Forty-seven: Pills

Temperance

I sit in the middle of my room with my clothes tucked away neatly into a backpack. I can at least look like I'm going along with this shit plan.

I am supposed to be picked up today by my buyer. My cousins are at school, and my caretakers are at work, leaving me alone with my wandering thoughts.

A loud ringing pierces my ears, causing me to jump in shock. Once my ears adjust to the sound, I realize it's the house phone.

I thin my lips in question since no one ever calls the house phone.

I stay on my mattress for a second, waiting until the ringing comes to the end, bringing back the silence from the almost empty house.

With only a few seconds of silence in between, the wretched phone starts to ring again, stirring up my annoyance. 

I curse under my breath, standing to my feet and leaving the room. The sound gets louder as I approach and stop in front of it.

It's an old white phone that sits on a coffee table beside Austin's recliner. I have never seen him use it before.

I look at the number displayed on the phone. My eyes grow wide when I recognize it as Alec's number. 

Pushing all of my questions aside on how he got this number, I pick up the phone and place it against my ear.

"Hello?" I ask into the phone, hoping he didn't hang up already.

"Ah. Temperance, I was hoping to catch you." I hear a female voice coming through the end of the other line.

Why would a female have Alec's phone? 

"Who is this?" I glance towards the door, fearing that Austin will come home early and yank me up for having the phone.

"Lidia." She replies sharply.

My eyebrows furrow as I grit my teeth. Of course, it would be Lidia. She's always had something for Alec, she's always had something against me.

I don't respond to her, unsure of what to say. 

There has to be a reason she called me, and my gut churns with fear.

"I wanted to tell you something important." Her stern voice goes through the line again as soon as she realized that I wasn't going to respond.

"Ok spit it out," I feel my hands begin to sweat as I start pacing with worry.

Deep down I already know what it is, I know that his mind hasn't been on me since I left. I know that I was just a burden to him when I was with him.

"Alec and I.... well, we have been hooking up since you left. See, he didn't really care about you. I'm sorry it must really hurt to find that ou-"

I take the phone away from my ear, tears blurring my eyes as I smash the phone onto the ground. My heart aches as my foot slams down on the phone, breaking it into pieces.

I knew what she was calling for the moment she mentioned her name. What other reason would she have called me for?

That's what he is worried about. Pleasure. Sex. Whatever. Not me. He doesn't want me. His sweet words from weeks ago had been a lie. 

Only now I'm sure that there is no want or care for me. I can't say I blame him since I feel the same way about myself.

I walk to the bathroom with choked sobs wracking my body.

No one wants me here anyway. No one cares. No one knows my pain. 

No one is here for me to know my pain. I live with Chris and Kenli and consider them my friends but there's no way I could drag them down this path with me.

I have- no, had Alec and my friends, but I can't ever see them without someone getting hurt, and I can't risk it.

I don't want to see Alec anyways. Not after he decided to hook up with Lidia. That stupid bitch. But it is Alec's fault too. He's the one that did it.

My only way out is this way. Thus why I'm standing in the bathroom with a bottle of pills in my hand looking at myself in the mirror.

I have notes lined up. Notes with writing inside with the name on the outside.

One for Chris, Kenli, Alec, Zander, Connor, Nicole, and Ryan. I feel like they will need an explanation. Not that it matters to me.

I unscrew the cap and look at myself in the mirror. I've Been waiting for this for a long time. I've been waiting to die.

I am so tired. So tired of this life. I deserve the rapes and beatings. I deserve to be alone. I deserve to lose my best friend.

I pour pills onto my hand and put them in my mouth. I pick up the glass of water I have and tilt my head back as the pills wash down my throat with the water.

I take another handful.

Then another.

Taking them like they are candy. Filling my mouth full of pills and water and then swallowing them like they are the only thing I have left.

Then my world starts spinning as I stumble and hit my side on the counter. My skin is clammy, and my stomach is stabbing itself. My chest tightens up, making it hard for me to breathe.

Then my legs give out, and everything goes black.

*********************************************************

Alec

I put the load into the back of my car. Then Lidia ran up behind me, holding my phone. "You left this." She has a bright smile on her face. Surprising.

I take my phone from her, and she runs off. I take a good look at my phone, making sure she didn't do anything to it. But everything seems fine.

"Hey, where you going?" I hear a familiar voice behind me. Arella.

I turn around to face my blue-haired sister. "I have to take these to my friend's place," I reply.

She frowns. She knows they are full of things she doesn't want any part in. I roll my eyes at her, hoping she won't start with me.

Then she stands on her tippy toes and kisses me on my cheek.

I close the car door, and then Chris appears.

Then we are off.

The house is almost as bad as Temperance's first house with her dad. It is raggedy and dirty on the outside. I look at Chris, and he stares at the house.

I feel off. Like something is really wrong. Something happened, and I feel it deep in my bones. From the way he stares, he can be feeling the same thing too. But I don't know.

"I'm going to go in. You stay here." I tell him. He doesn't respond. He glances at me and nods. I open the car door and stand up, taking the smell of weed into my nostrils.

I open the front door, and there are bags on the ground. Temperances bags. But why are they here? Where was she going?

"Temp?" I yell her name, but there is no answer. I look down the hall and see that only the bathroom light on.

I hear a loud thump come from the bathroom.

I walk towards it and knock on it gently. "Temp?" No answer.

Suddenly worry strikes me, and I turn the doorknob. To my horror, she is on the ground passed out with an empty pill bottle beside her.

I collapse to the floor trying to shake her awake. "TEMP PLEASE WAKE UP!" I yell, picking her up. I set her in the bath and turn on the shower.

The freezing water hits her, but she doesn't wake up. My heart is beating so loud it is all I can hear. She won't wake up.

I turn off the shower and pick up her soaked body bridal style. I run out of the house with the girl in my arms.

Chris's eyes go wide, and he gets out of the car. "What the fuck happened?!" He runs over to me. He touches her cold face and looks back up at me.

"We need to get her to the doctor!" He is almost in tears.

Then a car pulls up, and a man steps out. "What are you doing with my prize?" He asks us.

"Prize?" I question him. He points to the girl, and then everything clicks. Her bags are at the door because she is going with him. But she doesn't want to. Maybe that's why she overdosed.

I look down at the nearly dead girl lying in my arms.

"We need to go Alec." Chris looks at me. I nod. Then the guy takes a step closer. "You can leave. But she's staying here."

We are running out of time. Any second now she could be dead without going back. So I have to do this.

I pull out my gun and shoot the guy in the thigh while trying to hold Temperance up.

We put her into the car and we got in it. We speed off, trying to get to my house. We have to get her to the doctor before it's too late.