SUCKER PUNCH 🛶 PACEY WITTER [book one]

CHAPTER FORTY

CORRUPTED LUNGS

...🛶...

SITTING under the Capeside boardwalk, Heather stared out at the rippling water by the bank, birds tweeting in the background like a birdsong symphony. Between her fingers lay an unlit cigarette that she twirled absentmindedly, her thoughts clouded over in a hazy fog.

"Need a light?"

Heather looked from the flame flickering from the lighter held in front of her before following the denim clad arm all the way up to the familiar smirking face of Abby Morgan. She placed the cigarette to her lips before leaning forward, allowing the flames to kiss the tip and she inhaled a deep puff of smoke.

"So, what are you doing down here?" Abby questioned, hopping up onto the little half wall of concrete "All alone..."

Heather opened her mouth to respond before her eyebrows furrowed as her mind drew up blank, unable to see through the dark cloud inside her mind "I-I don't remember."

Abby continued to smirk as she watched Heather smoke "Careful baby, that'll kill you."

She frowned before the smoke seized her lungs and her eyes widened as she coughed, desperately trying to catch a breath "Help."

The Morgan girl hopped down, strolling to lean down in front of Heather as she struggled "You gotta wake up, Heather."

The Leery girl gasped as she sat up, her eyes wide as a cough escaped her, heart hammering inside her tight chest before it slowly settled. Running a hand through her tangled her she sighed as she realised it was just a dream.

"Heather!" Pacey's voice carried up the stairs "Get your cute butt down here, Leery! Junior year awaits."

Heather sighed as she looked over at her vanity, spotting the golden pom-poms with rhinestone studded handles "Junior year."

...🛶...

BREAKFAST at the Leery's had gotten significantly quieter over the summer break, for after Heather woke up in the hospital hooked to an oxygen mask, everything had come out. Dawson had caught Mr. Potter cocaine handed and for telling the police, Joey vowed never to forgive him. And it seemed Joey's burning hatred for Dawson had spilled onto Heather, for the Leery girl hadn't seen her best friend since the night of the fire. Jen had moved back in with her Grams, taking Jack with her to stay in her Gramps old room and Dawson had taken off to intern at his mothers new station for the summer which only left Pacey.

After a fist fight with his old man, the Witter boy had spent every waking minute with Mitch and Heather and his sleeping one's in Dawson's bed. But the Leery boy had returned just in time for their junior year, and Dawson had spent the entire morning gushing about the mystery girl he'd met on his bus trip back from Philadelphia.