Page 26 of Shattered Saint
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My hangover was severe.I felt like an idiot for drinking so much. One would think I would have learned my lesson, but I knew I hadn’t. I would be drinking a shit ton of alcohol again soon.
And I deserved a pat on the back for not throwing up this time.
After collecting the food that I ordered from the door, I checked my phone and realized I hadn’t talked to Iris in a couple of days. Without a second thought, I called her and waited to see if she would respond.
"Hey,” Iris said.
"Hey yourself." Although we’d known each other for years, I would say over the last couple, we’d become best friends.
"I'm shocked you called me."
I rolled my eyes at her even though she couldn’t see it through the phone. "Decided to do something different. Are you settled in at Westwick?"
I hadn’t talked to her since she’d been back on campus. I would have called her earlier, but I was busy sleeping off the hangover from the night before. To be honest, I didn’t want her to know how much of a hot mess I was, and calling her when I was in a zombie state would have easily given it away.
"Yeah. Well, things could be better, but I won't complain too much. Heading to grab some food before everything shuts down."
"Spill. Do I need a glass of wine?" I was joking because there was no way I could drink anything besides water right now.
She scoffed. "No. You shouldn't be drinking alcohol anyway."
It sounded as if she was teasing, but I couldn’t help but wonder if I was doing as good of a job at hiding how much I was drinking as I’d thought.
I shoved away the feelings that I had about what she said and continued talking. "Never stopped me anyway. I won't get anything, but you're not getting out of this. Tell me what's up."
While I waited for her to speak, I shoved a forkful of pasta into my mouth. The carbs were helping me to not feel like death, and I was grateful for that.
"It's nothing too serious. My laptop is being a pain in the ass and I'm hoping that doesn't mean it's going to die soon or need to be repaired. It's not under warranty anymore and I can only imagine how much it would cost. It would definitely make things tighter for me unless I got a job in town or on campus.”
"Ouch. Hopefully it's just a one-time thing and not a sign of things to come." I bit my tongue before I did something I would regret. I almost offered to buy her a new laptop because I knew it would make things so much easier for her than having to worry about dealing with a laptop that wasn’t working or having to find a computer on campus to use. But I couldn’t, because I knew she wouldn’t take it and would be offended that I offered.
"I'm sure everything will be—"
I stopped what I was doing and waited for her to say something else, but she didn’t. “Iris?”
She didn’t respond.
What in the actual fuck?
“Iris?” I called again as I grew more concerned.
She still didn’t respond.
However, this time, I did hear some shuffling on the other end of the line, but I couldn’t make it out. Someone or something was definitely near the phone, but I had no idea what.
Then I heard a voice that sounded really deep. It obviously wasn’t Iris, it sounded like a man. Due to the positioning of the phone, I couldn’t hear what he said. Was Iris in danger?
As if she heard the question that I’d asked myself, I finally heard Iris speak, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying either. Relief flooded through me as I realized that Iris was okay.
"Iris!" I yelled, hoping that this time she heard me.
"Hey, yeah. I'm here."
"What the hell happened? Your voice was muffled, and I couldn't tell what was going on."
"I ran into someone because I zoned out while I was talking to you."
