Free Saved By You by Kelly Harper Page B

things up last night, didn’t I?” I said, my head still buried in my hands.
    Silence hung in the air for a long second before Sarah responded.
    “It could have been worse,” she said.
    I opened an eye and fixed it on her. “How?” I said.
    She rolled a shoulder and gave me a comforting grin. “If Huck hadn’t been there to stop you, it could have been a lot worse.”
    I groaned and slumped back onto the bed. A flood of memories came back to me when she said it. Visions of Zoe, and the hatred I’d felt toward her. Had I really tried to start a fight with her? The memories were like watching someone else—they couldn’t possibly be of me, right?
    “I’m such an idiot,” I said.
    “Don’t say that,” Sarah said. She shook her head. “It was the alcohol. It makes you do funny things.”
    Her words weren’t very comforting. Wasn’t that the reason I had wanted to drink in the first place? I wanted to become someone else, if only for a little while.
    “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she continued. “You’ve had a rough couple of days. No one expects you to be perfect.”
    “But, I have to be perfect,” I said. “Mom’s not going to be around to clean up after my messes anymore.”
    “Don’t talk like that,” Sarah said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen.”
    Sarah’s face was twisted in empathy, but she did her best to keep her positive attitude. I wish I could have been as unceasingly optimistic as her.
    “It’s the truth,” I muttered. “There’s no use denying it.”
    Sarah shook her head, raising a hand to her wipe at a tear on her cheek as it appeared.
    “You’re never going to be alone,” Sarah said. “You’ve got all of us.”
    Another tear started to fall, they were coming faster now.
    Without thinking, I rolled out of bed and rushed to her side. We held each other, and neither of us bothered to wipe our tears away. My head pounded angrily, but that took a backseat to everything else. We were quiet for a long time before we pulled away and looked at each other.
    Sarah’s face was beat red—probably just like mine. I was happy that she was there with me. I didn’t think I’d be able to make it through this without her.
    “We should get some breakfast,” she said, finally wiping away the last of her tears. “It’ll make you feel better.”
    I gave her a tight smile, and nodded my agreement.

    Uncle Larry wasn’t around to make us breakfast that morning. In fact, we didn’t see anyone else in the house. Sarah and I poured bowls of cereal and sat together quietly. After taking a few bites, the pounding in my head was already subsiding.
    Memories from the night before came back to me intermittently. I remembered the way Kyle had looked at me, and couldn’t help but be bothered by his sudden change in attitude. He had done something similar earlier in the day when I was talking to Scottie. What was making him act so differently? Had Haden said something to him?
    Haden.
    I almost let out another groan.
    I’d acted like such an idiot in front of him last night. Thinking back on it, I could only imagine what it must have looked like to him. There I was, drunk and emotional, accusing him of sleeping around with another girl already. They had been awfully close to each other, hadn’t they? Or was that my mind playing tricks on me?
    I remembered the way he looked, standing at the bar. It might have been the alcohol, but I had wanted him so badly in that moment. All of my senses had gone fuzzy, and if everything else hadn’t happened, I knew he would have had an easy time getting me back to his place.
    But, I’d ruined all that. I felt like the world’s biggest idiot because I’d, once again, gone and made a fool of myself in front of him. I don’t know how he kept tolerating me. Every time he got close, I was there to push him away. How could he keep trying after everything I’d put him through?
    “What’s on your mind?” Sarah asked, after a while.
    I sighed