Breath of the Future

Chapter 27

I walked into the house and dumped my backpack on the couch in the foyer. The noise was loud enough to disturb Michael's sleep and I immediately regretted it. I didn't want to get into things with him over it since he got grouchy easily, especially when disturbed. I didn't hear him get up off the couch, though. So I walked into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of whiskey, downing nearly the whole thing and coughing on the taste, but I didn't care. I needed it. 

"Hey,"  a gruff voice whispered. 

I looked up and saw Michael coming up behind me from the living room. He picked up the bottle of whiskey and sighed.

"Be careful with this, now. This is high quality expensive scotch from Edinburgh."

I chucked as he pried the glass out of my hand and gulped down the last quarter of my drink with a straight face. 

"That's gross, I don't know how you do that constantly. Whiskey is such a dad drink." 

"Don't act like you're not a drinker yourself. Isn't that how you ended up in this position?"

I scowled and my eyebrow twitched. Yes, I was an alcoholic, but Michael didn't have to bring it up like that. I was not in the mood for joking or talking about it so I just brushed it off. 

"Well I like my girly cocktails. They taste like juice and within an hour or so I can no longer walk, it's amazing." 

He chuckled and set the glass in the sink.

"I fell asleep on the couch again, I wasn't sure what time you were going to be back." 

I shrugged.

"I was only gone for a couple hours. We talked and then I dropped him back at the shop."

"And what did you learn about him, anything?"

"No, not too much. But he seems like a nice trustworthy guy, a little rough around the edges. I think he'll do fine doing whatever Trevor wants." 

"Do you like him?" 

A silence fell over the room. I knew what Michael meant, but I was going to push the question away, just like anything else.

"I mean, yeah he seems fine." 

Michael's stare didn't break. He wanted a real answer but he wasn't going to get one. I felt the tears start to well up as his face turned blurry and I immediately got up and wandered toward the stairs, covering my face with my hands.

"Hey, where are you going?"

I ignored him and dragged myself up the stairs and into the guest bedroom, immediately grabbing the fifth of cherry vodka I kept under the mattress. I took a swig every few seconds, trying to distract myself with the burning sensation in my throat. My vision blurred even more as I stumbled back and fell onto the mattress. Tears free flowed down my face as I started up at the ceiling fan. I heard the door to the room open and Michael quickly rushed in, pulling me up off the bed. The alcohol definitely had hit me at that point and I was nearly falling on top of him. He pried the empty bottle from my hands and read the label.

"Ah, Jesus..." He sighed.

He tossed the bottle off to the side of the room while practically holding me up by my shoulders, dragging me into the bathroom. He guided me to my knees in front of the toilet and pulled my hair off my forehead quickly enough before I inevitably puked everywhere. I heard a disgusted sigh come from Michael, but not like he was any better. I had dragged him out of this position once before.

After a few minutes I had gotten to the point of throwing up just stomach acid that got in my nose and made everything burn worse. I wailed and cried to myself but Michael didn't leave my side. He propped me up against the side of the counter and turned on the shower, taking off his clothes and tossing them to the side while eventually helping me out of mine. I stumbled over and sat down in the bathtub and he got right to work scrubbing my hair and body down. I dry heaved a few more times but thankfully nothing else came up. I was so out of it that everything looked only like blurred shapes. I couldn't see the details of Michael's face. The only thing I knew for sure was that he sat down behind me and held me while scrubbing my body as I openly wailed into the atmosphere of the bathroom. God, I must've looked pathetic.