Maybe that made me an overachiever.
Then again, maybe I was determined to make something of a life I learned a long time ago wasn’t promised to us.
Maybe I was determined to have something left to hold on to when I lost everything else. Everyone else.
The Uber pulled up to the curb, the heavy music already making it feel like the car’s windows were bending and shaking with the vibrations moving through the air. I took a deep breath, praying for strength, knowing I was probably about to make a scene.
But hey, what’s new?
I knew I had to get in there.
Find her.
Then get the both of us out.
“Thanks,” I called, throwing my backpack over my shoulders before sucking in a deep breath and making a run for the side of the building, avoiding the front. Beta Beta was Cooper’s frat house, and since meeting him briefly the other day, it was clear we didn’t exactly see eye to eye.
It was a trust fund fraternity for fuck boys like him, who were the exact reason I chose the club.
Being a club girl—my duty was to the men there.
Keyword—men.
No dating outside.
No parties without permission.
Both things frat boys couldn’t understand because their entitled, arrogant, rich-boy attitudes vehemently denied there were any women at this college who didn’t want to spend their weekends getting drunk and fucking them.
Wrong again.
I slipped in a side door, carefully sliding past three couples who looked like they could seriously use a bedroom or something. There was smoke in the air, fruity smelling, letting me know it was coming from vaping, not cigarettes.
“It just gets better and better,” I choked, finally making it through the thick crowd of drunks to the upstairs bathroom and slamming my fist against it. “Holly!”
I held my breath.
Please still be breathing.
Please still be breathing.
“Avery?” she slurred my name, her voice so quiet I was lucky I caught it in between the pause of the music. A second later, the lock flicked, and I said a silent prayer, turning the handle and pushing softly, not knowing how close she was.
“Fuck.” I dropped to my knees and scooted across the floor, shoving the door closed with my foot as I scrambled toward Holly’s limp form. “What the hell have you taken?” I whispered, pressing my palm to her cheek and stroking away the fresh tears that were falling.
Her body was struggling, her breathing unnatural and unnerving.
What the hell did I do?
I couldn’t carry her.
Did I call the police?
Campus security?
Letting out a groan, I pinched the bridge of my nose, knowing exactly who I needed to call, and exactly how much shit I was going to get into because of it. But I couldn’t just sit here and watch Holly die.
I couldn’t lose her too.
I swallowed the hard lump in my throat and pulled my cell from my pocket, my heart racing as I pressed it to my ear.
“Yo.”
“Ty, can you come get me?” I stuck my finger in one ear, a useless attempt to block out the thumping music vibrating the walls of the small bathroom I was hiding in.
“Where the hell are you?”
My eyes drifted down to my very drunk, possibly roofied friend who lay across the pristine white tiles. She hadn’t moved for at least a few minutes, and my eyes were constantly watching her stomach, my heart skipping a beat every time she took a little longer to inhale.
“I’m at a frat party.”
Silence.
Thick silence.
“Jesus, Ave! What are you doing at a frat party? You know you ain’t meant to be there.”
I did know, but at that moment, it wasn’t my biggest concern. “Can we skip the lecture,” I pleaded, sweeping my hair back from my face. “I think Holly got drugged, and I can’t get her out of here on my own.”
He groaned loudly into the phone, but I could hear his feet scuffing at the gravel outside the clubhouse as he made his way across the lot toward his Harley. “I told you. Avery—”
“And I fucking heard you,” I snapped back before quickly realizing who I was talking to. Tyler was a prospect but still a club member. They didn’t deserve my disrespect. “Sorry.”
“Text me the address.”
It was harsh, but every muscle in my body collectively relaxed when I realized he was coming.
And I wasn’t on my own.
I hung up, quickly tapping out a text message and crossing my fingers that he got here soon before I wasn’t just dragging my drugged friend from here, but my dead friend.
“Avery, let me in!”
I almost collapsed to the floor in relief as Tyler hammered at the bathroom door around twenty minutes later. The music was so damn loud I couldn’t hear a thing outside this tiny bubble, which meant the usually comforting sound of a motorcycle pulling up outside was totally drowned out.
I leaped up, quickly flicking the lock and pulling the door open. He rushed inside, his eyes scanning the space—something I noticed the boys from the club always did when they were in a place they didn’t know well.
“What’s he doing here?” Holly slurred, her brows pulled together, and her eyes narrowed. She’d come alive a little in the past ten minutes or so, but despite the glassy, dazed eyes, and having no idea what the hell she’d been given, the tone of her voice wasn’t one I appreciated.
“He’s here because you were unconscious, and I couldn’t get you the hell out of here and to the hospital without help.” I tried to keep calm and not yell at her about her issues and the fact that she had called me pleading for help. It was the assholes in this house who drugged her and caused her to pass out, but she’s going to look at Ty like he’s the damn enemy?
All because he’d called her out the other day.
Reaching out, I grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet—not as gently as I could have, might I add—while Ty came around her other side. He hooked one of her arms over his shoulder and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Come on,” he urged, already heading for the door. “I’m scared if I spend too much time in this place, I’ll start wearing bowties and sipping tea on Sundays.”
People stopped and stared as we struggled past, Tyler fighting to keep a confused and droopy Holly from rolling head-first down the frat house’s staircase. At the same time, I shoved drunk college students out of the way.
Holly and I had agreed to disagree about the choices we made during the past year or so that we’d been friends. I was focused on school and had found safety and a comfort within the club. She was determined to get that ‘college experience’ she kept rambling on about. She wanted to party hard and drink herself into an early grave. At one point, I’d convinced myself our differences had been what made us such close friends. That whole opposites attract crap they tell you about, but honestly, I was starting to question everything.
Maybe we were more alike than I wanted to admit.
We simply handled our pain differently.
“Hey!” The sound of his voice over the music sent a shudder down my spine. I kept walking, moving a little faster. Tyler did too, almost making it to the front doors. “Hey! You aren’t leaving just yet, are you? It’s only early.”
We pulled to a halt, and my lip curled in a sneer. “Get out of the way, Cooper. I’m taking her to the hospital.”