(Once) Again Read Online Free Page A

my chest, her ragged breathing breaking my heart. I couldn’t leave her to die alone. But it wasn’t my choice anymore. I looked past the barrel pointed at my head. Rage-filled eyes stared me down. Silently I pleaded, hoping he would let me live at least until she didn’t.
    Click.
    Bang.
    I was on the floor again. My door flung open as I rubbed the image from my eyes. “I’m fine, Liz,” I said, not wanting to go through the same shit we’d gone through the previous day.
    “Are you okay?” The voice, like liquid ecstasy to my ear, shot me upright. I was greeted by the faces of Mickey and Minnie as Kat knelt down and pushed the sweat drenched hair off my forehead.
    “You’re back,” I said, not even attempting to cover my smile.
    She, however, sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and shrugged. “I said I would be.”
    “I can’t say I believed you. Thought maybe you were just saying what you thought I wanted to hear so I wouldn’t badger you.”
    “Because we both know how good you are at that.”
    A reference to our past, and I wasn’t the one who brought it up. I sure as hell wasn’t going to let it go unnoticed.
    “It’s not my fault you turned me down twelve times. If you would’ve just said yes the first time, you would have saved yourself from it.”
    “Lucky thirteen,” she whispered. “Let’s get you off the floor.” As if the conversation never happened she crouched beside me, wrapped my arm around her shoulder, and helped me to my feet. Her hand was cold on my bare stomach and I quivered from her touch. “Do you own a shirt?”
    “To cover up these abs?” I smirked.
    “Glad to see you’re still conceited as ever.”
    Without even asking she opened my top dresser drawer and then every one below that until she found a shirt. She pulled it out and tossed it at my head.
    “You’re not going to help me put it on?” Her eyes narrowed at me, and just like yesterday, I felt it in my shorts.
    Kat’s eyes darted to the ground when I pulled the T-shirt over my head. I glanced down the front at the white writing.
Of all the shirts to grab.
    “This was a great festival,” I said, remembering the way Kat’s hips swayed to the music. How her hair brushed across the tie to her bikini top. How she’d pressed her back into me and I’d wrapped my arms around her bare stomach, kissing a line down her neck. The giggles that came after, and the way she’d tilted her head back to look up at me.
    “Get dressed,” Kat said, clearly avoiding any talk of the last weekend we’d spent together. “Your sister told me you’re running out of bandages and need to refill your pain meds, so we’ll go to the drugstore.”
    She met my sister.
    An entire summer together, and I never once brought her home to meet my family. I loved her, yet for the stupidest reasons I kept it to myself. No wonder she never answered my calls after I left.
    “Okay?” Kat asked.
    “I don’t need to refill the meds,” I snapped, but not just because I was angry with myself for how things went down with Kat. Though that was part of it, it was more than that. I wanted the pain. The reminder.
    “You need to,” Kat said and the anger I felt was quickly replaced by amusement.
    “Okay, Mom,” I joked, but by the way her lips turned down, it was obvious she didn’t find it funny. Then it hit me.
    “How’s your mom?”
    Her eyes darted away from me. “Get dressed.” Before I could stop her, she closed the door and was gone.
    ***
    I grabbed my crutches and struggled to get down the stairs. Noise of pans clanking in the kitchen clued me in to where Kat was.
    The way she avoided the topic of her mom made me wonder what had happened. Her mom was sick when I left—was she worse now?
    Not wanting to piss Kat off, I shuffled into the kitchen and sat on the stool without saying a word. She turned and jumped, grabbing her chest. “You scared me.”
    “I have a lot of different effects on girls, but that’s usually not one of