The Risks we take

Seventeen

Sloane

I'd wiped some tissue under my eyes, run my hands through my crazy matted hair and text Drew from the bathroom telling her to pick me up from here. I needed a shower and my clothes and to get out of here as discreetly as possible. Being in a freaking ballgown I'd only just managed to zip up myself wasn't going to make it easy. But it was just before 6am and hopefully, no one would be here.

"Sneaking out on me again?" Reed leaned against the door frame and the regret I knew I'd be feeling when my drugs wore off hit me like a tonne of bricks. I tried pressing down on the box I'd locked my heart in last night, forcing it to stay in its box out of sight. Reed was so damn good with picking locks.

"Not intentionally. Just letting you sleep." I shrugged, pulling my heels and bag off the bathroom side.

"Take the dress off Sloane."

"I've got to go."

"Why?"

"Why? Because I've got a business to run and I can't go into meetings with my parents in last night's dress looking like a panda who's never seen a shower. The only reason I'm still here is because my parents were under the impression I was already with Drew and I was waiting for her to come pick me up. Now she's downstairs and I have too much to do to sit around here and pretend this was anything more than a stupid one night stand that meant nothing to either of us." Stay. In. The. Box. He stared at me, took a step forward but I shook my head, shutting him up before he spoke.

I pushed past him, pulling the bedroom door open and rushing down the hallway before someone saw me, practically running out to Drew's tiny little car.

I didn't like her smirk right now.

"Did you bring them?"

"Oh. Yeah." She handed me my yellow tube and a bottle of water.

"Thanks. Drive." I tipped 2 pills into my hand taking them like a shot and following them closely with half the bottle of water.

"Who-"

"Nope."

"You regret it?"

"Regret isn't strong enough of a word. Do not let me take those drops with my meds unless I'm locked in my office or I'm staying home and you girls are chaining me to my bed." She laughed. "I'm not even joking Drew. I might as well have drunk half a bottle of tequila with how easy it was to do that. Not a single inhibition."

"Was it at least good?" I sighed and Drew grinned, pulled into the Starbucks drive through to collect an order she'd already placed. "So, it was?"

"Have you ever had an out of body experience?" Drew laughed and I sunk deeper into the seat, pulling my phone out.

⚠️Eden🌲

03:06am

Sooooo...

How was Zac last night???

05:54am

um. about that.

I did something stupid.

How stupid are we talking?

Got yourself some pretty little bruises
or need a plan B kind of stupid?

Slept with Reed kind of stupid.

The second she read the message, Eden was blowing up my phone and I pouted, answering the facetime looking like a complete disaster.

"YOU SLEPT WITH REED?"

"Wait what?" Drew snapped her head to me then back to the road.

"Are you INSANE?"

"Eden can we not? I feel shocking."

"As you fucking should. Drew. Why'd you-"

"She disappeared after sending me to check on the awards."

"Sloane." Eden laid her head down on the wheel, banging it a few times. "Babe we went over this. The whole country. You could sleep with literally anyone else. We said-"

"Anyone but Reed. I know. But you also said if it scares you, do it. And I mean-"

"SLEEPING WITH REED LAWSON IS NOT WHAT I MEANT." Drew chuckled, pulling into her parking lot under her apartment complex a few blocks away from mine. "It's not funny Drew. You cancel plans with a good new possibility Sloane, to sleep with someone who what 3 weeks ago you tied to his sofa and were talking about how much you hate the guy."

"I don't hate him."

"Oh, for the love of god."

"There's been some developments Eden. It's not as easy or black and white. I've made him pay for the whole abandoning me thing and he's proved himself trustworthy thus far. Are you forgetting him pulling me out the bar last week?"

"So, it's the knight in shining armour thing?"

"No. It was a one night, I'm beyond stressed out and worried because you just told me your dad might be trying to seriously harm me over a business deal, you're hot as fuck and said a bunch of pretty words whilst I was a little high, thing. I'm not getting attached. I told him very clearly it was a one night thing and I'll be making plans with Zac for Friday night since my parents leave Friday morning."

"His dad-"

"It's a whole thing. Book some time in my calendar later and I'll explain it all." Eden sighed down the phone, staring at me like she was looking for some kind of explanation beyond what I'd told her. I didn't have one. I couldn't even explain it all to myself right now other than everything piling one on top of the other.

"Love doesn't exist Sloane. Stop living in a fairytale"

"Then why do I love you Reed? You might not believe in it but I can feel it and I know that you do too. If you're scared-"

"I can't be scared of something that doesn't exist." He snapped. "This would be a whole lot easier if you just got out of the car Sloane."

"We're in the middle of nowhere. You can't leave me here like this. Take me home."

"Get out." His hands gripped the wheel tightly, knuckles turning white. Not even looking at me. Just staring at a mark on the dash. He didn't care. I threw the door open, climbing out of the side I'd stupidly been calling mine like it would be forever, slamming it behind me and peering into the window.

"You're going to regret this one day Reed. You're going to fall in love with a girl and she's going to walk out on you and you'll feel how I feel right now and you'll regret ever hurting me like this. I' promise you, you will regret it."

"What? From your little admin job at some shitty paper? You can't make me regret it Sloane. I'll be a millionaire before I'm 30 and you'll be a no one until the day you die." He rolled his eyes, putting his foot on the gas and leaving me stood on the sidewalk in a short summer dress I'd bought for him, tears streaming down my eyes as I called Stan and told him where I was, text Eden that I was coming back to the hotel and I needed Ice cream and girls night.

I stepped out of Drew's room, showered, changed and ready for work. The drive was silent, much like the rest of my day where I sat smiling and nodding along with my parents, working on everything I needed to from the sofa of my office beside my mum. Meetings and lunch and meetings and work and coffee breaks. Anything to stop my brain tumbling off its cliff edge into the depressive pit below.