Free Sins of the Flesh (Exposed Series Book 1) by Hazel Kelly

that
happened, I could spend up to four hours binging and purging.
    It was mentally and physically exhausting.
    The day I got caught I was having a particularly difficult time.
Before I sat down and had dinner with my family, I scarfed a bunch of French
fries in secret on the way home from practice. And I didn’t chew them up enough.
As a result, they were scratching the shit out of my throat on their way up.
Even the obscene amount of soda I drank with them wasn’t making a difference.
    When I started to sweat, I knew I had to hurry up or I’d get too
lightheaded to continue. Then I’d have to sit on the bathroom floor until I
felt better, and I might have to start over. Which was the worst thing I could
think of at that moment.
    Until I heard a knock on my bedroom door.
    I stood up. “One second. I’m in the bathroom.”
    “Open this door right now.”
    It was my Mom. And she sounded pissed.
    “One second.” I tried to keep my voice light, but I knew I had
to buy some time. My hand was covered in puke, and I didn’t need to look in the
mirror to know how red my face was.
    “OPEN. THIS DOOR. NOW.”
    “Hold on! Jeez.” I pushed down on the toilet handle, but nothing
happened.
    She knocked again. It sounded like the knock the police used when
they were outside the wine closet.
    My heart was pounding. I tried to flush the toilet again, and a
big bubble just rose to the top of the sludgy vomit. I looked around for the
plunger. I usually kept it in my bathroom. But it wasn’t there. Chris must have
borrowed it.
    Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
    I tried to strain my voice so it sounded like I was mid-diarrhea
or something equally unpleasant. “Can I come talk to you in a few minutes, Mom?
I don’t feel very well.”
    “No.” I could practically hear her folding her arms. “We are
going to talk now.”
    I gargled with mouthwash and tried the flusher one more time in
vain before closing the toilet lid. I turned on the faucet to give my fingers a
quick scrub and before I turned it off, I spritzed a shitload of lavender air
mist towards the toilet. Then I turned on the bathroom fan.
    “Open the door Kate!”
    “One second!” I called as I stripped off my clothes. Then I
wrapped a towel around myself and closed the bathroom door as softly as I
could.
    I stepped up to my bedroom door, exhaled, and swallowed.
    “What is it Mom?” I opened the door a crack and peeked around
just enough that she would be able to see I was in a towel. “I was just about
to get a shower.”
    She raised a hand in the air. It was holding an empty bottle of Skol
Vodka. I tried to remember the last time I’d drank Skol. It was before school
started sometime last summer. The girls and I went thirds on it. I think it
came to around four dollars each for the whole handle.
    “Where did you get that?” I asked.
    “Try again.”
    “Can we talk about this after I get a shower?”
    She put her foot against the door so I couldn’t close it.
    I sighed. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
    “Sorry for what?”
    “Drinking vodka?”
    I could see a vein popping out along her temple. “You know,
normally I would be mad about that. But not this time.”
    “Why are you mad this time?”
    “Because you’ve been driving around with this in your car .”
    “No I haven’t.”
    “Yes you have!” She was holding the bottle in the air like she
was thinking about clubbing me with it. “It was in your trunk!”
    “Shit.” No wonder it went missing. It was like a yard sale back
there.
    “Shit?” She stuck her neck out. “Shit?!” She shook her head. “Is
that all you have to say for yourself?”
    I shrugged.
    “Mind if I come in and have a word?”
    I wanted to say it wasn’t a good time, but I could tell she
didn’t really mean it as a question. So I opened my door and stepped to the
side.
    She came in and sat on my bed. I stayed standing. I wanted to
keep her eyes from looking towards the closed bathroom door where my puke
filled toilet sat, steaming like a