Below me, I didn’t see Sloane. I saw Fallon.

––––––––

I woke up with a rotten feeling in my stomach. Was this what regret felt like?

No, it was just a bad hangover–nothing I hadn’t dealt with before. That, and I only slept for maybe three hours.

I heaved my tired and beaten body out of bed, nabbing a shirt from the floor. My room was a complete mess from the way Sloane liked to have sex. Trying to blur those thoughts, I looked around and sighed in relief when I saw that Sloane had left. I rubbed my face and eyes, hoping to wipe off at least one bad decision.

I made too many bad decisions, but I loved doing it.

The whole situation was really fucking stupid. First, my grandfather beats me senseless and tells me to stay away from Fallon because she’s Maria’s kid and I shouldn’t “taint” her with my bastard ass. Second, I shouldn’t have let Sloane stay, but I really wanted to get fucking laid and she was far too easy to get into bed.

Fuck, I wanted to punch something.

My fist connected with a thud and a crack, breaking through the wall, leaving a nice gaping wound.

I turned to grab my jacket–only to realize it wasn’t there–and threw the chair across the room, breaking my lamp into multiple pieces. My room became chaos, just like my mind.

Whatever, I’ll fix it later.

The cold flooring on my feet was a welcomed sensation as I shuffled into the kitchen. I pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge to freeze out my insides, pushing away whatever feelings I was having down with the water.

“Hey, bro!” Josh walked into the kitchen. “Sounded like a hell of a time for you and...” he trailed off.

No one could keep up with who I brought into my room.

“Just some chick,” I said, grabbing some leftovers from the fridge.

He laughed. “Well, save some chicks for the rest of us, dude.” He smacked my back as he went to prep the coffee pot.

“Yeah, I’ll try.” Try to forget Sloane was ever here. Sitting at the island, I dug into the styrofoam container of cold Chinese food.

Josh filled two cups of coffee and came to sit next to me at the island. He was a good guy, just a bit on the naive side of life. If only I had some of the same luxuries.

“You coming out to the field today? Coach said it was mandatory.”

Of course he did. “I think that’s what mandatory means.”

​Chapter 8

Fallon