By the time Kacie got home three hours later the two of us were good and drunk. We polished off the two bottles I brought over and had Devin make a liquor run for us before he went into work that night. Kacie knew I was over, but she still seemed shocked at the sight of us when she walked through the door.
"Holy wasted!"
Kari and I burst into a fit of giggles.
"Kacie!" we exclaimed. I jumped up from the couch and walked-stumbled-over to Kacie, throwing my arms around her.
"How is my very best friend?" I slurred out.
"Starving and apparently really missing out on an awesome time." I laughed and nodded my head vigorously.
"You know what, I'm starving too! Let's order pizza-my treat!" I declared.
"No way!" Kari butted in. "Pizza sounds great, but you brought over the first round of drinks! Let me and Kacie pay!"
"Nope! This one is on me. I apparently don't have any hospital bills so I have plenty to spare!" Kacie carefully guided me back over to the couch before taking a seat to undo the straps of her heels.
"How do you not have bills, Grey? You were in the ambulance and stayed overnight, right?"
My head bobbed in confirmation as I took another long swig of the latest bottle we were working on finishing.
"That's right!"
"Okay, well how then? Is Richard paying for everything?"
"Nope," I said, shaking my head. "I wouldn't let Richard pay for them."
"Enough of the suspense then, woman! Who paid them!?"
The answer required another big gulp from the bottle that was unfortunately cut short as Kacie pulled it from my hands.
"The big man, Stefan Harrison," I said with a laugh. The girls apparently didn't find it nearly as funny as their mouths dropped open.
"Come again?" Kacie asked.
"Well, you were there Kari, I'm sure you saw him."
Kari nodded. "Uh yeah, I did, but I didn't realize he was going to pay anything for you!" she squealed out.
"Um yeah, didn't you tell us yesterday that he wouldn't even remember you?" Kacie interjected.
Kari's eyes bugged out as she pointed to her sister. "Yes! You did say that, I remember!"
Kacie crossed her arms across her chest and stared me down. I shifted uncomfortably under her excruciating gaze, feeling undeniably trapped. "Hm, so how does that happen, Grey? How is it that a man you knew in high school, that supposedly wouldn't remember you, would suddenly decide to pay your medical bills?"
"After a single glance!" Kari pitched in, only making this situation worse.
I bit down on my bottom lip and cast my glance around the room, praying for something spontaneous to happen so they would suddenly forget their questions.
"We're waiting, Greyson Rose," Kacie demanded in a low even tone you would expect to come from a mother when you're in trouble.
My entire body chilled, no one other than Stefan used my first and middle name when talking to me. It was hard to hear, because every time I did I longed for it to be him saying it, and I hated wanting it to be him. Unfortunately though, you can't tell your best friend not to call you that suddenly, and not expect her to ask why.
"Nostalgia?" Was the first excuse that came to mind and apparently-a bad one since all Kacie said back was, "Try again."
I continued shifting my eyes around the room, but doing that while trying to avoid either sets of eyes was making me horribly dizzy.
"Alright, so maybe I knew him a little more than I let on and Stefan probably remembered me just fine." Being as vague as I possibly could was my new plan. It wasn't an easy feat since I knew they were going to keep beating me with questions until they believed they knew everything. Part of me knew it would just be so much easier to just give them everything right now and make my life a little easier. It wouldn't be though, talking about Stefan was never something I could handle well; it was as Amy had said-I felt like a failure.
Until today I hadn't said a word about it but now, all those overwhelming emotions sat on the brink of a meltdown. I wasn't sure how long I could hold all this hurt in but if I didn't-I'd completely lose myself.
"Still waiting for you to expand on that answer," Kacie said after giving me a few minutes to process my thoughts.
A sigh heaved from my chest. Might as well get this over with so we could go back to drinking the rest of the supplies Devin left us. "We dated," was my way of spilling the beans.
"No effing way!" Kari blurted out. Kacie seemed to already assume that fact; I'm sure Kari would have guessed it already too, if it wouldn't have been for the countless bottles of wine swimming around in our stomachs.