The Fallen King | ✓

Chapter 20

~Chapter 20~

"Maddie, what time do we have to be there again?"

Maddison groaned from beside me, banging her head on the car window, getting chastised by Dianna as a result.

It was Liam's twenty-third birthday today and we were all going out to celebrate. We would've just gotten drunk at a bar but for Maddie's sake we had decided to go ice skating instead and then get a meal together. However, Maddie and I were going to be slightly late because of all the traffic and the prospect was irritating her a lot. So much so that I couldn't help but tease her — it was what best friends were for.

About fifteen minutes later we finally reached the rink, much to Maddie's relief, and I took it upon myself to scare Liam when I spotted him talking to Winter, his back facing me.

"Liam," I shouted as I grabbed onto his shoulders, trying to make him jump.

He didn't even flinch, spinning around to pull me into a bear hug. "You can't scare me, Harps, but it's great to see you. Now, you ready to lose at ice skating," he taunted with a raised brow and I grinned devilishly in response.

A lot of people had called me competitive throughout my life and I liked to blame it on the fact that I had nine siblings so had to fight for everything at home when in reality I didn't actually think that was the case. I just liked winning, plain and simple but the only person I was ever properly competitive against was Zack.

Yes, I liked to beat my other siblings but Zack was a whole new level of challenge. So, when he died it felt like my competitiveness had died too. Winning didn't feel the same without his pouty face in sight, muttering curses under his breath.

So when Axel — and now Liam — decided to challenge me to things it made me feel like my old self I supposed. Surrounded by my friends, I felt lighter and more like myself than I had in a while and I needed that so much. I needed my friends to help pull me through this.

By stirring my inner competitive spirit it almost felt like Zack was still with me as strange as that sounded and nothing comforted me more. "You're on, Kalu."

~*~*~

Ice skating was a much-needed break for me. Spending time with my friends always seemed to lighten my ever dulling world but when I got home that evening my temporary happiness started to fade. No longer were the smiling faces of my friends surrounding me. Now I was all alone just like I had been for years.

I still felt much too warm after I took my thick woollen coat off and hung it on the coat stand. I was so warm in fact, I had to wipe a bead of sweat from my forehead. Had I accidentally set the heat too high this morning? My footsteps echoed across the laminated wood floor as I made my way to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. I needed to cool down.

However as I stepped inside the predominantly white room, my eyes shifted to one of the cabinets that hadn't been properly closed. Peaking out from between the crack was an old friend of mine, taunting me with that devilish glint it always carried in any light.

Before I could even think, two bottles of vodka were in my hands, the cool glass soothing my burning skin. Maybe this would help more than water ever could.

The next few minutes passed in a hazy blur, each picture swirling into the next like it was being sucked into a bottomless vortex, leaving me in a cold, dark space all alone once again.

"One shot, two shots, three shots, four," I started to sing to myself, cuddling the second of the two bottles to my chest like it was my baby. "Five shots, six shots, seven shots galore."