Free Someone Else by Rebecca Phillips Page A

Please. I don’t want to fight.”
    “Me either.” He let out a sigh. “Sorry for getting so defensive.”
    “Me too.”
    We moved on to other topics after that, all the while trying to pretend like everything was back to normal. Like everything was fine. Even though we both knew by now that it wasn’t.
    And so, it was perfect timing that I got that invitation from Robin. The last thing I wanted to do that night was sit at home, alone, obsessing over every word Michael had said, every word I had said, and the echo of Lauren’s sparkling laugh. Blocking it all out seemed like a much better idea. At the time.
    I packed an overnight bag and drove over to Robin’s house in Redwood Hills. The drinks were already flowing when I got there. I dumped my bag in Robin’s room, headed out to the kitchen where she and a few of her friends had gathered, and asked her to make me a drink. A strong one. She grinned at my unexpected request but then, seeing my expression, her smile slipped. I shook my head, indicating that I did not want to get into it right now. She nodded and made me a drink.
    The party was like any other I’d been to in Redwood Hills with Michael, only with a new cast of characters. Robin, it seemed, had turned into the girl to know around school. She was in her element with all these upper class kids. She’d always fit in here, even when she was living in a dilapidated bungalow with her mom. Now she was unstoppable.
    My drink was lethal. I hadn’t paid any attention to what Robin put in it, but it tasted like a combination of lemon juice and Windex and it immediately made me feel warm all over. After drinking the first one, I no longer cared about Dylan’s cute dimples or Michael’s new friend. I no longer cared about anything.
    After two drinks I was one of the gang, as comfortable as if I were hanging out with my own group of friends. Robin’s friend Isabelle was hilarious, I decided, especially when she started swallowing colorful pills and acting crazy. And the guys? So charming, even when I looked down to find a hand on my knee.
    Three drinks in, things stopped being so funny and I wound up in the main floor powder room, crying. Some girl I didn’t know found me there and went to get Robin, who came right away. She locked the door behind her and sat down on the floor next to me.
    “Are you sick?” she asked.
    I shook my head. I wasn’t sick, yet, but I had reached the point at which laughter turned to tears on a dime. Robin handed me a wad of toilet tissue and I wiped my eyes. “Michael doesn’t love me anymore,” I told her.
    “Now I find that hard to believe,” she said, slurring the words a little. “He’s crazy about you.”
    I sniffled. “I’m not enough for him anymore.”
    “Bullshit.” She pushed some hair off her face, which was flushed and sparkling from the glitter gel she liked to rub on her cheekbones and around her eyes. “If anyone can make this long-distance thing work, you guys can. Michael loves you, Tay. He’s not gonna just stop.”
    “Everything’s different now. He’s changed. We’ve changed.”
    “Well, yeah. He’s at Avery and you’re here. You see him once every couple of months instead of every weekend. Of course you’ve changed.”
    My eyes burned with fresh tears. “Robin?”
    “Yeah?”
    “How will I get through four years of this?”
    She wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me. “I know it sounds corny, but you have to take it one day at a time. It’ll get better.”
    “You honestly believe that?”
    “I honestly do.” She stood up and dragged me to my feet. “Now let’s fix your face and go get another drink.”
    Another drink was the last thing I needed right then, but I had one anyway. After that fourth one, everything got fuzzy. The next day, all I could remember from the night before was eating very spicy pizza (which did not taste nearly as good coming up as it did going down) and talking for what seemed like hours to Isabelle