Free Over the Hills and Far Away (NOLA's Own #1) by Kelli Jean Page A

and the pond that was back here somewhere reeked of algae. Hopefully, there was nothing back here big enough to snap up a Lili-sized snack.
    We made our way to a bit of open space, parking it in the tall grass. I leaned back on my elbows, looking up into the purple sky. Stars were now starting to pop up along the darkening backdrop, and for a split second, I recognized the beauty of this moment. The cosmos above us looked soft and velvety, and I wished to reach up and caress it, aching to feel my mother reach back one last time and brush my fingertips with hers.
    Then, I twisted open my bottle of blue liquid and took a few long pulls.
    “Ugh, this shit is harsh,” said Alys. “It’s like cough syrup. What flavor is yours?”
    “Blue. This shit tastes fucking blue,” I grunted in reply.
    Lili busted out laughing.
    The three of us ended up getting shit-faced. After we downed each of our bottles, we smoked a spliff and learned that it wasn’t a very good idea to do that while drunk. Alys crawled over to some nearby bushes and vomited spectacularly. It smelled like cough syrup.
    But I reached my goal! At some point, the tears started pouring, and it was such a blessed relief that I didn’t care I was on all fours, hurling up blue-tasting puke. The tears from my eyes could have just been from the force with which I projectile-spewed, but it had gotten the ball rolling. I was puking and weeping and, yes, laughing, all at once. When I finished throwing up, I flopped onto my side and rolled my way toward Alys.
    “Oy! None of you guys pass out on your backs,” I barked. “I can’t bury someone else just yet.”
    Lili snored sweetly in reply.

    The walk of shame early the next morning was excruciating. Grass and leaves were stuck in our hair and clothing, and at some point, I might have rolled back into my vomit pile. I had some blue dried and crusted on my arm. We were filthy and smelled like the swamp, and I was still a bit drunk.
    Thinking we’d creep through the back door, trying to be all sneaky-sneaky, didn’t pan out. Grandma was waiting for us in the kitchen, and I had never seen her more pissed off in my life.
    “What the hell were you thinking?” she shouted, making my pounding head feel as though it was shredding apart. “Taking off like that, not telling anyone where you were going! We’ve been worried sick over you three! And right after your mother—how couldyou do that to us? Where the hell have you been?”
    “We, uh…” How the fuck do I explain this?
    Lili cleared her throat, but Alys jumped in instead.
    “We’re really sorry, Grandma Betty. Kenna…has been a real mess. We all have. We snuck next door and ended up getting drunk and passing out. We didn’t want her to be alone, and we didn’t want to be drunk in front of anyone else either. We should’ve told someone.”
    Grandma softened a bit. “Next door?”
    “We slept in the bushes,” Lili confessed, shame-faced. “And by the smell of it, Kenna slept in her own puke.”
    “It won’t happen again,” my voice rasped. “I’m sorry, really. I just didn’t know how else to deal with it.”
    “You got drunk?” Grandma seemed extremely surprised by this.
    I didn’t blame her. She knew I never drank, so I hoped that this one-time fuck-up would slide with her. It wasn’t like she could ground me or anything, but she had the power to make me feel like even greater garbage than I already did.
    “No. I got wasted.” I sounded pretty exhausted and morose.
    Her lips twitched, and she put her arms around me, sniffing delicately at my rankness.
    “It’s all right, honey. I wouldn’t mind getting wasted either. Now, go call your father and tell him you’re all right, okay?”
    Damn it . The last thing I wanted to do was call that man.
    “On second thought, maybe I should be the one to call him,” she said, heading for the kitchen phone.
    There was no need to hear that conversation, so the three of us grabbed a few mason jars of