Page 20 of The Love of My Next Life
Macon snorts and mumbles something likefucking stacked, dick.Julian just rolls his eyes and pats Macon’s thigh. Casper and I walk quietly alongside Julian, listening to him pant and heave as Macon hangs lifeless. I hate it. I can’t stop searching Macon’s face to make sure he’s breathing.
“She didn’t mean that,” I whisper to the guys, to myself. “She doesn’t want Macon to OD.” She couldn’t have meant that. She doesn’t know the gravity of what she said.
The guys stay quiet, and Casper glances at me. Gives me an apologetic look. Like I’m naïve. Like I don’t know my best friend. And I say nothing.
Julian and Casper have to lay Macon out flat and pull him through the hole in the fence. If the situation weren’t so fucked up, it might be funny. Then they lift him carefully and slide him into the bed of the truck. Claire is already sitting in the driver’s seat with the radio blaring.
“Hey, Len, could you—” Casper starts, but I’m already pulling myself into the bed of the truck with Macon. I give Casper a tight smile, and he mouths a thank you.
“You’re gonna be cold,” Julian says, then pulls off his hoodie and hands it to me. I take it gratefully and pull it on. It’s a nice night, but driving down the road in the open bed of a truck is going to be freezing. I don’t even care that the hoodie smells like weed.
“Thanks, Julian. Chris. Just...thanks.”
“You can call me Casper, Lennon,” Casper says, and I smile, just as Claire puts the truck in drive and takes off.
I position myself next to Macon with my back against the cab, then try to maneuver him so he’s lying on his side. At my touch, I feel his body vibrate. I rub his arm lightly to try and comfort him, and he inches his way up, so his head is in my lap.
I move my hand from his arm to his curls and gently run my fingers through them. I’ve always wanted to see what his hair felt like. It’s impossibly soft. So much so that I’m almost jealous. He makes a sound like a whimper, then presses his face into my lower belly. I can feel his breath through my shorts, heating the spot between my legs, and I freeze.
“Hmmm,” he hums against my body, then inhales deeply, making me blush crimson. He slides one of his hands up the leg of my shorts, and I slap my hand over his, just as the tips of his fingers graze my naked hip. He lets out a bark of laughter, then passes out.
I keep my fingers on his pulse point the entire drive back to his house.
When Claire pulls the truck up to the curb and gets out, she comes back and hoists herself up on the back tire, scowling at Macon.
“How are we going to get him inside?” I whisper.
“Leave him out here,” she says. Her voice is tired. Unfeeling.
“We gotta keep an eye on him, though,” I reason, and she shrugs.
“Let him choke on his own vomit.”
“Jesus Christ, Claire. Quit saying stuff like that.”
She hops back off the tire and turns toward the house.
“I’m going to bed,” she says as she walks away. “If you want to stay with the druggie, be my guest.”
I just gape at her until she disappears behind the front door.
After a while, I drift asleep with my back against the truck cab and Macon’s face resting on my thighs. The sun is just starting to rise when I’m awoken by the faintest touch stroking my neck.
I flutter my eyes open and am met with Macon’s piercing blue ones. I hold still as he runs his fingers over the bite mark he left on Monday night.
“Astrea,” he whispers, dropping his eyes to the bruise on my neck. He moves his hand from my neck to my hair and twirls a strand around his index finger. “Sweet, sweet Lennon Capri.”
He locks his eyes with mine and we just sit there, staring. It’s the weirdest feeling, this connection. Thisspark. I’m barely close to understanding it when he jolts up quickly, throws his torso over the side of the truck, and pukes everywhere.
FIVE
I leftClaire’s early on Saturday, under the guise of wanting to “prep for my date.”
Really, I just didn’t want to run into Macon.
I’m still shook from the whole scene on Friday night. Claire’s behavior. Macon’s...whatever. I don’t know how to process it all.
My date with Eric went fine. We got along really well. We went to dinner at a steakhouse in Suffolk, then out to see the new blockbuster movie. He put his arm around me in the theater and walked me to my door. Kissed me on the cheek before I went inside. Asked me to go to a party with him next weekend.
