Edge of the Ravine

17

Chapter Seventeen

I love Alec. With all of my bruised and damaged heart. Yet it was so hard to be around him sometimes. This, unfortunately, was one of them.

In all the years we'd known each other, I'd never seen him indulge in frivolous, meaningless activities such as partying and drinking until dawn woke him from a stupor. He had always looked down on those who needed a chemical release. Instead, he preferred the rush of adrenaline as his drug of choice. It was why he had joined the track team our senior year of high school.

Of course, that same track team was the cause for twisting my boyfriend's sensibilities. It was why I was hiding in a corner of the house that once felt as much as my own as Alec's. A house I had habitually cleaned and redecorated on occasion. The same house that had become my haven from Amelia's searching, prying gaze. And now, I could not wait until the very moment that I could slip out of this trap of a party and retreat to my solitary little hole in the valley. Even a night spent on the edge of the ravine was better than this hell.

"OLIVER! There you are!" Alec exclaimed in a voice that barely reached on octave above the atrocious music blaring from the stereos.

He stumbled towards me, wrapping his unsteady arms around my shoulders. My nose wrinkled in disgust and I turned my head away when I smelled the beer on his breath. Already, I knew, he was drunk. Not just a little bit fuzzed; full-out drunk. Which meant I'd be nursing him through another Sunday morning hangover.

"C'mon Oliver! Join t-the p-p-party-y!" He chuckled so loudly at his own stuttering that an unfamiliar violent urge rose up inside of me and I shoved him away more roughly than I meant to. And I couldn't even find it in myself to feel guilty when he knocked into an end table.

The anger building up inside of me was so ferocious, it demanded an outlet. My blood was burning with a hatred I had never truly known before this moment. Worse than anger and hatred, betrayal lanced through my body as though a knife was stuck in my back. Never, considering all that I have lived through, have I felt that it was absolutely true that someone you loved could change so drastically and so quickly that you would never see it coming. But Alec was standing right in front of me. And he was living proof.

"Oliver! C'mon! Don't be a party-pooper," Alex yelled, a scowl on his pretty face. It didn't even come close to matching my own.

Turning away from him, I'd had enough. Striding quickly over to where a DJ was set up in one corner of his rearranged living room, I didn't think through the ramifications as my hands closed over the chords connected to the outlet. With one quick, furious yank, I jerked out the chords and the house became as silent as a tomb.

For about five whole seconds.

Angry cries found their voice throughout the house and the DJ began cussing at me in Spanish. I ignored them all as I climbed up onto the couch. Cupping my hands around my mouth, I yelled as loud as I could, "the party is over! You all need to leave. Right now!"

More angry outbursts followed my announcement, but there were enough groans of disappointment to make me believe my words would not be challenged. Except, of course, there was a challenger. Of. Course.

"It's MY house, Oliver! They can stay if I say so! And I want them to stay," Alec called as he surged through the crowd like a drunken tornado.