Page 7 of Love Sick
No one can stop me as I dodge my opponents and when I score a touchdown with ease, my teammates holler loudly in excitement because I won them the game. They throw me onto their shoulders—I’m the hometown hero.
I look into the cheering crowd and see Luna who claps happily. She’s always been so proud. Standing next to her is Joy. My happiness is soon replaced with shame. Joy is Luna’s best friend and I’ve been fucking her since I was sixteen years old.
Vomit rises, and I don’t know whose it is—mine or Misha’s. But I sink deeper into this memory, hoping it reveals the answers I’ll need to help Luna.
“Baby, I’m so proud of you!” says a pretty girl I don’t recognize.
“Her name is Trista.”
And just like that, in this drug-induced state, I hear Misha again.
“Welcome back, motherfucker.”
Misha chuckles in response.
I can feel Joy watching Misha closely. I now know that Joy was the one who ran him off the road that night, but he still doesn’t know why.
He wished he never did what he did with her. But she promised she would tell him who his father was.
Misha had asked Luna many times, but she said it was better he didn’t know. He didn’t understand what that meant, but as Misha got older, the voices he heard got louder.
He didn’t tell Luna because he didn’t want to worry her. But he was also ashamed. She thought he was perfect, and he couldn’t break her heart by telling her the truth. So Misha got into drugs as self-medication to help block out the voices. He then realized he had an addictive personality which led to harder drugs, which then led to dealing to feed his habit.
Football coaches turned a blind eye to his abuse because he was a fucking god on the field.
Joy groomed Misha for a reason. She has the answers I need.
I don’t know why she lied to me. I’m ashamed I believed her. But she and Alanna are in cahoots for a reason. Alanna confirmed what Joy told me when I confronted her.
She was living in Luna’s house, for fuck’s sake. And Alanna had the paperwork to corroborate the lies Joy spewed.
“You know her better than anyone, Misha. Why is Joy doing this?”
He lifts his shoulders in response, as frustrated as me.
The victims here are Luna and Misha. They trusted the wrong person. I don’t understand why Joy would do that to Luna. What does she have to gain?
Just as I feel myself losing grip on this reality, I’m sucked back in. No doubt, Alanna has pumped more drugs into my IV. But the drugs are nothing compared to the line of cocaine I just snorted off Joy’s chest.
“That’s right, baby boy, it’s just us,” she says to Misha, shoving him onto his back as she climbs onto his lap. “Tell me you want me.”
Misha doesn’t have a chance to reply before she’s riding his cock wildly.
Those feelings of disgust and shame swarm in my belly, but Misha wants me to see it all.
“You look just like him. Handsome, just like him.” Joy is giving Misha what he wants, but she’s also showing him who’s in charge. “She is cruel not to tell you who he is.”
I want to vomit. This is beyond repulsive.
“It can be like this always. But I’m about to lose everything. That bastard took everything in the divorce. There’s a way we can be together. But—”
But what?
Why does that “but” have to do with Luna?
“Why is she doing this?”
Misha shakes his head. He has an idea why, however.