K. Linde - Take Me for Granted

Finally, I nodded. Miller released me and then strongly encouraged me to take a seat.

“What’s going on?”

“Yeah, cuz. What the fuck has gotten into you?”

I ground my teeth together and ignored Sydney as she crawled back onto Miller’s lap. Great. One big fucking reminder of what I’d just completely trashed.

“I don’t want to talk about it, so just lay off. I should go find Donovan since you two seem to be a bit lost in your own world, and all my other brothers are gone,” I said bitterly.

“Something happen with Ari?” Sydney probed.

“Did you not just hear me say that I didn’t want to fucking talk about it?” I bit back.

“All right,” Miller said.

He dropped his hand on Sydney’s knee, and she sighed back into his chest. Fuck that!

“Are we done with the interrogation now?” I had other things on my mind, like booze and pot and women and incoherence and blacking out and forgetting that this shit day ever happened.

Miller was giving me a sympathetic look, like he’d already guessed what was going on without me telling him. “Are you sure you want to go hang out with The Drift right now? Being around Donovan and the rest of the band might not be in your best interest.”

I stood abruptly. “The only person who made me care about my best interest just fucking walked out on me, so I don’t think it fucking matters what else I do.”

I woke up at the crack of dawn, feeling like absolute shit, and it wasn’t just from the bottle of whiskey last night. Aribel. Oh shit! No, this could not be happening to my life.

I needed her. I couldn’t go on without her. She was my breath of fresh air. She reminded me what it was like to live. She was the only person I’d ever cared enough about to invest time into. I couldn’t just let her get away.

Throwing my legs over the bed, I immediately regretted my decision. I had a splitting headache and the sudden need to vomit. I braced myself on the side table and then stood up. Drinking with Donovan last night had been a terrible idea. The guy could fucking drink me under the table, and I had no clue how. He’d tried to throw groupies at me, but luckily, I hadn’t been a total shithead. My bed was mercifully empty. I would have regretted that for the rest of my life.

Clothes were a struggle, but I eventually managed to throw something suitable on. Then, I was out of the room and out the front door before the sun had cleared the horizon.

I needed to talk to Ari. I needed to make this right.

That conversation should have never happened. I’d been fucking wasted, and nothing I’d said had come out right. I should have told her that I would never even touch another girl if it meant we were together. I should have told her that Kristin was nobody and that it was wrong for her to be in my suite and that I did understand how serious the situation was. I should have begged Ari to stay. I should have followed her. A heavy cloud of regret settled in the pit of my stomach, and it did nothing for my hangover.

I was still shrugging into my leather jacket in the freezing cold when I reached her door. I banged on it as hard as I could until I felt like my hand was going to fall off from the cold.

“Ari! Are you in there?” I yelled. “I need to talk to you about last night! Please, please talk to me. Aribel! Come on! I’m freezing out here. Can we please just talk this out? I was an idiot. A motherfucking idiot. Look, I don’t care how cold it is out here. I’ll stand out here all day if you won’t let me—”

McAvoy opened the door. “Bro, I think we got that.”

“What the fuck is this?” I asked, bewildered.

“I stayed the night.” He shrugged like it was no big deal.

“With who?”

I wasn’t sure why it even mattered. McAvoy had had his fair share of women, but he wasn’t like Vin and me. He would pick chicks for a purpose, and usually dated them casually. We’d had a number of girls McAvoy dated like that hang around the band for a few weeks, but none of that really mattered right now.

“Gabi.”

Huh, the little pixie. I would have never guessed. “Is Ari in there? I need to talk to her.”

McAvoy looked confused. “She left early this morning.”

“Left for where?” My blood ran cold. No. I need to fix this. She had to let me fix this.

“Bro, I thought you knew. I would have told you.”

“Where did she go?”

“Back to Jersey. I heard her tell Gabi something about an early flight to Boston, but I guess I assumed she meant Sunday.”

“Thanks, man.”

I dashed away back to my room. I heard McAvoy yell something after me, but I didn’t bother listening. I had to get back to Jersey. I had to see her. She could not leave for Boston before we talked.

I packed quickly and grabbed my guitar. I banged on Sydney’s door. When nothing happened, I moved to Miller’s door. “Where the fuck is Sydney?”

Sydney’s head popped out. “Can I help you, resident asshole?”

“We’ve got to go. Get your shit together.”

“What? I’m not going.”

“I need to leave now! So, let’s go.” I was getting hysterical. I needed to get to Ari as fast as I could.

“Bro,” Miller said, “she can come back with us.”

“Take care of her.”

“I’m not a doll.”

“See you later, cuz,” I said, mimicking her nickname.

Then, I was out the door.

The drive back to Princeton felt like it was taking forever. The roads were shit from a snowstorm that had blown in recently. It had been awesome on the slopes, but it wasn’t so great to drive in. I was thankful for my truck because I drove recklessly back to Ari. I just had to get to her. I had to make it right. No matter what it took.

I heard the beating on the door before Cheyenne did. I dashed to her room and flung the door open wide. “Chey, you have to answer the door.”

“Ari, are you sure about this? I’ve never known you to back away from confrontation,” Cheyenne said, her voice sympathetic.

“I’m not backing down from confrontation. We had our confrontation last night, and it was horrible! I can’t talk to him today. Please, I’ve never asked you for anything like this.”

“Besides driving you back from the ski resort a day early when I was getting together with Vin?”

I shuddered. Vin. Gross. “Thank you. You’re the best friend ever.”

“All right, but I’m only doing this because I love you,” Cheyenne said.

She walked to the door, and I huddled on the floor within earshot of the conversation that was about to go down.

I hadn’t thought that Grant would follow me. I’d made a split second decision this morning to come back to Jersey. I’d even called my parents and asked if we could move up the flight to Boston, so I could come home earlier. They’d been surprised since I’d insisted on going on the ski trip in the first place, but they hadn’t complained. They missed me.

Now, Grant was here. What do I do now that he’s here?

“Grant…hey,” Cheyenne answered warily.

“Where is she, Cheyenne?”

My heart pounded from the sound of his voice. I just wanted some space. I needed time to think about whether or not this was what I wanted, but then hearing his voice…it just brought back all the memories.

“She left already.”

“What? No way. Her car is still out there!”

“I dropped her off.”