After the End: Book 3

2. Giving Up

Harry's POV

Lying could be fun if you did it the right way. Lying could be like telling jokes. I lied to people about myself all the time because the truth wasn't even remotely interesting. Not to me anyways, although a few paps might tell you otherwise. Cory wasn't any good at lying.

"... and I just don't want to end up like Ash," Cory said into the little microphone. I snorted in an attempt to stifle a laugh, but people still turned to look at me in my seat. I sunk down a little like it made a difference. I was already standing out just a little. I had a thick black sweatshirt pulled over my shirt and the hood was up. Cory's woman's sunglasses adorned my face and the two things combined seemed to be keeping the real attention off of me. Los Angeles sucked. Everybody noticed me in Los Angeles. That's how I'd ended up on TMZ that morning after getting plastered the night before. "That's why I'm here," Cory finished. "To make a different sober ending for myself."

Everybody in the AA meeting all applauded while she nodded along to the praise. I laughed again. More people stared. Cory walked back down the isle and slid into the seat next to me  before elbowing me in the ribs.

"To make a different sober ending for myself," I repeated in a mock high pitched voice giggling a little more. We'd both taken several pills together less than an hour before this meeting. Cory was holding it together like she always did, but I had an obvious case of the giggles.

The man leading the meeting had stood up to talk, but I was making a disruption and the annoyance on his face was evident. Cory saw the look on his face and scowled at me, grabbing my arm and hauling me out of my chair towards the door. She wanted to leave before we got kicked out again.

"I can't take you anywhere," she muttered under her breath as we stumbled into the parking lot.

"If I have to hear you tell people about Ash's fake untimely demise one more time, I swear I'm going to off myself in this parking lot," I informed her with a joyful expression. Cory went to AA because her manager made her. I accompanied her because it was a part of the deal we had where she didn't leave me to suffer alone and I didn't argue about where we were going. Normally, if I wasn't getting us kicked out, she had to get a sheet signed. She always used the same fake story and I was so tired of hearing it.

Cory didn't laugh how I'd expected her to. She was still mad at me for my drunken mess the night before. I could understand that. I'd been unpleasant at best and before TMZ was videoing me, she'd dragged me away from two separate fights. She pulled the sunglasses off my face and stared at me with an intense gaze. "Your pupils are fucking huge," she commented. "Stop gumming coke and taking Adderall at the same time. I'm begging you."

"You're being bossy," I mumbled. She shoved the sunglasses back on my face very unceremoniously.

"Have you eaten today?" She asked stopping me infront of her tiny gold rental car. She unlocked it, opened the door for me and then walked around to her own side. "You never eat."

"I ate today," I said quickly. It sounded more like a question than a statement. I was sure I hadn't though, at least not since before going out drinking the night before. I realized I'd only gotten so drunk because I hadn't eaten before that either. Had I eaten at all that day, or had it been several days?

"Okay, next stop is food," Cory decided, starting the car. "Choose something or I'll choose for you."

I didn't choose, so Cory did and eventually I ended up with a Happy meal from McDonald's. I picked at child size chicken nuggets and tried to remember the part of me that still felt bad for the chickens. I'd been a vegetarian when I wasn't busy with active addiction and grief. I didn't have time to have dietary considerations when I was following Cory around the world and blitzing out my mind to forget Lux's name. It didn't work, if you were wondering. Her name was cemented in every fiber of my being. There was no undoing that.