“Okay, answer the phone. Got it,” she was crying a little again. She was a mess.

I hung up with Nolan and called Sienna. I was counting each ring, hoping like hell it wouldn’t go right to voicemail. When I heard her pick up, and heard the crowds and music in the background I felt relieved. I knew she wasn’t far.

“Reed?” she was yelling a little into the phone. “Hang on, I can’t hear shit in here. I’m going to the ladies’ room.”

I couldn’t tell where they were, but I knew it was crowded, the techno music thumping in the background, and the constant stream of voices filling in the gaps.

“Okay, that’s better. I can hear you. What’s up?” she said, not even a hint of panic to her voice.

“Sienna, where’s Nolan?” I asked urgently, just wanting an answer at this point.

“She’s out on the dance floor somewhere. I don’t know. I keep trying to make her come home, but she won’t…why?” she clearly had no idea what had happened.

“She just called me,” I sighed, pulling off at the next exit and pulling into a nearby gas station so I could talk.

“Wha?...Wait, where is she, Reed?” Sienna asked, now a little worried herself.

“I’m not sure. She just called me. She’s all freaked out, said you two had a fight, and you left her at some club,” I just killed the engine and tossed my hat on the dashboard, rubbing my face out of frustration. “What the hell, Sienna? She’s f**king wasted. I can hardly understand her.”

“Yeah, I know. She did shots—a lot of them. I’ve been trying to get her to go home for the last hour,” Sienna said.

“Well, you have to find her. I think she might just be outside, somewhere close,” I said, hearing the sounds of the music kick in again. Sienna was on the move.

“Hang on, I’m going out front. I’ll find her Reed,” she was just as frustrated as I was. When the music died off again in the background, I knew she was outside. I heard a few voices and the sounds of cars roaring by on the road. “Wait…I see her. She’s sitting in the gutter…with her freakin’ shoes off, ohhhhhh.”

I heard Nolan’s voice in the background, and laid my head on the steering wheel, exhausted by the whole thing. “What happened?” I asked, wanting answers but knowing Sienna really didn’t have the time to give them to me. “Where’s Gavin?” I asked, my mouth repulsing at saying his name.

“Gavin?! Why the hell would Gavin be here?” Sienna said, her voice a little muffled from laying the phone on her shoulder. “I got you. Come on girl…really, this time. It’s time to go home, okay?”

I heard Nolan, “Mmmmm.” She sounded sleepy. I knew this stage of a hard night out. She was near passed out. I couldn’t even imagine what she looked like.

“Reed? Look, I gotta go. Thanks for calling me. I’m sorry you had to,” she was a little short with me before she just hung up.

“What the f**k?” For the next 20 minutes, I sat there just thinking about what had just happened. I hadn’t heard her voice in weeks, not that she sounded like herself at all tonight. But when I asked about Gavin, Sienna sounded like I was crazy. Maybe she didn’t know that they had hooked up? Clearly they weren’t dating or anything. My head was spinning, not sure what was right anymore, and I was just left missing everything that I’d finally started to come to terms with losing.

Chapter 10

Nolan

I woke up on Sienna’s sofa, my face crusty with dried saliva, and God knows what else. My throat was dry as hell, and I wanted to gulp glass after glass of water, except when I sat up my entire world shifted, forcing me back flat on my face into the cushions. I was still wearing my clothes from last night, and my boots were stuffed in the sofa cracks, almost as if I’d clung to them overnight like they were a teddy bear. I was pretty sure I never wanted to feel like this again.

The kitchen light flickered on, and I heard the faint sounds of coffee brewing and pans sliding from a cabinet. I pushed myself up on the sofa and cracked one eye barely open to see Sienna leaning on her hands across the counter staring at me. Not really ready to deal with the look on her face, I just grumbled and fell back into the couch.

“Well, good morning, sunshine,” she said bitterly. “You ready to hear about the fantastic night you made me go through? Or do you want to throw up and whine about your splitting headache for a while?”

She was full-on banging pans on the stove now, flinging the fridge door shut with extra muscle, and cracking eggs to fry so loudly you would think she was throwing water balloons onto the stove.