Saint Sloan (Saint Sloan #1)(8)

“What? Something wrong?” Darcy could always see the obvious.

“Nothing. My ribs still hurt. Nothing major.”

“I’d say so. Boyd did a number on them. Mine too. Darcy reached in her bag and pulled out a white bottle. “In fact, the doctor gave me these to take for the pain.”

Sloan looked it over. It wasn’t anything more than a pill bottle sold over-the-counter at the store. “You don’t need a prescription for those.” She pointed at the name on the bottle.

“Goober, that’s not in the bottle. The prescription my doctor gave me is, but we can’t have prescription pills here without having the nurse hand them out. I’m seventeen, Sloan. I don’t need a nurse handing my pills to me like I’m a baby. Plus, I take them more than the doctor ordered. The nurse wouldn’t like that.”

“You hurt that much?”

“Don’t you?”

Yeah. Actually she did. She’d taken the pills prescribed, mindful of what the doctor had said. Take sparingly because it could lead to dependence. A few months ago, she’d stopped cold turkey. Mackenzie had told her on several occasions that it wouldn’t hurt her to take one when she needed it. And well… she needed it.

“Wish I had some more. Mine are gone. Prescription ran out, and I never got it refilled.”

Darcy seemed to consider that. “Here.” She turned her back to the sparsely populated hallway and poured out two pills. “Consider them a gift.”

“I can’t take those,” Sloan whispered. She’d had it drilled in her head to never take prescription medicine from someone else. She wasn’t exactly sure why, but she knew it was bad.

“Yes, you can. Here.” Darcy grabbed Sloan’s hand and dumped the two white pills into her palm. “Consider them an ‘I’m sorry’ present. You helped me so much a few months ago, even after I’d been horrible to you with your new Jesus kick.”

“It’s not a kick.”

“I know that. I understand it. And… I respect it. Just don’t ask me to come to church with you.” Darcy smiled.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” But she’d pray about it. Couldn’t stop her from doing that.

“Anyway, take the pills. I think they are supposed to be one every four hours. Or six. I can never remember. All I know is they make you feel wonderful when they are in your system. No pain, Sloan. None. We deserve it. You deserve it after what Boyd did to you. It’s not right that you have to keep suffering. Keep them and do what you want with them. Just know they help me. See ya in Biology.”

Darcy bounced off down the hall toward the far end of the school. Sloan knew it well. She’d go that direction in a second. Seeing she was the last one left on Senior Hall, Sloan grabbed her Biology book and slammed her locker door. As fast as her legs would take her, she speed-walked — running would get you a demerit — down Sophomore Hall and down the stairs to the older part of the school. If she kept going down the hallway, she’d run into the corner where she’d found out Boyd had been her attacker. Stupid. Stupid memories.

The pain pills weighed her hand down like they weighed a ton. She knew from experience they would help her. They always had in the past. Of course, she’d always been worried about getting addicted to them, but then again, Darcy admitted to taking a lot of them and she seemed fine. Honestly, that made Sloan laugh. She never thought Darcy would be a role model for anything. Whatever worked.

Trying not to give it another thought, Sloan stopped at the water fountain and threw a pill on her tongue. She swallowed it down with some water and sighed. There. Much better.

She jumped when she heard the grating voice of Tanner, druggie Tanner, behind her. “Whatcha doin’?”

“Headache pill. Regular over-the-counter headache pill,” she said quickly before walking past him and into Biology. No need for him to know what she was really taking. He’d take it too far and tell someone, not that she was ashamed. She needed the pill. She took the pill. Simple as that. Though, she could get in trouble for getting one from Darcy and not having a prescription. Now that she thought about it, she had no idea what Darcy had given her. It wasn’t like she’d seen the bottle. It might have been something totally different from what the doctor had given her.

What a great time to think of that, once the pill was already in her system.

Perfect.

She shoved the other pill in her pocket, swearing if she made it through the day alive, she wouldn’t take it. How big of an idiot could she be?

Darcy smiled when Sloan walked in. Not a mean smile or even a devilish one. It was an honest smile. A sincere one. It eased Sloan’s fears some, but not totally. Even if Darcy hadn’t meant to hurt her, the medicine might. She needed to find a time to ask her about it later. If it was the same as her doctor had prescribed, maybe it would be all right. Of all the things to have to worry about today.

Sloan found her seat in front of Ray and plopped down. She laid her book on the desktop and relaxed her shoulders. It had been a long, horrible morning.

“You’re running late,” Ray whispered in her ear, tickling it in a good way.

“You have no idea.” She turned and laid her head on Ray’s desk for a brief moment. To her surprise, he gently rubbed her hair. It felt nice. A nice change of pace.

“Tell me.”