my lips.
***
“Yo, where the hell have you been?” Ian hollers from the living room sofa. He’s eating a bowl of Fruit Loops and watching a movie starring people who have thick French accents.
“I told you before I left that I was going to a party.” I slip my jacket off and toss it on the banister.
He glances over his shoulder and his mouth falls open. “Why does it look like you went swimming in a lake with your clothes on?”
“Haven’t you heard? It’s what all the cool kids are doing.” I drag my ass up the stairs.
“Since when have you been cool?” He yells as I reach my bedroom door.
I slam the door, flip on the lamp, and slip off my waterlogged boots. I groan with each movement, my legs and arms heavy, and my head is pounding. “Those were my favorite pair of boots.” I trudge to the closet to put them away, hoping they’ll dry out and won’t be ruined.
Suddenly, the sound of sobs drifts from the back of the closet. I freeze. “Hello?” I pull back the curtain. “Who’s in there?”
Raven rushes out and throws her arms around my neck. “Oh my God! Where were you?”
Rain, water, blood. She can’t breathe. I pat her back, but I’m irritated. “Where was I? I think I should be the one asking where the hell were you. You just left me there. And you left with a guy who I had a death omen about.”
“I know.” Her tears soak the shoulder of my shirt. “I’m sorry, Em. I just thought… Well, I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s hard to remember anything.”
I draw away from her and frown. “Raven, you didn’t drink from a cup someone offered you, did you?”
She bites on her lip, looking guilty. “I needed another drink and you dumped mine in the trash. So I drank one that this really cute guy offered me. Well, except for this weird X tattoo across his eye.”
“Raven.” I take a frustrated breath, reminding myself to be patient. “I love you and everything, but sometimes, you’re an idiot. How many times have we talked about drinking from cups from people we don’t know? Especially ones like what you just described. Because I think I met that guy and he wasn’t cute—he was a creep. But you were too drunk to notice it.”
“I know,” she wails. “And I’m so sorry.”
I feel kind of bad. “I know, but you have to be careful.”
She wipes away the mascara dripping down her cheeks with the back of her hand. “Do you think I was slipped a roofie or something?”
“I’m not sure.” Steering her by the shoulders, I guide her to the bed and she curls up in a ball like a scared child. “Do you remember what happened with Laden?”
She shakes her head quickly and hugs a pillow to her chest. “Everything’s all blurry.” Her eye twitches—her lying tick. “But Em, I think I saw death tonight.”
My muscles tense and my lips burst with a hundred questions, but her cries turn to hysterical sobs. I sigh, deciding not to press until morning when she’s gotten some rest and sobered up. Grabbing some pajamas, I head toward the bathroom to shower.
“Em… why does it look like you went swimming? And what did you do to your head?”
“It’s a long story,” I say and yawn, stretching my arms above my head. “I’ll explain in the morning after you’ve got some rest.”
She shuts her eyes. “Leave the light on, okay?”
***
After a hot shower and fresh set of clothes, I stare at myself in the mirror with my hand over my heart. I died tonight. My heart stopped beating, and then revived, all because of Asher. But how did he save my life? It felt like when my grandma died, and her life entered me.
I tiptoe back into my room. Raven is passed out on her stomach taking up the bed, so I cover her up with a blanket, noticing bruises on her wrists and elbows. Her shirt is torn and there’s a small scratch across her shoulder blade in the shape of an X.
“What happened to you tonight?” I whisper, placing a finger lightly on the spot, and she winces and rolls over.
My brain is growling and my skull feels cracked. I grab a blanket, snatch a black marker from my dresser, and situate on the closet floor, near the wall that displays the rest of my ramblings. As I press the marker to the wall,