Seventeen

Ivy:

My hands shook as I took the bottle from my father’s cabinet. I went to my room, avoiding any other interaction with poor Nolan, who looked at me like he had seen a ghost. When I got to the bathroom, I started peeling away the filth-covered clothes and boots.

I showered and cried until I felt numb.

I felt their loss heavily, like cement in my lungs.

It was like with every breath I took I stole their last one, and I hated myself for it.

After I was clean, I filled the bath and sat into the steaming bubbles with the bottle in my hand. I sipped from it until the buzz of the whiskey numbed my teeth and toes. Too bad it couldn’t numb my heart.

“There you are.” My mother and grandmother stepped into my bathroom, their eyes red with the same tears I had cried. Like Nolan……