Rich People Problems

xxii | no place like home

KIMBERLY

I SPENT THE next week recovering from the intense withdrawal symptoms.

I kept telling myself that once I made it through the first week, I'd feel better.

The pure agony and pain that came with withdrawal had me thinking otherwise. I was regretting my decision to go full on cold-turkey this time around, but I wanted to completely purge the hard drugs from my system.

The only thing I couldn't stop was drinking. I was trying—very hard, might I add—but a few days without alcohol had me breaking out in cold sweats, barely able to make it out of bed because of the intense headache that crashed my system.

On the third day of the week, Jace offered to stay home to look after me, but I shooed him away. I had limits to how fucked up I wanted people to see me, and the constant stream of vomit wasn't cute.

I still felt the remnants of the hold that my relapse held on me after the week was up, but I was better.

I didn't feel the need to dope myself up to get through the day, which was an improvement in my book.

Spending the last week sick meant that I didn't call anyone to apologize about my relapse after doing so well for so long, but as I stood outside of my old apartment, I wished I called ahead.

Who am I kidding?

Vivian's more than a best friend. She's my sister... my soulmate, and sure she's mad as hell at me, but I didn't need to be scared.

For fuck's sake, woman up, Kim.

I raised my fist to knock on her bedroom door. I still had my keycard, which allowed me to access the direct elevator to the penthouse; however, considering I haven't spoken to her or seen her in over a month, I didn't know how she would react to me just waltzing in like nothing happened.

I released the pent up tension through a breath when I heard the knob move. The door opened and Vivian's eyes widened before she shut the door in my face.

What the fuck just happened?

Suddenly, the door opened again and Vivian launched herself into my arms. "I'm going to kill you."

"I know," I replied, savoring the feeling of hugging my other half.

♕♕♕

I carried her back into the living room before we both just laid together on the couch, holding onto each other.

This was the longest time I've gone without talking to her since I took a year off of school to travel around Europe and model. It was a rough time in my life, and like now, I couldn't bear for her to see me like this.

"Are you clean?" she asked with her head against my chest before moving herself to look at my eyes, checking to see if my pupils were dilated or if I was lying.

"Drugs, hopefully yes. Alcohol, trying," I answered honestly.

She nodded, relieved at my admission. "If you ever go back to Ball & Chain, I will literally murder you."

I laughed, hugging her again and promising that I'll try. I didn't want to guarantee anything that I wasn't confident I'd be able to do. She didn't deserve to have me say one thing and then break down and do something else.

She deserved better than this.

She deserved better than me.

We spent the hour talking about everything that's been going on for the last month. I asked her about everyone that I ghosted, scared to approach most of them again. She told me all about what happened, from the dealings of the business to how everyone felt about my sudden withdrawal from society.