Page 57 of A Very No Strings Halloween

There’s a lot of scoffing and laughing.You poor, innocent thing. “Oh, no. This is nothing,” Declan says, his jaw set. I can see in his eyes that this domesticated cat is ready to go feral again.

“You’ve never seen Billy’s true form. I suppose you’ve only met William O’Sullivan. You’ve never seenthe true face of Billy Boston,” Nolan says, like I’m the Loch Ness monster or the friggin’ Babadook.

Donna looks up at me. Her eyes are deep and open like there’s something important she wants to ask me. Instead she says in a soft, serious tone, “I’d like to see that.”

I look nervously at the guys and then back at her. “I don’t know. It can get pretty crazy.”

Donna shrugs. “I’m up for crazy. We’re good at crazy. Right?”

My face is hard with indecision. I’m not sure I want crazy with Donna anymore. Notjustcrazy or fun anyway. I want real. But Declan, and even fucking Nolan, are right. If she doesn’t know all of me, then it can never be real.

“Okay,” I say in defeat. This was too good to last anyway. I rub Donna’s back, thinking silently,It was nice knowing you.

“Shots!” Nolan calls out into the night in the same exact tone that a general would yellCharge!

And that word usually ends up being the last one I remember of the night.

FOURTEEN

Donna

AMERICAN HANGOVER STORY

Oh God.

Where am I?

Oh no.

It’s the house.

Am I on the bed?

How did I get here?

I can’t move.

Everything hurts.

Or wait.

I don’t feel anything.

I feel dead.

Am I dead?

AmIthe ghost?

Did I lick a hairbrush?

It feels like I have lava inmy belly. Wait. It’s in my throat. I’m gonna vomit. Wait. No, I’m not. Yes, I am! …No.

Wait. I’m a nurse. Am I? I am. Check vital signs. Without moving body. Or thinking too loudly. Or blinking. Or breathing too much…

Slowly, slowly, my index and middle fingers move to the opposite wrist, and I find a pulse. I can confirm that I am physically alive. Now I have to count…one, two, three, four, yeah, I’m hungover.

What happened?