PART 2 – CHAPTER 134
JESS
I could feel the tightness in my chest and the creeping heat rising in my throat. Anxiety was clawing at my insides, and it was only a matter of seconds before I completely unraveled.
Keep it together Jess.
Not now. Don’t lose it now.
Everyone will see how pathetic I am.
My heart and mind were tangled into one giant mess, pounding like war drums, demanding I get out of there. Every breath felt like I inhaled sandpaper, the air thick, suffocating.
I couldn’t stay another second.
I need fresh air. This place was suffocating.
I needed to get out and I needed to get out NOW!
I wasn’t angry with Luke. I wasn’t even sure how I felt anymore.
Luke was making sense. We weren’t together at the start or middle of senior year. We had moments, and of course, things happened between us, but we were never exclusive. Hell, he was going to take someone else to prom, so why would I be
if he slept with this girl. It was a stupid promise made by a boy to a girl at a party. He never promised to be just, no. He said I was just his… I just assumed…
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PART 2 CHAPTER 134
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He explained what happened. My head understood it–we weren’t together back then–but my heart… my stupid heart had built its own version of the truth, and now it was crumbling.
So many girls were creeping up to the surface, and I was in a Luke bubble and didn’t notice any of them. Veronica, Jocelyn and now Courtney… I was losing track.
God, I still loved him. Even now, even after everything. But this- this was too much. It was overwhelming and suffocating, and my panic was rising fast, like a tidal wave about to crash over me. I needed to get out of here before I lost control before I hurled my guts out for everyone to see.
I swerved past Courtney, barely registering her smug expression, my only focus on the stairs. I needed to escape. I aimed for the steps, feeling the cool night air waiting just beyond the doors. Maybe if I could breathe, if I could just get outside…
“Jess!” Josh’s voice pierced through the haze. “Wait! I shouldn’t have said anything!”
Shit. Josh.
I spun around too fast, and the world tilted. My ankle twisted, catching on something–I didn’t even know what. My heart lurched in my chest as I felt myself lose balance, the floor falling away beneath me.
“Oh…”
It was too late.
The world blurred as I plummeted backward. I heard gasps and
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PART 2 CHAPTER 134.
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horrified faces swirling in my vision, and then my body slammed into the first step.
Pain exploded in my shoulder, sharp and immediate, and then I was rolling–down, down, down, each impact jarring my body. Everything was spinning, my thoughts scattering with every thud.
When I finally stopped, everything hurt. My vision was hazy, a
film of fog clouding the edges and taking a breath felt like knives slicing through my lungs. I tried to move, but my limbs were sluggish and heavy. My head throbbed, and it was like my skull was wrapped in a vice, tightening with every passing second.
1 blinked, but my eyes wouldn’t focus. It was hard to tell what was happening around me. The music from the club was muffled and distant like I was underwater. I wanted to open my eyes, to pull myself up, but it felt impossible.
“Jess!” A voice–distant but familiar. Luke? Josh? I couldn’t tell. Everything was too foggy, too confusing.
I tried to speak, to say something, but my lips wouldn’t move. All I could do was lie there, my chest heaving with shallow, painful breaths, as I waited for the world to right itself.
For a split second, I remembered I was wearing a very flimsy. little black dress, one I regretted right now. As far as gracious falls, I think this ranked less than one out of 10.
The panic attack I’d been fighting was gone, but only because I must have just given myself a concussion rolling down the stairs.
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I lifted a hand to my head where I felt the burn the most and noticed my fingers covered with something warm and sticky.
“Call an ambulance!” Someone shouted next to me.
I felt hands on me, gentle but firm, and a wave of dizziness washed over me as I tried to focus.
“Jess, I need you to stay awake, okay? Tell me where it hurts,” a deep, smooth voice said, and I closed my eyes, enjoying the sound of him.
“Luke. Is she? What do we do?” The voice was panicked, and the word slurred a bit.
Darkness started to creep in at the edges of my vision, and I let it take me.
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