Wrecked (39 page)

Blood
rushed to my face, making it feel extra hot against the cold wind. “Why not?”

“Haven’t
you done enough damage?” Gary yelled. “Look at him! Look at what you’ve done!”

Stunned, I
opened my mouth to speak. This was all too much.

“Lorrie,”
Hunter mumbled.

Both our
gazes flew down to Hunter. His eyes were open but he wasn’t all there. He
looked between me and Gary, mumbling incoherently under his breath.

“We need
to get out of here,” Nick said. He and his partner hefted Hunter up into the
ambulance before he turned back to us. “Both of you are welcome to visit him in
the hospital during visiting hours. Is one of you riding with us or not?”

“I’m
coming,” Gary said. Nick looked at me briefly then nodded and climbed into the
back of the vehicle. Gary turned to me. “I’ve known Hunter for a few years now.
He has plenty of his own issues, but at least he was working on them. You came
along and he got totally obsessed with you. At first it seemed like you made
him better, but then he just got worse. A lot worse. He missed training,
flipped out at that party, skipped classes, all kinds of stuff. Then you pulled
the rug out from under him, and I haven’t seen anyone fall that hard. Ever.
Listen, Lorrie, I know you didn’t mean for all this to happen, but you’re no
good for each other.”

Gary’s
words hit me hard. I felt like I was the one who had just been punched in the
face. I had suspicions that even when Hunter and I were holed up in his
apartment, lost in our own little world, that our relationship wasn’t entirely
healthy, but hearing it from Gary felt like a stake through my heart.

Gary
hopped into the back of the ambulance as I stood there stunned and still
processing what he’d said to me. He turned back to me with his lips pursed and
sighed. “I’ll tell him you came to talk to him,” he said. “If he wants to talk,
he’ll come find you. If he doesn’t, please stay away. I don’t want to do this
again.”

I nodded
limply and he shut the door. The ambulance drove off, sirens fading into the
distance, leaving me feeling like an empty husk.

Gary was
right. We weren’t good for each other.

WRECKED

I sat on the bus back to
Indiana and watched the streetlights fly by. They were the only breaks in
darkness for miles as we rolled through Illinois farm country. My head pressed
up against the glass, I thought about the last few days, trying to hold all my
emotions in.

How had it
all happened? It was the nightmare I’d been trying to avoid: a messy breakup.
Yet again, I’d proven I couldn’t trust myself to ride out the twists and turns
my life presented. Letting myself get so attached to someone had been a huge
mistake. I’d dragged us both down, and now one of us was in the hospital.
Sorrow clenched in my chest.

I curled
up in my seat and hoped for the hundredth time since the bus left the station
that Nick the medic was right and Hunter would be okay. He had seemed pretty
confident and I believed him in the heat of the moment, but now I was having
second thoughts. I’d never seen someone look so beat up. What was going to
happen to him? What had led to a breakdown like that?

A dull
ache throbbed in my heart. Whatever Hunter had been dealing with over the past
week, he hadn’t wanted my help. I looked around the bus at my fellow
passengers. Many were sleeping. The man and woman across the aisle from me were
nestled together lovingly. The peaceful expression on the woman’s face as she
lay her head on his chest painfully reminded me of the way I did that with
Hunter. She looked like she was claiming that spot for life.

Sighing, I
threw myself back in my seat and stared out the window some more, thankful I
didn’t have someone sitting next to me. I needed space to myself right now. The
hurt inside was too much to bear.

If Hunter
didn’t end up being okay I would never forgive myself. I closed my eyes,
letting a tear roll down my cheek. I was never going to see him again. There
would be no tearful reunion, no working stuff out. The world wouldn’t be that
kind to us. Our brief time of happiness together was over.

I began to
cry harder, doing my best to stay quiet and not embarrass myself. The tears rolling
down my cheeks became warm, salty streams. What was going to happen to Hunter?
Did he hate me now? Would he think that I abandoned him? Even when I tried to
live a normal life, something always came to drag me back. Dad had been wrong.
I wasn’t strong enough. I wasn’t rolling a giant boulder up a hill every day, I
was caught under it.

And I
couldn’t break free.

WAKE

Hunter

My head felt like someone
was jabbing a knife into my temple. The second thing I noticed was the
unpleasant smell of the hospital and I knew where I was without even opening my
eyes. How had I gotten back here? What had happened? I wasn’t sure what my last
memory was; I couldn’t separate my fevered dreams from reality.

I felt
pressure on my eyes as I tried to open them. This was a familiar feeling. I’d
clearly just had my ass kicked. My entire face felt like shit.

“You
there, bud?” a man’s voice asked.

It was
Gary. He must have come with me to the hospital.

I craned
my neck over toward his voice. He was blurry at first, but eventually his face
came into focus. “Yeah, I’m here,” I croaked, discovering that my throat was
bone dry.

He watched
me for several seconds, deep concern marring his expression. “Do you remember
anything?”

“If you’re
asking me whether I remember how my face got so fucked up, the answer is no.”

He sighed
and his jaw worked silently. “Okay. Figured as much, but thought I should ask.”

“What
happened?”

His eyes
narrowed. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

My mind
was fuzzy, but slowly, it was coming back.

“Lorrie,”
I rasped quietly.

Gary’s
expression was a mix of pain and relief. “Yeah.”

I took
several deep breaths. There it was. We were done. She was on a bus taking her
far away from Studsen, to deal with her own pain. I had saved her that cold
winter day when I pulled her out of the lake, but I couldn’t save her from what
she was dealing with now.
Goddammit.

Clenching
my fists, I tried to sit up, but was stopped by the IV hanging from my left
arm. I used my right hand to grab the needle so I could yank it out.

Gary
grabbed my wrist fiercely. “Whoa, dude, settle down! Where do you think you’re
going?”

“Get off
me,” I growled softly.

His grip
remained strong. “Stop trying to rip your IV out and I will.”

My muscles
tensed. I tried to contain my anger, but it was no use. My whole body began to
shake.  The way Gary was trying to physically restrain me from going after
Lorrie seriously pissed me off.

“Lorrie!”
I roared. I ripped the IV out of my arm and sat up. A searing pain shot through
my arm.

Gary
tackled me back onto the bed. He glared, his eyes a pair of thin flames.
“Stop!” he yelled. “Hospital security will take a fucking taser to you and
strap you to that bed if that’s what it takes. Nobody wants that.”

I
struggled for a second, but it was no use. Weakened as I was, I couldn’t fight
Gary.

After I’d
calmed down, he looked to the door, but nobody had responded to our raised
voices. “Now tell me what’s on your mind,” he said, his voice lowered. “What
are you going to do?”

I froze
and stared at him. What could I do? Gary was right. I was stuck in a hospital
bed while Lorrie was on a bus going somewhere far, far away. Was I going to
chase the bus down? In my current state? I could barely move my legs.

Defeated,
I slumped back in my bed, my breath coming in thin wheezes. I’d lost this
round. Gary watched me for a second, then took his hands off my wrists. My
hands dropped heavily to my sides. I wasn’t going anywhere.

We sat in
silence for a few minutes. My swollen eyes were focused on nothing in
particular. There was nothing to look at. It was a hospital. I was stuck in a
sterile room again, waiting until I could go home so I could go do whatever.
I’d regret the past few days, mostly. And probably drink too much.

“You
good?” Gary asked, breaking the silence. “I’m gonna go hit the bathroom. You’re
not gonna do anything stupid, right?”

I looked
up at him and nodded.

His lips a
thin line, he turned to walk out but stopped at the door. “Listen, before she
left, she came to the fight. Said she wanted to talk to you. Do you remember
any of that? You know what I think of that, but I promised her that I’d tell
you.”

He watched
me for a reaction, but when I didn’t give him one, he turned and walked out the
door. I wasn’t sure how to react. A ringing began in my ears as I rocked back
and forth.
Lorrie wanted to talk. She hadn’t given up on me.
This wasn’t
the end of us. This was a blank slate.

I was
going after her even if it killed me.

Rescued
(Wrecked Book Two)

Coming
Early 2014

“There
would be no happy ending for us. He was too damaged. I was too broken.”

The
conclusion to Priscilla West’s
Wrecked
.

Lorrie’s
semester started off hopeful but ended in disaster. Now, she’s even more lost
and confused than she was at the beginning of the year. As Lorrie flees to the
only family she has left, she has to come to terms with how things ended with
Hunter.

Hunter
has fought for so long to keep the truth from Lorrie in an effort to protect
her, but it has only caused more heartache and pain.

Realizing
his mistake, Hunter has made a vow to get Lorrie back, but is it too late?

Will
Hunter be able to overcome his own demons and help Lorrie through her pain, or
are they destined to keep hurting each other?

Thank you for reading!

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