he rests his forehead against mine and our gaze locks in a trance I can only describe as the best high. “I could. But the only job within fifty miles is a damn Piggly Wiggly. I’ll take this shit over grannies getting their umbrella panties in a wad when their coupons don’t work.”
We both chuckle. He’s not wrong. And truthfully, I don’t blame him.
Sitting back, my hands prop me up as I tilt my face towards the summer sun. I feel Ezra’s hand caress my knee and a sense of comfort settles over us.
Ezra and I are the classic tale of small town trailer park kids stuck in a sea of bad luck brought on by the shitty decisions of our absent parents. Throw in that I fell in love with my brother’s best friend and after I walk across that rickety stage with my diploma in hand, we have plans to say goodbye to this town forever and we make the perfect Lifetime movie.
T-minus one week and we get to say goodbye to this shitty ass town forever. Part of me wants to just say to hell with it and leave tomorrow because there is still a chance Ezra could change his mind. After all, Ezra just so happens to be his number one client.
Did I forget to throw in that my brother is the ruthless leader of what we call the Kings of Ripper Valley? A deadly and lucrative drug ring that supplies anything from Adderall to coke to stuff that could kill you instantly if you slip it into the wrong vein to everyone from lonely housewives to our very own “law enforcement”. I say that term loosely because the police here only respond when someone is dying. Your parents leave town for three weeks to go on some bender at the casinos and leave you with no food? They will drop off a loaf of bread at your door and call it a day.
To say I hate them would be a stretch because if it wasn’t for them, I would have never gotten close to Ezra.
Our parents took off on a trip to who knows where and we were forced to spend almost six months together. Carson, Ezra, and I doing anything we could to keep ourselves alive.
While Carson used that time to really make his mark as the crazed leader he is today to put food on our table, it forced Ezra and me together. One day something switched, and it was like I no longer saw him as my best friend, but something much more.
The first time his lips met mine, I—
A shadow falls on my face and I open my eyes to Ezra staring down at me with a grin. “Whatcha thinking about, Ivy? Me, I hope.”
