*FREE WITH PAID BONUS CHAPTER*After being dumped by her boyfriend, Elodie Shepherd resigns herself to loving her older brother's best friend from afar, just like she always has, even though he only sees her as his best friend's immature kid sister.
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My fake ID barely got me through the door.
The bouncer gave it a once, then a twice over, until finally I breathed a sigh of relief and he allowed me into the club.
Bought on a whim when Ben had wanted to take me out on the town and get me drunk for the first time after my eighteenth birthday ten months prior, the fake had been burning a hole in my wallet just begging to be used, and what better time than the night that he'd broken up with me?
My brother and his wife and their perfect, happy family growing by the minute wouldn't miss me, considering I'd told them I would be out to dinner and a movie with Ben and would most likely stay over with him, something that I'd been allowed to do once I turned eighteen.
Eli hadn't liked it because he didn't want to think of his little sister as having any kind of sex life whatsoever, but V had convinced him.
She had been a bright light in our family that brought us out of the darkness while we did the same for her after her family trauma. Dark recognizes dark, and damn if I didn't corner the market on all things gloomy and colorless.
The instant the cool New York air and bustling city lights were zapped by the humid, smoky air of the club and filled my body with a buzzing, energized glow, I could finally let my walls evaporate into the numb place of my mind where my problems existed.
I didn't partake in drinking often, but after the night I'd had? I'd take a girly vodka drink over feeling the after effects of that breakup any day.
I had thought to call my best friend from the moment I'd moved to New York, Phoebe, just as our favorite song started playing over the speakers, but the moment the alcohol stung my veins, I wondered what the point of that would be.
To allow her to commiserate with me? To have her try and cheer me up when 'happy' was the farthest thing I wanted to be in that moment seemed more like torture, when all I wanted to do was wallow in self pity and maybe lose myself in a stranger.
I'd never done it before, but how hard could it be? And if he was a creeper, well...I was a blue belt in a martial arts specifically for self defense, so I wasn't all that worried, especially since I knew the cardinal rules of partying.
1. Never leave your drink unattended or accept an opened drink from someone, even if you know them.
2. If you go home with a guy, take a picture of his license plate and screenshot his social media and send it to your best friend.
3. CONDOMS.
I also had a special app on my phone that, if I opened it and pressed the button three times, it would call my first three emergency contacts, the police, and send my location to the police as well, so, I had most of my bases covered.
I went out alone more often than I cared to admit...
It was easier that way, being alone.
When Ben was out of town or Eli and V were doing their separate things, being a basketball superstar and a musical superstar, respectively, I had taken to going out by myself while Evie stayed with V's grandparents.
