Taking My Penalty

23: Inescapable

TALIA

I had my first cross-country practice on a Friday after school.

A letter got sent to my house from Leland addressed to me, an official 'Leland cross-country athlete', according to the first line of the slip of paper.

We'll have our first national race at Brighton in December, and practice starts on the first Friday of November, according to the letter.

That was today. The start of many more Friday nights running, unlike the last Friday night I spent at a party.

Pretty sure I got nothing but a traumatic hangover the next morning.

I couldn't remember anything that happened while I was drunk. It wasn't even a blur. I had no idea what happened and that only scared the shit out of me – that was not normal.

I'd say I was very in control of myself, typically. That's what I was raised to be, in fact. But to be let loose on alcohol and not remember anything I did was terrifying.

The only striking memory I had was when I arrived to the party with a stubborn lump in my throat. It was strong nerves that Lexie had slapped me with from telling me about Reece at the match.

Well, more like telling me to 'keep off' Reece.

Her words were on replay in my ear every time I came within ten feet distance of him all week and my natural instinct drove me to completely avoid him.

A weird feeling made something about talking to him feel horribly wrong after the party.

Just knowing that I'd been turned into a worried wreck and spent a night in the same space as him (with no bloody) made me feel completely insecure.

The debrief with the girls in the morning didn't seem to do much help in finding out more.

Maeve was sober but spent a lot of time keeping an eye on me but stuck around with Felix – no explanation needed.

Delilah fell asleep after a couple of drinks.

Camilla ended up making sure I didn't wander off.

That must mean the worst I was doing was walking aimlessly, right?

I had no clue of the answer. The girls didn't either after waking up from being passed out on my bedroom floor.

If it weren't for Maeve calling Percy to pick us all up, we would have had an even rougher sleep in Felix's house.

I knew his parents were there and laid back about this party more than my parents would ever be but I was staying out of their sight by all means.

Being allowed to the party was one thing but being drunk was another.

It took a whole thirty-minute phone call between Mum and Aunt Lucia to allow me to go.

The agreement boiled down under the one condition: that I stayed out of trouble and was sensible enough to make my way home – I only lived ten minutes away.

So, with the fact I had made it home unscathed with the help of Maeve's phone call to Percy to get us, I must have been fine. No trouble. No drama. Just very drunk.

Well, that's what I liked to keep in mind. I didn't want to consider the possibility of doing anything stupid, even if I was bleeding terrified of the cluelessness.

So I kept my head down, avoiding embarrassment.

Thus meant I was still stating away from Reece and remained fully content with keeping to myself.