Page 74 of Crash and Burn
Tears did fill her eyes then, turning them glossy.
"I made a huge mistake," she said. "I never should have—" her breath hitched as she shook her head. "I've regretted it every day since."
For all the times Grant had looked at a loss for words with me, it was nothing compared to the utterly unmoored expression on his face now. He wavered on his feet, as if the ground was literally shifting under him. He gripped the bar counter behind him with shaky hands and used it to prop himself upright.
"Alana…" Grant's mouth opened and closed without another word.
"Can we go somewhere alone?" She ducked her head shyly. "We need to talk."
"We—" Grant's voice broke before clearing it. He still looked lost, confused and overwhelmed. "Yeah. Uh— We can go somewhere." Grant looked to me. “I’m so sorry,” he started, his voice strained. “I need to go. I’ll call you later.”
This entire time, it felt as if my heart had stopped beating. As if my lungs had stopped breathing. I had no idea what was going on and I was just waiting for Grant to explain.
But he didn't. Instead, he took that girl, Alana, by the arm and left the bar with her.
The door swung closed.
I stared after them as my entire world crashed and burned around me.
25
Aharsh blaring sound jolted me upright in bed, heart-pounding as the last vestiges of some terrible dream faded from my hazy mind. The details were fuzzy but the hollow pit in my stomach and slowly fading sense of dread reminded me that I'd spent the night having terrible visions — dreaming of the end of the world, watching as the earth burned. I shuddered and clutched a pillow to my chest.
In my sleepy daze, the noise and my nightmares blurred together, making me wonder if the blaring was a warning siren announcing nuclear war was upon us.
I squinted into the harsh light streaming from my windows, my head pounding. The blaring continued. It was my alarm. I'd overslept. It wasn't the end of the world after all.
Then, as I rubbed my bleary eyes and pondered my raging headache, all memory of the day before caught up with me. That hollow pit bottomed out into a cavernous sinkhole.
I'd been wrong.
Itwasthe end of the world.
Tears filled my eyes as my fists unconsciously clenched the rumpled sheets. I took a deep breath, trying not to hyperventilate. I'd been awake for less than two minutes. I couldn't already be falling apart.
But how could I not be? Grant had walked out on me, his arm around another woman. He'd left me. Forher— whoever "her" was.
Slowly, the events of the previous night came back to me. I remembered the aftermath of Grant's exit. The three other people in the bar had been flabbergasted.
"What the hell was that about?" Evan had asked in the ensuing silence. "Do you guys know her?"
"No," Mason had replied, sounding utterly baffled. "I've never seen her before in my life." Mason had then turned to me, worry and sympathy in his eyes. "Has Grant ever mentioned some girl named Alana to you?"
My throat had been as dry as a desert. I couldn't speak. All I could do was shake my head no.
That simple motion, the back and forth of my head, had been enough to send the world spinning off its axis. Or maybe the world had already been spinning out of control and I was just then aware of it. At that moment, it certainly had felt as if the entire globe was falling out from beneath my feet.
Bree had guided me to sit on the closest bar stool. Mason had already poured me a drink, a straight up glass of whiskey, neat with no ice.
The last thing I remembered was knocking back the shot, slamming the empty glass down on the table, and demanding another in a wavering voice. Mason must have obliged my request for more, because that was the last thing I remembered.
Not to mention, the taste inside my mouth was rank enough to scare away a rancid skunk.
I put my aching head in my hands and groaned pitifully.
Grant, some girl named Alana, and straight up whiskey — not exactly a stellar combination, apparently.
"Mew?" Mittens jumped up on the bed and poked her nose into my side.
