PSA: ALL tweets/texts/links in this work are FAKE and recreated to fit into the FICTION of this story. NOT intended to cause harm or ill intent. These are only created for the purpose of FICTION.
"Good things take time, but not when you keep running...
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Zak arrived home before noon to a quiet house, which was very abnormal for him as usually, Tori was up and around the house with Gracie's paws clicking against the tile as she followed her around. When Tori was outside with the horses, Zak could always hear her voice outside as well as Gracie barking when she would get excited. "Tori?" He called out, setting aside his suitcase before he walked to the back door, looking outside to see all three of her horses in the pole barn, each standing calmly with one hind leg bent.
Walking outside to be greeted with the hot desert air, he was surprised to see that the horses had been out of hay for what looked like a while. Though they still had grain in their buckets, Zak couldn't remember a time where the horses never got to a point where they ran out of hay in the hay nets Tori kept hanging up. "Hold on for just a second, Arson, I see the stink eye you're giving me. I'll give you some more hay."
Zak took his time as he carefully put two flakes of alfalfa hay into three separate hay nets, hanging them up in each horse's stall before checking the automatic waterers to make sure they were full and clean like always before he made his way back into the house. He knew Tori was here somewhere as her car and truck both were in the driveway, but he was immediately suspicious if she was still asleep as she very rarely slept in this late.
When he walked up to their bedroom, he opened the door to see Gracie curled up beside Tori, her tail wagging and ears going back at the sight of him. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of his beloved dog loving Tori just as much as he did. "Tori?" He asked, now sitting on the edge of the bed and caressing her hair as he watched her sleep. "Sweetie?"
She awoke with a deep groan and stretched her arms above her head, "Hm?"
"Sleep good?"
Once her eyes opened fully, she sat completely up in bed as if she were surprised that Zak was home so early, and he immediately grew suspicious as her eyes were bloodshot. "I didn't know you'd be home so early."
"It's almost noon," he answered, wiping a strand of hair from her face. "What did you get up to last night?"
"I went out when I couldn't sleep," she replied, now standing up from the bed and making her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth, oblivious to the fact that Zak took note on how she stumbled, immediately blaming her imbalance from the empty bottle of vodka on the floor in front of the nightstand. He sighed, knowing that he was seeing signs that she was taking her drinking addiction way too far if she'd down a whole bottle of vodka in one sitting. "I didn't think you'd be back so early or I would've been up to have something ready for you to eat."
"Tori, I told you yesterday that I was coming home today and would be back before noon," he frowned, keeping a sharp eye on her as she kept a gaze on herself through the mirror. He could tell that she was hungover, especially when he noticed that she was still in clothes she seemed to have worn the night before. "Where did you go?"
"I went out and took a walk on the Strip," she replied. "I couldn't sleep and I felt like I was trapped here."
"Did you go out alone?"
"No, I met Sam on Fremont Street and we went to a bar."
He knew that was a lie considering the fact that he had gotten a call from Sam earlier asking about how Tori was doing after she hadn't returned his texts or calls from the day prior. He knew exactly where she went last night.
He didn't constantly look at her location when he was away, but he had every right to get nervous when his security camera went off a little over midnight with a notification that she was leaving the house.
Which she never did. Ever.
"Tori?"
"Hm?"
"How much did you drink last night?"
"Not a lot, why?"
"Really?" he sighed, now picking up the empty bottle of vodka and showing her the line he had drawn on the glass with a Sharpie to show just how much she had drank from the time he left four days ago to today.
The line was marked a quarter from the base of the glass neck, and it was one of those gallon sized bottles of vodka that bartenders usually buy.
"Because it looks like you had a helluva time drinking almost an entire gallon of vodka alone and God knows what else."
"I didn't drink all of that." She replied, genuinely looking confused at his assumption.
"Did you have someone else in here on our bed, then?" He questioned.
"What? No!"
"Tori, I don't blame you one bit for taking this approach with all the shit you've been through, but you're going to lose yourself very fast if you keep drinking like this, especially when you're doing it most when I'm gone," he frowned. "Where's the rest of your little stash?"
"I-I don't have a stash."
He now stood up and went to her in the bathroom, scanning her face carefully for the lie he knew she was telling. He hated that he felt like he was scaring her judging by how she subconsciously cowered to his presence. He looked at the bloodshot in her eyes, knowing she had been drinking more than just vodka over the last few days. "Where is it? I know you have more of this stuff hidden somewhere."
She then scrunched her face as she began to cry. She felt like she was being interrogated for something she didn't see to be wrong. Alcohol was one of the things she relied on to forget the reality she was living through after what happened with her father. "Please, don't take it from me."
"Sweetie," he sighed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as he pulled her into his chest, keeping her close as he kissed the top of her head. "I'm doing this for your own good. You're going to end up doing more harm than good relying on something that can really mess you up. It's one thing if you drink every other day or once a week, but every night? Especially when I'm out of town? No, I can't let you do that. Where's the rest of it?"
He used the pads of his thumbs to wipe her tears away before she nodded, motioning for him to follow her to where she was hiding her stash of alcohol. Gracie was close behind them as she opened the back patio door, walking towards the barn to reveal her alcoholic hiding spot.
When she revealed the entirety of her collection, Zak couldn't help but shake his head in disbelief. It looked like she had enough alcohol to run a complete bar for a solid weekend in the cabinet in the tack room, and he couldn't help but think about how good of a hiding spot it was for her considering he didn't do much in the barn unless it was to feed the horses.
As she bent down to start taking out the heaviest bottles, that little dime bag that she had bought from Avery fell out of her jacket pocket.
