KJ's POV
"KAYLIE!" I flinch at the shouting of my name and groan.
"KJ can't come to the phone right now.... Please leave a mes---"
Light floods the room and I roll over, everything too loud, too bright, and too irritating.
"Get up!"
Too cold is added to the list as my brother rips the comforter from my grasp, my eyes opening in shock.
"What big brother?" I groan, "I just went to sleep."
"You've been sleep all day! It's three in the afternoon!" he yells, picking up my clothes and tossing them into the hamper, "Don't you have work today?"
"I quit," I grumble. Up until recently, I'd been employed as a fry cook at a nearby diner up until recently, when I'd been fired after telling a customer to suck my ass. But saying I quit just sounds better.
"You quit!?" Karry stops by my bed and I feel like my head is about to explode. Or maybe it already has and I'm feeling the after effects. I try to remember last night, but I don't. Just darkness, Jack Daniels, and possibly two or three women? I don't know.
"You've been drinking!" An empty bottle of one of my friends is tossed onto my bed. Oh yeah. My homie Cuervo was there too.
"You aren't even listening!" Karry storms from the room and I lay in my bed a little longer before deciding to get up.
I smell myself, a rank mix of bad decisions and depression infiltrating my nose. I catch a glimpse of myself as I step into the shower, my body having been graced with bruises either from hate or love. I don't know.
After I shower, I get dressed in joggers and a jersey tee before heading out to the kitchen. I grab a bowl and pour myself some Captain Crunch. Saide, my brother's wife, is just getting in from work, and looks at me with a mildly disgusted look, "Look who finally regained consciousness. A five year old from the looks of it."
I stick my tongue out at her and she rolls her eyes. I glance at her baby bump. Everyone seems to be going forward. But me.
"Evening, Baby," Karry comes in and kisses her chastely on the lips. My headache flares again and I resist the urge to vomit, unwanted images crossing my already damaged mind.
Saide exits the room and Karry throws a red stamped envelope on the table in front of me.
"You're evicting me?" I snatch up the envelope and start to rip it to shreds before Karry grabs my wrist. "Open it first, stupid."
I do and find an assortment of college brochures. All from different schools from different states, "You want me to go back to college? Karry we tried that I lasted two seconds in college." I'd lasted in college one semester before moving in with Karry. In the end I'd failed every class there and it'd been a waste of money.
"That was a whole semester ago," he replies, "Look, you cannot sleep on my sleeper sofa for the rest of your life and I'm not gonna let you get lazy. You need to move forward if you're going to move past anything."
He pulls out another stack of envelopes and slide them my way. "What are these?"
"Acceptance letters," He gestures to the first envelope, "To those colleges. I applied for you. All you have to do is accept one and keep your grades up."
"Or else?"
He chuckles and shakes his head, as if I'm a naive child, "There aren't other options sometimes, Kaylie. It's handle your shit or handle your shit."
YOU ARE READING
no savior.
Romance(What if you broke someone's heart?) When KJ Parker left for college, she left her true love, her last name, sexuality and the drama of high school in her hometown. But now it's time for her to go back. (What if they didn't remember?) Having s...
