Just Pretend

Chapter Sixteen

Jason

I groan as I roll over onto my back, keeping my eyes shut as my phone screams at me to answer it from my bedside table.

My head pounds in tandem with the base of the ringtone signaling the caller's identity as my sister and I reach over, fumbling around until my hand touches the cool, sleek device and I answer it without opening my eyes.

The last two and a half weeks I've been drinking like a fish, trying to forget about the fact that Gwen is not in the country and with a guy with a volatile temper. It's one thing to know she's with him when she's at home where I can see her every few days and know that she's okay still, but completely another if she's in a country where I can't do shit.

'What?' I mumble into the receiver, putting the phone to my ear.

'Gwen's home,' is the first thing I hear over the receiver and my eyes pop open, causing me to groan as the light forces my eyes closed again.

'She didn't let me know,' I mumble as Alyssa tuts over the phone at me.

'Jesus, Jason. You went out drinking again, didn't you?' she demands, the topic of Gwen on the back burner for the moment.

'No. How long has she been home?' I demand from her, scooting up in bed – all the while keeping my eyes tightly shut.

'Two days but no-one has seen her,' she says and I can hear worry slowly creep into Alyssa's voice, causing me to crack my eyelids and try and force myself further up and out of bed.

"She said she's stopping at her parents' before coming home,' I tell her bringing my hand to my face and running it roughly over the rough skin. I need a shave.

'Jason, lift your ass out of bed and sober the fuck up because you're not listening!' she cries into the phone and I hear Clarissa saying that she's just knocked on Gwen's door to no answer but she could hear someone walking in the house. This gets my attention and I open my eyes fully, fighting the urge to shake my head– because of the pounding – and I put Alyssa on loud speaker to run both my hands over my face, scrubbing at the skin to wake me up.

'Okay, okay. I'm awake. What do you mean she's home but no one's seen her? She hasn't been over?' I check my screen to make sure that I didn't somehow miss a message from Gwen, even going so far as going into her chat window and seeing the last message she sent was to let me know she'd gotten back to the hotel okay from her voice-over recording and that was three days ago.

'She hasn't been over here and I can see her moving around in the house. It stays dark the entire day,' she says and I swing my feet off of the bed and push myself off the mattress slowly, groaning all the way.

'I'll be there in an hour,' I mumble into the microphone, ending the call and dropping my phone on the bed and force myself to drag my feet over to the bathroom in the hallway. I open the cold-water faucet and wait a few seconds for the water to reach temperature before stepping under the water with a gasp.

I allow the icy cold water to run over my body, waking and sobering me up as I scrub my face with my hands. Once I'm awake and semi-sober, I step out of the shower and dry off before heading into my bedroom, where I pick up my phone and call Gwen, placing it on speaker in order to get dressed.

It rings and rings before I reach her voicemail and I growl at it as my movements speed up. I tug a black shirt over my head and pull on a pair of jeans before grabbing my keys and heading to my front door, barefoot.

I get in my car and try calling her again, pulling away from my driveway with a roar as the sound of the dial tone fills the cab of my truck.

'Fuck!' I hit the steering wheel and push down on the gas.