And then she pulled me through a doorway. The house had been overheated, but a rush of cool air blasted me. Being sweat-soaked, I began shivering and wrapped my arms around myself. It was f**king cold. I could hear a chattering and looked around for the sound, and then I realized it was me. My teeth were chattering against each other.

“Hannah!” Beth yelled next to me.

I clamped my hands over my ears and fell down. She was so damn loud. Glaring at her, she didn’t seem to care. She rushed forward and I swung my head to follow her direction. From the ground, I watched as she ran to a group at the end of the driveway. There was a girl with white hair, grappling with another girl with blonde hair. That hair was familiar. I frowned, scrunching my eyes together and saw it was Hannah. Ah, Hannah! She must’ve been done with the party owner. Good for her.

Beth reached over and grabbed the white hair, then yanked the girl backwards. She began dragging her away from Hannah, who was on the ground. Why was she on the ground? Oh, I saw the blood next.

“Hannah,” I croaked and began to go to her. When I pushed back to my feet, everything spun around me again. I took a step forward, but my body went to the right. Crashing into a chair and people, I tried to apologize again. Nothing came out. I could only mumble words. Even in my drunken state, I knew I was a mess.

I tried to say I was sorry for that too, but someone caught my elbow and spun me around.

Oh, the world.

I felt vomit rising up in my throat.

Hannah. Hannah had been beaten up. I needed to help.

Muttering a thank you to whoever had stopped me from falling, my foot stepped forward, wavering. I waited until I regained my balance and took another step, then another step. I kept going until I reached Hannah’s side and knelt down. She was wiping blood and tears from her face.

Oh, her poor hair. A big chunk had been pulled out. Her eyes lit with anger. She put the hair in my hands and darted off.

“Alex?”

I turned, hearing a familiar voice, and squinted at Marissa.

No. Not Marissa. She couldn’t be here.

But she was. She took my arm and lifted me to my feet. Then she wrapped an arm around my waist, asking, “What are you doing here?”

I gave her the hair. “That’s Hannah’s.”

“Oh.” She looked at it with disgust. “But Alex, what are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?”

“Sarah and I drove down. Cord said he was having a party and we came here to pick up Sarah’s cousin.”

I looked around, feeling a little bit sober. “Beth and Hannah are cousins too.”

“Who?”

I couldn’t see them. “They were here. I think they were fighting someone.”

A guy was walking past, but he turned and pointed down the street. “Your friends took off. That one f**ked Robbie. No way Kari was going to let her get away with that.”

Who was Robbie and who was Kari?

I sighed, and turned to Marissa. “What are you doing here?”

She heaved a deep breath, frowning at me. “You’re a mess, aren’t you?”

I nodded. It wasn’t a big secret. “Angie would not approve of my new friends.”

She gave me a sad smile. “No. No, she probably wouldn’t.”

A girl came over, annoyed. “She’s not here. That bitch. She probably took off with her friends already.” Then she frowned at me. “Alex?”

Oh hell. Sarah Shastaine. Anger, jealousy, and other emotions swirled up inside of me. Then I frowned to myself. I was drunk. I wasn’t supposed to feel. That made me not like Jesse’s exgirlfriend even more. I scowled at her. “You took my friend from me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t talk, drunk girl.”

I muttered to Marissa, “She’s not very original.”

Patting me on the arm, she said to Sarah, “Let’s go to the party.”

“Not with her.”

“Yes, with her. She’s drunk. We’re not leaving her.”

Sarah pressed her lips together.

Marissa corrected, snapping at her, “I’m not leaving without her.”

“Whatever! We can’t even get to the party. My cousin knew how to get there.”

“Sarah.”

“This sucks!” She threw her hands in the air. “My cousin is going to die. I bet she went ahead without us on purpose. She’s such a bitch.”

Marissa’s arm tightened around me. Her chest rose and she rubbed a hand over her face. “Alex probably knows where Cord lives.”

Sarah’s gaze snapped to me. “Do you?”

I was stuck. I did. I didn’t want them to know. “No.”

I could see the disappointment.

“This sucks!” Sarah yelled again. “We drove an hour for nothing. My cousin won’t pick up her phone. Hussy.”

“Well, whatever,” Marissa lashed out at her. “I didn’t come just for the party. I wanted to see Alex anyway.”

“Congrats. She’s wasted and can barely stand up.”

“I know, which is why we’re taking her home. Alex, where do you live? We’ll give you a ride back.”

“At the college.”

A small grin graced her features before she patted my arm again. “Okay, you give us directions and we’ll take you there.” We turned and began to walk down the street.

As we went to a car and drove away, I wondered if I should tell Marissa about Chandra. I kept quiet. Something told me she wouldn’t care. She had never cared before about cheating, she definitely wouldn’t care about a maybe-girlfriend that Cord had now. And I didn’t even want to think about why Sarah Shastaine was there. More bad feelings would overwhelm me and in my state, I knew I’d say or do something that I couldn’t take back.

She’d just better stay away from Jesse.

But then I closed my eyes. I’d wake up the next morning and all of this would be a dream. Marissa being here didn’t make any sense. She’d left me like Angie, like my parents. They all left me.

CHAPTER TEN

When I woke, I was a hungover mess. Stumbling to the bathroom, showering, dry heaving, and trying to dress was a two hour process. There were lots of breaks and a few of those where I had to rest my head on a cool countertop. Beth ran into me as I was going back to my room and asked where I had disappeared to from the party. They’d returned to search for me. This information was welcomed. I hadn’t liked the feeling that they had abandoned me since they were the only two people I spent time with. Beth also gave my bag back. I’d left it in Hannah’s car. When I went inside, I checked my phone.