Page 61 of The Illicit Play
She called you, man. So get going.
Holding in my sigh, I squash down the myriad emotions battling for top position in my chest and start running again.
“Which bottle shop is it?”
There’s a pause and I hear a muffled, gruff voice in the background, then Blake’s shaky reply. “Liquor King. It’s on Maple.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I promise her.
CHAPTER 17
BLAKE
Calling Grady was fucking humiliating.
This entire thing has been fucking humiliating!
Mr. Liquor King marched me into a back room where he took my photo on a polaroid camera, then made me sit and wait.
“Don’t touch anything.” He pointed at me before he door slammed shut, the lock clicked, and I became his prisoner.
This has got to be me at my worst, right?
Not getting totally wasted at a stranger’s party, then puking everywhere.
Not leaving college with my tail between my legs.
Not all the stupid shit I did in Chicago.
But this.
This moment right here.
Locked in a back room of a liquor store to avoid being carted off to a police station.
Fuck!
My insides are in chaos.
Why did I pick Grady to come get me? Why him?
He’s probably talking to my brother right now, telling Wily all about how he’s heading to the liquor store to collect me and coming up with a bunch of reasons why I’m being detained here.
They’ll figure it out—they’re not stupid. And then they’ll have to decide what to do with me after that.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
Wily’s gonna hit the roof, and then he’ll tell my parents, and they’ll kill me for being an irresponsible little shit. And the truth is gonna come out, and I’ll have to air my dirty laundry and face the consequences.
I can’t!
I can’t face them!
My parents will never speak to me again.
Because you’ll be dead!
Ugh. If only it were that easy. They won’t kill me. No, they’ll lecture me and be so fucking disappointed in me. They’ll be horrified, hurt, confused, and it’s not like I can explain it to them, because I don’t know why I jumped off the rails!
