SWNOVELS Cruel King: Chapter 43
If life punches you, punch right back.
A week passes and life goes on.
I guess.
I’ve been focusing on my therapy with Dr Edmonds. We even have two sessions in the same week now.
I still can’t remember but talking to the doctor helps. I get to focus on something that’s not the arsehole who shall not be named.
Since the day he pretended he doesn’t even know me, he has erased me from his existence. When he walks by me, he doesn’t spare me a glance.
It’s like I’ve become invisible again.
In exchange, I erased him from my existence, too.
Dr Edmonds says that I’m evading my problems. He said the same about the fact that I haven’t spoken to my father since he flew to Russia last week.
But well, the shrink doesn’t know everything. He just needs to focus on helping me regain my memories.
I know, deep down, that Levi is hiding something from the day of my hit and run. That’s why he’s been so hell bent that I drop the case.
For months, I’ve been blinded by his wickedness and charm that I didn’t look harder into it.
Now, I’m not.
Now, I won’t stop until I uncover everything that has to do with my accident.
I’ll pluck that crown off his head and push him to the edge.
Maybe then, he’ll realise how it feels like to have your heart broken and watch as it bleeds out.
On Saturday, the home team wins and Ronan throws his usual party. Dan invited me to the game. I passed, but I didn’t pass on the party.
I don’t run away anymore.
When any of Levi’s groupies calls me a slut, I call her a slut right back.
If anyone attempts to touch me, I punch them in the face.
I’m done being tolerable to their ridiculous bullying.
Dan stopped me from punching Jerry when he started talking shit again last week. He said, my artist hands need to be protected. Instead, he punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground on my behalf. He almost got suspended if it weren’t for my testimony.
“Best friends are made to punch people for you,” he said when I found him in detention that day.
“No, they don’t, bug.” I laughed.
“Well, they should. I’m totally adding it to the manual.”
Currently, I put my arm in Dan’s as we walk into Ronan’s mansion. Drunk teenagers fall on either side making out or cannonballing into the kidney-shaped pool.
A loud pop song I don’t recognise thumps through the speakers and many kids dance to it, spilling alcohol all around.
One would think that Ronan would try to wind down the chaos, but he’s betting with Xander about who can down more shots.
If the howling and the screaming by the side of the pool are of any sign, Ronan isn’t winding down the party any soon.
Where the hell do his parents disappear to?
I grab a drink from a server — because it’s totally normal to have servers and butlers at teenagers’ parties — and down it in one shot.
“Liquid courage this early?” Dan asks with a slight lift in his lips before he throws one, too.
I submit my hair. “Okay, how do I look?”
“Badass.” He pulls my cheek. “You should’ve gone wild before.”
By going wild, Dan means that I wore the sinfully short denim shorts that he made me buy on a dare last year.
My lips are painted red and my hair is pulled up into a messy ponytail that I spent an hour trying to make it look right.
I wore a strapless black top, but against Dan’s suggestions, I did put on my matching denim jacket.
I might want to feel powerful, but I still want to crawl back into my comfort zone.
Which won’t happen.
Thus liquid courage.
Dan and I down tequila shots for what seems like half an hour before he starts getting fidgety.
I push him in the direction of a second-year girl who’s been watching him the entire time. “Go shag.”
He waggles an eyebrow. “Wanna join?”
I make a face. “You suck, bug.”
“I can suck.”
“Eww, Dan. Now, I need bleach, thanks a bunch.”
He makes two guns as he walks backwards with a grin. “Call me and we’re out of here, okay?”
That’s some commitment for Dan.
Tonight is different. I’m not bailing out.
I down one more shot. Woah. The tequila here is strong enough to make me spin.
Wait. Am I the one spinning, or is the room?
Fun.
I came here to have fun.
Although my feet are unsteady, I keep going on zigzag lines towards the football team where Ronan’s having his drinking competition.
I steal a shot from a passerby and mumble a sorry here and there when I stumble upon someone — or two.
The plan is to watch from afar. Like really afar.
I hide behind a leaf that adds some shadow to my face.
See, not noticeable at all.
Heat creeps up my neck and my arms. It’s freaking hot in here.
I tap someone’s shoulder and give him my shot. “Hold this for me.”
“Sure thing, love.” He’s smiling down at me. I smile back, or I think I do as I take off my jacket and throw it somewhere behind me.
Much better.
“Thanks!” I take back my shot. “Oh, Knight! Go, Elites!”
“Woohoo!” He pauses. “Wait. Was Danny boy right? Do you have a high alcohol tolerance?”
I tap my chest. “I’m the man.”
His eyes glint as he takes me by the arm and drags to the rest of the team.
“No,” I whisper-hiss. “I’m supposed to watch from afar, dummy.”
He chuckles, the sound devious as he winks. “Believe me, love, this will be more fun.”
Xander uses his shoulder to push through the football players before we stop beside Cole and number thirteen.
I giggle.
I forgot the name of the one who threw the party.
“Look who I found!” Xander shouts over the guys hoots. “A competition for Ronan.”
Yup. Ronan. That’s his name.
“Oh, puhleeze, bitch.” Ronan wipes alcohol from his mouth, his cheeks red. “I can drink an entire galloon and still fuck two girls into oblivion.”
“You’re a pig,” I tell him in a semi-slurred tone.
Ooh and Aaah’s erupt around us. Cole clutches Ronan’s shoulder. “You need to prove your worth, little shit.”
“She’s on!” Ronan is in my face. “No one can beat the king.”
“I can beat any king,” I hiss, rolling off my imaginary sleeves.
“Woohoo!” Xander raises my arm. “It’s on, team. Let the bets roll.”
Aiden walks straight to the middle of the scene and pushes both Xander and Ronan off. “Leave, Clifford.”
Determination pumps in my veins as I place a finger on his shoulder and push him away. “No King will tell me what to do.”
“Hashtag burn.” Xander coughs as the others snicker.
I flip my hair back. “Are we doing this or what?”
Ronan offers me his hand. “Yes, my queen.”
I smile at the overdramatic tone he says it with.
Aiden shakes his head at his friends. “It’s your lives.”
In no time, Ronan and I are standing on top of a table with the entire team forming a circle around us.
All of them are chanting “Drink, drink, drink!”
The only rule of the game is that whoever falls is the loser.
My shots supplier is Xander and Cole is Ronan’s reluctant one.
In the beginning, I don’t really know what I’m doing until the buzzing of energy gets into my veins.
During the first shots, almost all the team is on Ronan’s side, chanting his number and his name.
Then, after a few rounds when I keep up with his pace, slamming one glass over the other, many of the team start chanting my name.
There’s something contagious about having so many people shouting my name and cheering me on.
“You’re going down!” Ronan slurs as both of us sway.
“No, you’re going down!” The ceiling is spinning, but I blink, bringing the shot to my lips.
I miss it and break into a fit of giggles when alcohol falls down my neck.
“He’s out!” The entire team yell, catching a falling Ronan.
“Hell yeah!” Xander shouts at a few guys by his side. “Pay up, bitches.”
“I won?”
Cole smiles, shaking his head. “You won.”
“I won!” I scream and jump.
Bad idea.
The ceiling spins round and round as I fall backwards. The cheering and hooting stop altogether.
Strong arms clutch me and I crack my eyes open, looking at the face that’s been torturing me for two weeks.
Pale blue eyes stare down at me as if I’m the most beautiful thing on earth.
And it does shit to me.
That look. Those eyes.
It hurts knowing I don’t have this in my life anymore. Why did he come in if he planned to leave all along?
I slap his cheeks with both my hands. “Oh, you’re real.”
Tears blur my eyes as I giggle. “Is this a dream or a nightmare?”
“Both, princess.”