It was Gina who cackled. “Oh, please. She was the one who got us into it. Kat was always the wild one out of all of us. Why do you think she’s on the same side of town your little warehouse is?”
I stared at my friend who was a ghost of the person I’d spent so much time with. At least I got the answer to my question from earlier. All the times we laughed, cried, gossiped, played, and everything in between seemed like nothing but a distant memory that might not have even been real because I didn’t know this version of Kat at all.
“Kat?” I wanted her to deny it, but she didn’t. Instead, she sat there looking at me for a microsecond before her gaze traveled to the powder now spread in lines on the table. Whispering her name again, I realized it was pointless. How long had she been doing drugs? Something told me the ‘couple times’ she’d mentioned was more than that.
Sam spoke up. “You of all people should really consider this, Adele. I mean, I lost twenty pounds between this and heroin. It’s not all bad, even if you hear the worst of it.”
My stomach bottomed out. The version of me who’d researched ways to lose weight would waken if tempted, and I didn’t want that. “I should go.”
Kat stood when I did, her eyes widening like she was afraid of something. I realized when she spoke that she was scared I’d rat them out. “I want you to stay. I miss my best friend. If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. But…”
But don’t tell anybody.
Jaw ticking, I reached for my bag and set it on my shoulder. “I missed you when you were away,” I admitted, ignoring the lingering gazes of the other two. “I’d felt bad when I pulled back after things with my father happened. I figured you traveling was better than being around everything that was going on here. Like maybe one of us could get out and have fun. But this? This is dangerous, Kat.”
I heard it before I saw it, but from the corner of my eye I noticed half of the first line gone with Gina hovering over the table. My eyes widened.
“If you really cared you would have reached out and acted like a friend,” Kat snapped, taking me off guard. “But you didn’t. You were stuck in your perfect little world here acting better than everybody else with Theodore West just like always. Stop pretending to be an angel, Adele.”
Eyes stinging with oncoming tears, I brushed them off and realized it was more than likely the drugs talking. It didn’t make it hurt any less. “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t ask you to stop.”
She rolled her eyes before reaching into Gina’s purse and grabbing another clear bag from it. She held my wrist and pried open my palm to drop the bag into it. “Remember when you told me I looked good back in December? It wasn’t because I was hiking. Sam’s right. You lose weight and have energy. You could start dancing again without being critiqued by Instructor Satan.”
I hated that she called Judith that. Even on the days she made me feel like trash, I respected her. She was good at what she did, even if she was harsh sometimes.
She bent my fingers around the drugs until I cradled it in my palm. “I just think it’s time you took back your life now that you don’t have people around to control it.”
My nostrils flared. How could she talk about my dead parents that way? Hers were still alive and kicking—her father managing to get the best lawyer that obviously proved all the rumors false. Her mother was still part of the same social circles that looked down on everybody else, especially my family. Even with controlling parents, she did whatever she wanted without a second thought. She wasn’t trapped, so I wasn’t sure why she felt like she could tell me to escape my cage as if she had a clue what being in one was like in the first place.
“I don’t know who you are anymore,” I told her quietly.
She grinned. “I’m Katrina Murphy. But better. And if you listen to me like you used to, you could be the best Adele Saint James that New York City has ever seen.”
“If she gets that stick out of her ass,” Sam commented from behind Kat.
Gina just laughed and finished doing her line, her body swaying backward when she sat up. I saw the rolled money she was using and knew without a doubt it was a counterfeit bill. Like father like daughter.
I looked back at Kat. She said, “I’m just trying to help you out. Judge me all you want, but you won’t get rid of that and you’ll keep asking yourself why as each day passes until you cave. Want to know why? Because I know you, and you want an escape, but you’ve been too chicken to take one.”
Silence was what greeted her.
And when I walked out with them throwing comments at me the entire way, I gripped the bag in my hands and heard her words on repeat. I told myself I’d flush it, dump it, throw it away when I got home.
But when I got there…
It remained hidden in my purse.
Chapter Seven
Theo
“Does it sound like I give a fuck?” I demanded over the phone, grabbing a few folders to bring home with me.
“Now, Theo—”
“Don’t.” My warning shut Richard, or The Dick as I liked calling him, up quickly. “I’ve had enough of your bullshit. You’ve been hounding me for too long and my answer has not, and will never, change. Do you need me to draw you a picture? Hire a fucking sky writer?”
His huffed murmur wasn’t understandable, irritating me more
