Crash

Chapter 4

The chime of an xylophone is what wakes me.

My eyes slowly open and I'm disoriented by the leather of the lounge sticking to my skin. I sit up and look for my phone. I locate it on the coffee table, and Dean's name displays on the screen.

"Hello?" I answer, my voice sounds foreign.

"Addison? God I hope I didn't wake you." He rushes. He sounds like he's pacing back and forth.

"No, no you're fine. What's up?" I wipe my eyes.

"I just got a call from Frankie. She's at a party and she's completely off her head. She kept on telling me to join the party but I'm calling now because I have no way of getting to her, Adds." He finishes, his words full of panic.

"I'll go get her." I say without thinking. I know how Frankie is at parties, she needs a bit of tough love when it comes to this.

"Thank you so much, Adds." He breathes out.

"What's the address?"

"Scott Henson's house." He says bluntly.

"Jesus Christ, out of all the places." I sigh, frustratively running my fingers through my hair.

"I know, Adds," he sighs.

"You owe me a dinner." I chuckle lazily.

"Yeah, whatever. Just please help me out." He stresses.

"Alright, I'll leave now." I say and try to stand up, but something has my legs all tangled.

"Thanks." He says then hangs up.

I move my legs, trying to get them free, but I'm rewarded with a groan in return. Holy shit.

I rush and turn on the lamp next to the lounge. Once I turn back around, William is unraveling our legs and sitting up. William? Oh.

"Who was that?" He nods toward my phone in my hand. His eyes look drowsy, like he can barely keep them open.

"Uh- that was Dean." I stand and grab my shoes.

"Where are you going?" He asks as I tie up my shoelaces to my Nikes.

"I need to pick up my friend from somewhere, you can show yourself out." I say, avoiding eye contact.

"What?" Even though I'm not facing him, I know he's now standing up.

"I can't talk, my friend needs me." I say bluntly, grabbing my wallet and car keys.

He laughs, "wow, okay."

I turn to face him, his hair is all over the place and his shirt is crinkled. He has red marks on the side of his face, probably from the pillow he slept on. I hadn't even remembered that we had fallen asleep on the lounge last night, him being on the right and I being on the left. And somehow during the night, our legs must have gotten tangled.

"I have to go." I say softly before turning around, going through the kitchen then the back door.

He'll leave, he has to.

I park outside of the booming house and feel the tears pricking at my eyes. Stay cool Addison, stay cool, I tell myself not letting the awful memories frustrate my mind.

Scott's house-well his parents house-has always been the place to go for good parties, mainly because of how big it is. They always go on business trips, hence why Scott throws these parties regularly.

It takes me 10 minutes to find a damn parking spot, and I end up having to walk from a couple of streets away.

The front yard is littered with glass bottles and red cups as I rush to the front door. Typical.