Page 80 of Toeing the Line

I try to turn him so he can sit, but he’s so much bigger than I am that he pulls me down with him. Somehow we twist so that I land on my back and he’s hovering over me. His eyes are just as drunk as the rest of him and they swirl and skitter from my lips to my neck to my ears, until finally, they meet mine. His eyes focus, become clearer. My heart skitters in my chest.

“Hey there,” he says, quietly.

“Hey there,” I say, biting my bottom lip.

His eyes track to my mouth. My stomach clenches as he brushes hair off my forehead so gently that my eyelashes flutter shut. There’s something different about his gaze. It’s full of curiosity, or maybe wonder.

“Zeke,” I whisper, feeling him leaning in so slowly. My breath catches in my throat and I look at his lips as they draw closer.

“Everything okay?” Freddy says from the door and Zeke freezes.

“Yeah,” I say, hoping he can’t hear how breathless I am. “Could use a little help.”

Zeke rolls off of me and starts laughing.

“Something funny, buddy?” Freddy asks, and Zeke loses it, laughing hysterically.

“We’re all just such damn goodbuddies,” he says, cracking himself up. But there’s a sharp edge to it.

“You okay, Faye?” Freddy says, his eyes flickering between me and the drunk asshat rolling around on my bed.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Freddy reaches for my hand and I let him tug me to my feet. He studies his friend for another long moment and then places a gentle hand on my shoulder. “Think you could get him some water?”

I nod and go to the kitchen. Plucking two bottles from the cooler, I press one to my flushed cheek. This is all too much.

“I’m going to kill that man. And then I’m going to gut him and feed his offal to whatever free-range bird he’s planning to stuff into apalmeni…” Aly hisses, grabbing a bottle of something and knocking it back.

“Lex is here, huh?” I say, making a face.

She nods with a violent shiver, and then chucks the bottle cap across the room, missing the garbage can. She winces.

“I’ll get that in the morning.”

“I know you will.”

She takes a long pull, studying me for a long moment. When she’s done suckling her beer bottle, her eyes get big and round.

“Oh, Fayebug, what happened?”

She wraps an arm around me as I shake my head and shrug. “I can’t win.”

“Tell mama more.”

“I’m trying, you know?” I feel the tears churning in my throat. “I’m trying to move on, but then he gets drunk and gives me those eyes…”

“Oh, fuck those eyes,” Aly says.

“Fuck whose eyes?” Caro asks, stumbling into the kitchen.

I quickly fill Caro in as she pours grapefruit soda into a glass of tequila. From the hallway, there’s a loud grunt.

“Aretheytogether now?” Aly asks.

“No,” Caro and I both say together. But then Caro looks down the hall and eyes me with a stealthy look.

“But if they are, you should totally—”

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